(RepublicanJournal.org) – Amazon.com is fighting back against scammers who’ve allegedly taken the company for millions of dollars in products. The online retailer, as part of an effort to crack down on the problem, is suing close to 30 people across six different countries for their participation in an alleged fraud ring.
Amazon filed the lawsuit in a US District Court in Washington State on December 7, 2023. Fortune reports that the online powerhouse is suing the individuals along with a group called REKK, which Amazon claims organized and worked the scheme. The organization recruited paying Amazon customers on social media apps that included Discord and Reddit, then discussed the details of their scam on Telegram, where REKK reportedly has over 30,000 followers.
The group made clear in its advertisements that its services were fraudulent according to Business Insider. It adds that REKK reeled in unscrupulous customers who wanted high-priced items but didn’t want to pay the retail costs. Buyers paid REKK 30% of an item’s retail price before setting up the fraudulent returns. They never sent back their purchases, but they still received full refunds, and as far as Amazon’s records were concerned, they had returned the merchandise. The scheme involved seven alleged Amazon “insiders,” whom the organization bribed to conduct the transactions. The group also reportedly used phishing schemes on other Amazon employees to gain information, pushing through some of the refunds through unauthorized logins.
REKK allegedly worked to fraudulently reverse charges on over a dozen Amazon high-priced transactions between May 2022 and June 2023, but the organization reportedly worked the same scheme at several other online retailers as well. In all, it has reportedly orchestrated over 100,000 similar refunds.
Amazon spent $1.2 billion in 2022 to fight fraudulent activity, with 15,000 team members working to target theft from the massive corporation. The company earned an estimated $678 billion worldwide in 2023.
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