‘Return policy abusers’
For a scam spanning two years from 2014 and 2016, a US court has sentenced an Indiana couple to nearly six years in prison each for stealing more than $1.2m from e-commerce giant Amazon.
In total, the Finans stole $1.2m and netted $750,000 from their activities. “Their Amazon scheme was their ‘job,’” the federal government said about Muncie and Indiana Finan, adding: “Fraud had become a way of life.”
The Finans committed the fraud by exploiting “Amazon’s customer service policy” when they bought Microsoft Xbox units, Samsung smartwatches, Apple MacBooks, GoPro cameras, and more, The Justice Department said.
They would then create fake identities and place orders for the merchandise and tell the e-commerce giant that their products were either damaged or not operational. Amazon would then send them replacements at no charge.
They would then pick up those products at various shipping stores across Indiana and sell them to a third-party “fence”.
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