Engineering student arrested in Bengaluru for defrauding Amazon India of Rs 3.8 lakh
By Vinaykumar Patil | First Published Aug 18, 2023, 6:03 PM ISTBengaluru Police arrests engineering student in a scam where fraudsters trick Amazon by using fake returns. Scammers advertised on Telegram, took advantage of Amazon's app, and stole products. Police seized items worth 20.34 lakhs, froze bank accounts, and suspect Amazon staff involvement.
An engineering student was among a gang of alleged fraudsters who were arrested by the Bengaluru Police for allegedly duping Amazon India of Rs 3.8 lakh in a clever scam! The fraudsters used their knowledge of how Amazon India works to pull off a tricky refund scam. This trickery caused Amazon to lose about Rs 20 crore all over India. The police have got hold of one case where an engineering student in Bengaluru was involved in this scheme. He's said to have taken Rs 3.88 lakh from Amazon India.
Here’s how the process was carried out:
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The scammers advertised on Telegram, tempting Amazon customers with an easy way to earn money. They instructed people to purchase expensive items on Amazon, pay for them, cancel the order, and then share the order number.
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Using secret information, the scammers fooled the Amazon app, showing the products as returned, but the customers still had them. Once Amazon received a message that the returned items were back, they began the refund process. Customers sent the products to the scam gang, who sold them at a low price. The gang received payment in a digital currency known as cryptocurrency, similar to Binance.
In one case, a student named Chirag Gupta from Madhya Pradesh ordered many iPhones between May 15 and 17. He paid for them with his credit card and UPI. Amazon sent the iPhones to his place in Peenya. Later, Amazon found out that Gupta said he sent back the iPhones and got a refund. But guess what? The iPhones never came back to Amazon.
Amazon's security boss, Raj Reddy, went to talk to Gupta. Gupta spilt the beans and admitted he was in on this scam. A friend told him to order stuff, pay, and then cancel. Gupta's friend said the Amazon app would trick them into believing the stuff was returned. This way, Gupta could keep the products by sharing some of the money.
Afterwards, a guy named Paramesh H C, who works at Amazon Transportation Services Pvt Ltd, filed a complaint with the Yeshwantpur Police. They arrested Gupta on May 26. The iPhones that Gupta got were linked back to a Telegram group run by a gang in the UK, US, and Canada. These people used secret Amazon info to trick the app into showing that products were returned.
The police found more cases like this. They seized stuff worth 20.34 lakhs, including iPhones, MacBooks, phones, laptops, and other things. They also took away 2.5 lakh rupees and froze 30 lakh rupees in bank accounts.
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Amazon might have lost 20 crore rupees from scams like this, but they only complained in Bengaluru. The police think that someone might have stolen Amazon users' IDs and passwords. The gang took a 20 per cent cut from the stolen money.
"We think this is a new way of doing things. Regular people can't do this. We're looking into whether Amazon staff helped. We gave all the proof to the police," said Paramesh.
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