A 22-year-old Bengaluru student managed to scam e-commerce giant Amazon, into giving him money back for things he never really returned. Chirag Gupta, a student residing in north Bengaluru, exploited the e-commerce behemoth's policies, resulting in a significant financial loss for Amazon. Chirag's plan centered on making seemingly legitimate purchases and then cancelling them shortly after, all while claiming the items had been returned.
Chirag's modus operandi involved purchasing high-end gadgets, particularly iPhones, using a combination of credit card and UPI transactions. His purchases included an iPhone Pro 14 Max worth Rs 1.27 lakh, an iPhone 14 worth Rs 84,900, and two more iPhone 14s on separate dates. These purchases were seemingly routine, but Chirag's plan was anything but ordinary. After obtaining the items, Chirag manipulated the system to indicate that the products had been returned, prompting Amazon's backend systems to initiate refunds. These returns, however, were purely fictitious — the gadgets were never actually sent back to Amazon.
Amazon's suspicions were piqued when a pattern emerged, with Chirag repeatedly purchasing items from the same address and then canceling the orders while initiating fake returns. Between May 15 and 17 Chirag had purchased four iPhones using credit card and UPI. The company's internal investigations led to the discovery that none of the returned items were physically returned to their distribution center. Amazon escalated the matter to local authorities and filed a complaint with the Bengaluru police in May. This led to the arrest of Chirag.
Further investigation revealed that the mastermind behind this crime was Chirag’s friend, a former employee of Amazon. The police did not disclose the name of the main suspect. According to police, the main accused purportedly provided Chirag with the technical know-how to manipulate Amazon's systems and generate the appearance of returned products. The main suspect would communicate with Chirag on Telegram, and would sell the gadgets for profits in cryptocurrency. Chirag received a percentage of the profits as a commission, police said.
The police on Friday, August 18 said that they 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.