3 min readNew DelhiFeb 23, 2026 09:19 AM IST
First published on: Feb 23, 2026 at 09:19 AM IST
A Delhi-based sneaker start-up allegedly suffered a loss of Rs 2 lakh after an employee, within his first week, created multiple full-discount coupons that were allegedly used to order sneakers for friends and family.
In a post on X, Arjun Singh, co-founder of the Delhi-based sneaker label Gully Labs, claimed that a recently hired computer science graduate exploited the company’s system to generate 100 per cent discount codes for personal use.
“We hired a CS person a couple of months ago. Within the first week of joining, he made INR 2L of 100% discount orders – sent to his friends and quit in a week,” Singh wrote.
“When caught – initially he decided to cooperate and returned half the shoes but the other half were used etc,” Singh said.
The situation escalated further when the former employee sent legal notices to the company, accusing it of harassment after being asked to either return the remaining products or compensate the firm.
After the incident, Singh noted that the company has since implemented stricter internal controls to prevent such incidents.
Responding to a post by Akshay Jain, Singh reflected on the growing challenges businesses face as they scale. Jain had mentioned the need to secure sensitive customer and order information within organisations.
“As brands grow, they have newer set of challenges. Never thought I have to guard customer details, order exports from people in the same organisation due to security concerns. Increases complexity, but no choice,” he wrote on X.
See the post here:
The post has since gone viral, sparking a conversation around such frauds.
“You won’t believe but that’s how Jabong got shutdown. They used to have flat 30% unlimited employees discount code and all their employees use to sell those discount codes to all family, friends, friends of friends and do unrecoverable damage to company,” a user noted.
“This clearly highlights the importance of strong internal financial controls and system-based approvals. Implementing role-based access, discount caps, maker-checker mechanisms, and real-time audit trails can significantly reduce such risks. Prevention through structured controls,” another user commented.
“I hate to say this but this is Indian mentality which makes people get greedy and start exploiting something till it is ruined for others,” a third user reacted.
The co-founder noted that the company has since implemented stricter internal controls (Image source: @gullylabs) 
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