Amazon is the victim of a major fraud campaign, with crooks having managed to hijack the platform’s reimbursement system. In total, millions of dollars were embezzled.
As an e-commerce giant, Amazon attracts the desires of scammers, who eye the hundreds of billions of dollars the company rakes in each year. And suffice to say that they do not lack imagination! This time, Jeff Bezos’ firm was the victim of international fraud. Indeed, as revealed Bloomberg, she has just filed a complaint in the Washington State court against REKK, an intermediary company which offers Amazon customers a refund for an item purchased on the site, without returning the product , for a percentage in commission. To put it simply: REKK manages to embezzle large sums of money by misleading the reimbursement procedures in force on the platform. In particular, it advertises its services on a Telegram channel, which has more than 30,000 subscribers, but also on Reddit and Discord. In total, the fraud amounts to millions of euros. There’s no way Amazon is going to let this happen!
Amazon fraud: the hijacked refund system
But how does REKK go about it? First, an Internet user places an order on the Amazon store. These are generally expensive items, such as high-end smartphones, MacBook Pros or even video game consoles, but also more traditional consumables such as tires or precious materials such as a 24 gold coin. carats. However, in accordance with the law, the e-commerce platform gives consumers the possibility of returning the product in question and getting a refund. This is where REKK comes in.
The company will manipulate Amazon’s infrastructure so that the product, which is still in the hands of the buyer, is considered as received by the returns services. She uses several methods to do this: she managed, through phishing, to obtain an employee’s credentials, which allows her to manipulate systems through unauthorized access, but also does not hesitate to bribe certain employees – there are seven to date. According to Amazon, employees made fraudulent returns worth more than $500,000. Then, believing that it has received the product, the platform reimburses the customer, who then gives part of the money to REKK as payment.
Amazon fraud: millions of dollars in losses
According to a study by the National Retail Federation, a trade association, and Appriss Retail, a company that fights retail fraud and theft, about 10% of online purchases returned in 2022 were considered fraudulent. . For every $100 in returned merchandise accepted, retailers lose $10.40 to this type of fraud.
“This lawsuit sends a loud and clear message to bad actors: Amazon will not tolerate attempts to undermine the integrity of its store”said Dharmesh Mehta, vice president of Amazon, in a statement. “When fraud is detected, as in this case, Amazon takes various steps to stop the activity, including issuing warnings, closing accounts, and preventing people who have engaged in refund fraud from opening new accounts “. The company filed a complaint against REKK and approximately thirty individuals located in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Greece, Lithuania and the Netherlands.