The Cyber Crime wing of the Cyberabad police on Friday arrested six persons for fraud, after they allegedly cheated e-commerce company Amazon to the tune of several lakh rupees.
The police said that the accused exploited a loophole, where they would claim non-delivery of products after receiving them, following which the company would send a ‘replacement’ of the same product.
In this manner, they collected several electronic gadgets including cell phones.
The accused were identified as Konduri Dinesh Kumar, Pradeep Reddy, Praveen Reddy and Bhanu Ramesh, all residents of Hyderabad. One Lova Krishna, a resident of West Godavari District was also arrested while Bipin, a resident of Kolkata was said to be absconding.
The police said that they received a complaint by an Amazon representative on March 22, where he claimed that the company had verified their records and found that around 300 products worth Rs 15,90,566 were delivered to customers who indulged in systematic fraud and caused a major loss to the company.
While the first three accused completed their B Tech courses, Ramesh discontinued his engineering studies. Krishna was working as a marketing executive in Vodafone and was supplying SIM cards to Bhanu Ramesh.
“After completion of B.Tech courses the accused Dinesh Kumar and Pradeep Reddy went in search of jobs by staying in the hostels at Ameerpet, Hyderabad for three years, but they could not succeed in their attempts. As the amount sent by the parents of the accused are insufficient to lead a lavish life in Hyderabad, the accused planned to earn easy money by dubious means,” a press release by the police stated.
The police said that the accused first attempted their plan in February 2017, where they complained to the customer care division of Amazon and claimed that they didn’t receive shoes in the parcel. As Amazon immediately replaced the same product with another pair of shoes, the accused hatched a larger plan.
“They planned to place orders for cell phones online, so that they can easily dispose them in the market. In the process the accused Pradeep Reddy contacted Bhanu Ramesh, who used to supply pre-activated SIM cards which were supplied by Lova Krishna from Eluru and Kakinada. With the pre-activated SIM cards supplied, Dinesh Kumar and Pradeep Reddy started placing online orders for cell phones with cash on delivery mode by furnishing false details like, name, address, e-mail ID, phone number etc,” the police said.
The accused would also ensure that they picked up the delivery from different places around Ameerpet, before they called customer care and claim that the parcel was empty. Following this, Amazon would dispatch another cell phone to the accused, free of cost.
The sixth accused, Bipin, came into the picture as there was shortage in the supply of pre-activated SIM cards by Bhanu Ramesh. After this, the police said that Dinesh Kumar and Pradeep Reddy started placing orders online with Amazon for more number of cell phones to earn money faster.
“In this process, the accused created nearly 800 fake accounts in Amazon site by giving fake details. Praveen Reddy used to collect the products from the delivery boy. The mobiles received by the accused were sold either on OLX or to different shop keepers where they claimed that they have many friends abroad, who are sending free coupons to them to purchase brand new phones from Amazon,” the police press release said.
Besides more than Rs 10 lakh in cash, the police recovered 556 SIM Cards, 42 Cell phones and 2 laptops. A case was registered and the accused who were nabbed were sent to judicial remand.