Media reports indicate that Shivam Chopra, a hotel management student, had, ordered 166 expensive mobiles from the online marketplace and got massive refunds, but how?
Every time after ordering a new phone, Chopra claimed that he had received an empty box and claimed a refund. When Amazon realised that it was being duped by the youngster, a complaint was immediately filed leading to the arrest of the scamster. Fake IDs and number of mobile SIMs provided by an accomplice made his job easy.
Why did he do it? While Chopra had completed a course in hotel management from an institute in north Delhi’s Rohini, he failed to secure a permanent job. Finally in March this year, he decided to start his conning venture; initially, he ordered two phones to test the feasibility of his idea.
When he asked for a refund for the two phones, he got his whole amount back.
How did he make extra profit? He carried on with his hoodwinking activities for two months and almost made a business out of it. From Apple to Samsung, the 21-year-old bloke ordered a range of premium range smartphones.
After acquiring the devices, Chopra would sell the mobile phones either on another online marketplace such as OLX or Delhi’s Gaffar market, which deals with mobiles and other imported goods. Gaffar market has a reputation of being the world’s most notorious market in terms of global privacy.
Chopra was assisted in his “business” by Sachin Jain, a 38-year-old man who owns a small telecom store near the youngster’s house. Jain had allegedly supplied more than 141 activated SIM cards (Rs 150 each) to Chopra, allowing him to place each order using a different identity. Jain, too, has been arrested for assisting Chopra in the crime.
Chopra, a resident of north-west Delhi, used this phone numbers to place orders and gave an incorrect address, within the locality. Every time delivery associates from Amazon would come to the given address, they were unable to locate the house and were forced to call Chopra on the registered mobile number.
Chopra would then guide him somewhere close to his current address in the vicinity of the locality to take the delivery. However, soon after receiving the delivery, he would call up Amazon to complain that the box he received was empty.
A senior police official confirmed that the offender had repeated the same pattern for all the 166 orders that he had placed.
After the arrest, a total of 19 mobiles, Rs 12 lakh in cash and a slew of bank passbooks and cheques were seized from Chopra’s house. Besides, the offender had also kept Rs 10 lakh with an accomplice for safety.
Such frauds are not a rarity in online marketplaces and there have been more incidents like this in the past.
Source - www.timesnownews.com
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