Amazon duped with dummy goods in returns, case filed

GURUGRAM: Following a 10-month-long investigation, the police on Tuesday registered a complaint against unidentified persons for duping e-commerce company Amazon India of over ₹20 lakh in the year preceding last July, when a complaint was lodged in this regard. The police said that in the alleged frauds, members of a gang ordered expensive phones, mostly iPhones, and replaced them with dummy phones while returning the order, as per the firm’s policy.

KK Rao, the commissioner of police, said, “They order Apple iPhones from the website with the choice of paying online or paying on receipt of product. Later, they return duplicate phones using the e-commerce website’s return policy.” Rao said that similar cases have been registered at multiple police stations in the city and they have arrested four people for stealing iPhones after replacing them with cloned ones.

“On May 30, we had arrested a delivery associate of an e-commerce company for allegedly stealing seven iPhones and replacing them with dummy phones in the boxes. The consignment had Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro Max model, which was marked undelivered and was deposited to the warehouse on the same day. Later, the phones were found to be fake,” he said.

During the investigation, the police found that several accounts were created on the website using aliases and mobile numbers procured on incorrect documentation. The gang members had ordered items of high value. “Making use of the return policy of the e-commerce website, the accused packed duplicate products in the company packaging and returned them. The people then received a refund for the original product,” said Rao. The police said similar cases have been reported in Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Pune, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Over 50 people have been arrested this year from different cities for such scams.

Rao said that in as many as 100 instances, the gang had cited performance issues for returning the phones.

Aditya Singh, a representative for Amazon, told the police that these cases have been reported since 2019.