Internet fraud is constantly increasing, with fresh reports emerging regularly of scams committed. While e-commerce sites such as Amazon India are usually the ones to goof-up, this time the e-commerce giant is on the other side of the matter. In a new case of fraud, Amazon India has been reportedly duped of Rs 50 lakh by a 21-year old man in Delhi.
According to a report by HT, Shivam Chopra, a hotel management student, had ordered as many as 166 expensive mobiles from the Amazon India and got massive refunds for the same. How, you ask? Well, the report suggests that every time after ordering a new smartphone, Shivam would raise a request for a refund by claiming the shipping package to be empty. Amazon would give him the refund in the form of a gift voucher.
Chopra, who is a hotel management graduate from Delhi’s Rohini college, failed to get a permanent job and that’s when this idea struck his mind. In March this year, just to check if the plan works fine, he ordered two phones, and when he asked for a refund for the two phones, he got the whole amount back.
Reports say that Chopra would sell the phones online on sites like OLX or sell them in Delhi’s Gaffar Market. A resident of Tri Nagar, Delhi, he used multiple SIM cards and Amazon India accounts to place his order. After placing the order from some random area he would guide the delivery man to a place where he would accept the package and pay with cash. Amazon India realized that it was being duped when they noticed a similar pattern of orders from one particular area. They immediately filed a FIR, which later led to the arrest of the 21-year-old man. Fake IDs and a number of mobile SIM cards provided by an accomplice made his job easy. 
According to the report, neither the police nor Amazon elaborated on the process of verification of such refund demands. The individual who supplied these SIM cards to Chopra has also been arrested. The police seized 19 mobile phones, 12 lakh in cash, 40 bank passbooks and cheques from Chopra’s home. He had also kept Rs 10 lakh with someone else for safekeeping.
In a statement to PTI, an Amazon India spokesperson said, “We continue to work closely with the Delhi Police and thank them for all their efforts in the investigation.”
Earlier this year, a woman duped Amazon India for Rs 70 Lakh where she replaced the original product with sub-standard or fake goods before raising a return request. A total of 104 electronic gadgets including high-end smartphones, TVs and cameras were replaced by her in this way.