Amazon’s flexible return policy lets a customer return goods within 30 days of receipt. Funds are usually processed in three to five business days after the returned good reaches the company.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- The unnamed man from Palma de Mallorca in Spain had been sending back parcels filled with dirt to Amazon.
- He allegedly filled up boxes for iPhones and other goods with dirt that matched the original weight.
- The fraud was eventually detected when a random search was conducted in one of the company’s warehouses.
- It was the biggest ever Amazon scam in Europe and the second biggest worldwide.
Online shopping has gone through a sea change in the last few years. With more and more people opting to buy goods from the internet, the e-commerce industry has not only becoming highly competitive but also slowly turning into an economic powerhouse in many countries.
However, there are many instances when online shopping does not turn out the way we want it to. Leading e-commerce companies are known to make mistakes from time to time. This can be in the form od delivering wrong or damaged items, or delivering inferior products to the customer.
While most customers follow the company guidelines to return the products in such case, one man took advantage of Amazon’s return facility and allegedly scammed them to the tune of $3,70,000 (Rs 2.5 crores).
According to reports, the unnamed man from Palma de Mallorca in Spain had been sending back parcels filled with dirt to Amazon. He allegedly filled up boxes for iPhones and other goods with dirt that matched the original weight. After returning the parcels, the man and his friend would request for refunds.
Returned packages end up sitting in the warehouses without proper inspection, the probable reason why Amazon took time to realise they were duped.
However, the fraud was eventually detected when a random search was conducted in one of the company’s warehouses. The activity was then looked up by Amazon’s Technological Crimes Group of the Upper Balearic Headquarters.
El Espanol reported it was the biggest ever Amazon scam in Europe and the second biggest worldwide.
In the biggest one, two conmen from Indiana managed to earn $1.2 million by selling as many as 2,700 items from Amazon. It included products likes smartwatches, Xboxes, tablets, and Macbooks.
The due was caught and sentenced to six years in prison.
Amazon’s flexible return policy lets a customer return goods within 30 days of receipt. Funds are usually processed in three to five business days after the returned good reaches the company.
