21-year-old youth dupes Amazon India

New Delhi: A 21-year-old has been arrested for allegedly duping Amazon India by ordering expensive phones and then claiming refunds after alleging that he received an empty box, on Tuesday. His 38-year-old accomplice, who used to provide SIM cards to Shivam Chopra, for placing orders on the e-commerce portal, was also arrested, they added.

During probe, the police seized 19 mobile phones, Rs 12 lakh in cash, 40 passbooks and cheques of various bank accounts from Mr Chopra’s house. In a statement, an Amazon India spokesperson said, “We continue to work closely with the Delhi police and thank them for all their efforts in the investigation.”

A complaint was received in June from former Captain Syed Ishaq, 36. He filed a complaint on behalf of Amazon Seller Services Private Limited alleging that a total of 166 orders for mobile phones were placed between April 2017 and May 2017.

All the orders were purchased through gift cards and after receiving the product, the accused used to cancel the orders claiming that he had had received empty boxes to claim refunds.

The amount was again refunded to him in the form of gift cards, the police said. During an internal inquiry by the firm, it was found the accused used 141 phone numbers and 48 different customer accounts to place these orders and a refund in full was sought against each order, they added.

The accused used to place multiple orders from different customer accounts using different phone numbers and for all these orders, they would give false addresses in the same locality where he actually resided. Since the addresses were incorrect, the delivery men failed to locate the address on the package and would call the accused for directions. He would then call him to any other place in the locality and take the delivery, the police said.

After taking the delivery, Mr Chopra used to call up the Amazon customer care and got a refund saying that no items were found in the delivered box. 

After an inquiry, the police filed a case in August. On basis of the mobile numbers used to make calls and with the help of Amazon delivery boys, Mr Chopra, of Tri Nagar, Talab Road, was arrested on October 6. He told the police he sold the phones on another portal and in Gaffar Market.