Between April 9 and April 16, this year, some unnamed hackers took advantage of security flaws in the delivery system of the online retailer Amazon to defraud the corporation of Rs 3 crore. On Sunday, the MIDC police reported the incident as a fraud and criminal conspiracy under the IPC and IT Act.
Amazon is an online retailer and delivery service that serves as a middleman between buyers and sellers. Many vendors approach Amazon to market their goods online for later client purchase. When a customer purchases a product, Amazon sends it to them, takes their payment, and then pays the vendor.
According to sources, the accused initially created fake seller companies and registered them with Amazon with their products. The hackers also created fake IDs of customers to buy these products online. All the products were to be delivered to customers on a ‘Cash Delivery’ basis.
Between April 9 and 16, this year, 5,731 fake orders were put through Amazon website in which the company lost around 3 crore. All the orders were registered in the wee hours of night.
The hackers initially ordered a product online in ‘Cash on Delivery’ mode, then hacked the IDs of around 12 delivery boys to show the order had been delivered. Next minute, the order is canceled by the customer who also applies for a refund. From ordering a product online to its delivery and later refund was all being done in five minutes.
Due to this, the hackers collected money from Amazon as a seller who had sold its product as well as a customer who wanted a refund for the product. Amazon allows cash on delivery for products upto 230,000 that is why all the orders were of around 229,000. A senior police official from MIDC police station said the officials at Amazon initially did not understand it but later learnt they have been issu ing refunds for the prod ucts they never collected money
“As per Amazon policy, they pay the sellers two to three days after the prod uct is sold and also to cus tomers who apply for refunds. They understood it seven days later and later stopped paying the sellers as well as the cus tomers involved,” the offi cial said.
Manager of Amazon Hemant Pakhode filed the complaint with Hudkeshwar police who conducted initial inquiry and later handed over the case to MIDC police station as the godown of Amazon comes under their jurisdic tion. Sources said some Amazon employee could be involved in this fraud they must have shared loop holes in the system with the hackers. All delivery boys whose IDs were hacked belonged to Nagpur.
