Service provider staff cheat Amazon via refund policy

The Indian arm of the global e-commerce company Amazon has filed a criminal case against four employees of one of its delivery service providers, accusing them of cheating it of Rs 69.61 lakh by misusing the product refund policy.

In a complaint filed at the Koramangala police station on December 22, Nishad Sharma, an authorised representative of Amazon India, said the suspects worked for Dependo Logistics Pvt Ltd, Koramangala.

Operating as a sophisticated gang, the four employees ordered expensive products such as iPhones and hard disks between March 15 and December 22 and returned them later, saying they were either fake or damaged.

This way, the gang returned 854 products and got the money back through 43 Paytm accounts linked to each other.

Two of the suspects — Mohammed Anwer and Shiv Naik — are assistant managers at Dependo Logistics. The others — Ravi Kumar and Sonu — created fake e-mail IDs to shop on Amazon.

Amazon India found out the cheating during an audit. An enquiry established that the products were returned not from customers’ addresses but from Dependo Solutions’ office in Koramangala. Amazon India suspected the company’s staff and filed the complaint.

The police said that it was a well-organised gang and have formed a special team to arrest the suspects.