The Bengaluru police, along with local representatives of a unit of the e-commerce giant Amazon, have unearthed a scam involving fake returns of expensive gadgets like iPhones purchased on the website in India.
One person has been arrested by police in north Bengaluru in the course of an investigation that was first initiated by officials of Amazon Transportation Services Private Limited over losses suffered by the company on account of refunds on expensive gadgets worth crores that showed up falsely in backend systems as having been returned by customers.
The mastermind behind the scam has been identified by the police as a former employee.Investigators have so far seized gadgets worth Rs 20.34 lakh, including several
iPhones and two Macbooks in connection with the case.The police have also frozen Rs 30 lakh in multiple bank accounts linked to the accused.
The company’s own investigation in Bengaluru showed that a customer Chirag Gupta, an engineering student living in north Bengaluru, purchased four
Apple iPhones between May 15 and 17 this year using credit card and UPI.This included an iPhone Pro 14 Max worth Rs 1.27 lakh on May 15, an iPhone 14 worth Rs 84,900 on May 16, and two iPhone 14s on May 17 at Rs 90,999 and Rs 84,900, respectively.
The company’s internal probe found that all the four devices were delivered to the customer from its delivery centre in Peenya in north Bengaluru and that subsequently the four phones were shown as returned to Amazon through the online customer application with refunds — even though the phones were never actually returned to the Amazon Transportation Services unit.
According to a police complaint filed by H D Paramesh, a zonal manager for the Amazon Transportation Service unit, Gupta’s actions raised suspicion and a representative of the company was sent to find out why the phones were returned by the customer.
When the company executive visited the customer at his home in a north Bengaluru apartment and inquired, he was reportedly informed that the iPhones were working well and that he had initiated the transactions at the instance of a friend from Madhya Pradesh who said that he had found a way to obtain refunds on Amazon while keeping devices that were bought online.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (North Division) Shivaprakash Devaraju said the fraud came to light when the company’s manager observed a pattern of products being purchased from the same address but were not being returned even after orders were cancelled.
According to the police complaint filed by the Amazon Transport Services official with the Yeshwanthpur police, Gupta stated that his friend from Madhya Pradesh asked him to book the mobile phones and cancel the purchase after the phones were delivered, saying that he would manipulate the system to show a return to initiate refunds.
Based on information gathered by Amazon officials and presented in a police complaint filed in May, the Bengaluru North police arrested Chirag Gupta on May 26.The police probe has also led to the seizure of the iPhones that were bought by him before their ‘return’.The phones were seized from an associate of Gupta.
The investigation found that he was offered commissions for buying expensive gadgets on Amazon by a suspect who communicated with him over the Telegram app.
The devices that were procured by cheating were sold by the main suspect for profits that were received in crypto currency with the Bengaluru suspect getting a percentage as commission.
The mastermind behind the scam, identified by the police as a former employee, possessed access codes to the company’s website, enabling manipulation of product return data.Despite the initiation of return requests, payments for the products remained untouched, with the items never actually being returned.
Investigations have revealed that the prime suspect approached cryptocurrency account holders, striking a deal where funds would be transferred to their accounts, and he would subsequently withdraw the amount after paying them a commission.
“Based on the investigations of the arrested person and the data from Amazon, gadgets worth Rs 20.34 lakh, including 16 iPhones, two Macbooks, a pair of AirPods, one Vivo phone, one desktop, one gaming laptop, and Rs 2.5 lakh in cash has been seized,” the Bengaluru North police said in an official statement in the case on Friday.The police have also frozen Rs 30 lakh in multiple bank accounts linked to the accused.
According to the police, the investigations are looking at the role of multiple suspects involved in the scam that allegedly has a pan-India presence and probably players based abroad.A 29-year-old from Erode in Tamil Nadu is also being investigated in the alleged Amazon refund scam.
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