Indore: In the second such incident this month, state cyber cell arrested a 27-year-old man on Wednesday for allegedly cheating e-commerce giant Amazon India to the tune of Rs 30 lakh by making numerous online purchases and seeking refund. On January 13, 2019, state cyber Cell had arrested a gang of four persons for duping Amazon of Rs 20 lakh by refunding cloned phones.
According to a complaint lodged by Amazon with police on January 27, 2018, some people were using email-IDs to refund the delivered products using the bad delivery trick. Preliminary investigation revealed that accused Mohammad Mhowwala who hails from Kota was living in city.
The accused used to order costly mobile phones and smart watches of companies like Samsung and Apple. He applied for 100% refund from Apple stating that the received product was damaged, the box was empty or he had received a stone in the box. For refund, he would scratch product.
The accused later sold these phones, smart watches and wireless routers at local vendors in Jail Road electronics market on different online platforms. The accused had created around 30 fake Amazon accounts to avoid suspicion for claiming refund. Superintendent of Police (cyber cell) Jitendra Singh said accused was duping Amazon for more than a year.
A sub-inspector of the cyber police said that the role of some suspected employees working in Amazon’s local warehouse was also being investigated. Mohammed Mahuwala, was arrested on a complaint filed by Amazon. Mahuwala was a member of a gang, which made several accounts on Amazon using fake e-mail IDs and mobile numbers. Through these accounts, they used to order branded and costly mobile phones and other gadgets of big companies.
“The gang used to get refund of the amount paid in exchange for these gadgets from Amazon by saying that the parcel sent by the company was empty. But in reality, these devices were taken out from parcel and sold them to the local shopkeepers at a lower price,” Singh said.
The SP said that the investigation so far has revealed that the gang has ordered 50 gadgets including the costly mobile phones costing around Rs 30-lakh and fraudulently got the refund of the same amount. He said that two expensive branded mobile phones, a wireless router, a headphone, two smart watches and a credit card were also recovered from the accused. The detail investigation and search for the other gang members is underway.
