A 22-year-old Ghanaian based in Spain by name James Gilbert Kwarteng has pulled what is being described as the “Biggest Amazon Scam in Europe” after he scammed Amazon of $370,000.
His way of operation is very simple. What Gilbert does is to order expensive products such as iPhone from Amazon. Then, he’ll request for a refund from Amazon.
Now while returning the box in which the actual product product was placed, he’ll fill it with dirt and will make sure the weight of the box is the same as weight of the product.
According to El Español and El Diario de Mallorca, the man and his friend would then receive a refund from the online giant and sell the original item.
It would then take the company a while to realise it had been swindled, as the return packages would end up sitting around in warehouses, where items are simply automatically scanned, weighed and placed on a shelf – without any actual employee physically checking it.
The scam was eventually unearthed when someone conducted a random search, opening up a box to find it was full of dirt.
By then, of course, the scheming man would have received his refund, as Amazon’s return policy states that for items shipped from the website (including Amazon Warehouse) – which can be returned within 30 days of receipt – refunds are processed in two business days, while customers can expect their funds to show in their account in three to five business days.
After Amazon figured out what had been going on, the fraudulent activity was then looked into by investigators of the Technological Crimes Group of the Upper Balearic Headquarters.
According to El Espanol, the con is the biggest Amazon scam ever recorded in Europe – and the second largest worldwide.
While the man, who has been released on bail, was able to get pretty rich from the scam, it’s nothing compared to similar operations by some other people.
