In just two years, four New York brothers are said to have defrauded Amazon of US $ 19 million using a sophisticated system. They probably exchanged information about this via Whatsapp.
Has been fighting for years Amazon against fakes, fraudsters and retailerswho want to sell dangerous products through the platform. At the beginning of this year, the e-commerce giant launched a so-called counterfeit crime unit, in which former investigators and federal prosecutors search the marketplace for counterfeit products. This unit is likely in the current case also involved have been that a total of four judicial fraudsters went online.
Amazon overshipping scam
The four brothers from New York, who were arrested last week for billing fraud and money laundering, are said to have defrauded Amazon for two years. In doing so, they probably rely on a sophisticated system, such as Wired reports. The fraud system is known as overshipping. The e-commerce group is billed for more products than ordered. The brothers optimized the nature of the fraud by changing the product numbers (Asin – Amazon Standard Identification Number) listed for Amazon and invoicing large quantities of items.
The whole thing worked in the so-called vendor program. Unlike in the seller program, vendors do not deliver via Amazon to end customers like retailers, but directly to Amazon. So you act as a pure B2B supplier. In the case of the brothers, Amazon ordered about twelve canisters of disinfectant spray priced at $ 94.03. The scammers instead sent Amazon 7,000 toothbrushes for which they charged $ 94.03 each. They used the Asin for the spray – they later billed Amazon $ 650,000.
$ 19 million stolen from Amazon
According to the investigators, the Amazon brothers are said to have sent and billed products in quantities of over 10,000 on several occasions when Amazon actually wanted less than 100. When the fraud was discovered at some point and Amazon closed the brothers’ vendor accounts, they are said to have opened new ones with falsified information and using VPN. In total, Amazon is said to have been defrauded by $ 19 million.
The prosecution can rely on the WhatsApp chats of the brothers in the upcoming proceedings, in which they are likely to have communicated quite frankly about their scams. One of the brothers is said to have instigated the others to use VPN and fake email addresses as described above in order to open new vendor accounts. Another sentence from WhatsApp communication could be used to describe the motivation for the massive fraud. According to Wired, one of the brothers is said to have written in May 2018 that he was in the mood to “fuck Amazon”.
Also interesting: According to the ECJ, Amazon is not liable if third-party providers violate trademark law
