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One year in prison for three young people who committed the biggest scam against Amazon in Europe

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The three young men who defrauded Amazon of 350,000 euros from Mallorca through false product returns agreed this Tuesday a one-year prison sentence and a fine of 1,080 euros after reaching an agreement with the Public Prosecutor’s Office and returning what was defrauded to the multinational.

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The three young men, two brothers and a friend of his, were set for a morning hearing in the provincial court of the Balearic Islands. Before going to trial they had already acknowledged the facts and were willing to give the money back to the online sales platform.

Amazon, for its part, withdrew from the proceeding once it received the claimed compensation. The defendants paid part of the 350,000 euros with bitcoin sums seized in the proceedings, which the Tribunal converted into euros before the cryptocurrency crash. The events took place between 2017 and July 2019.

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The three youngsters acknowledged that they have devised a method to benefit from Amazon products by taking advantage of its instant return policy.

Amazon logo, France.  Reuters photo

Amazon logo, France. Reuters photo

The mechanism

Therefore, they offered the products on trading platforms at a lower price than usual, and when someone paid for it, they bought it from Amazon, indicating the buyer’s address on the shipment, sometimes forwarding it through another company.

The defendants then filed a complaint against the multinational indicating that the product had arrived in poor conditionor that they don’t want it, asking for it to be returned.

Once Amazon generated the shipping label, the youngsters would go to a post office with the e-code They have delivered a box without the product, empty or with another object inside to simulate the weight of the product. The Police intervened thousands of euros in bitcoins distributed in numerous virtual wallets and exchange houses, as well as other virtual currencies.

They’ve done it over 200 timess, obtaining profits of 350,000 euros until the multinational realized the deception and contacted the State Police.

Amazon entered the case as a private prosecution, but withdrew from the trial once it was repaid the full amount defrauded. The Public Prosecutor’s Office continued the story, initially accusing the three young men of belonging to a criminal organization, money laundering and aggravated fraud.

One of the three convicted youths has offered to work with Amazon to help the company fix holes in its security systems.

Source: Clarin

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