How Four Brothers Allegedly Fleeced $19 Million From Amazon

[WhiteTara]

https://www.wired.com/story/how-four-brothers-allegedly-fleeced-19-million-amazon/?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits

Over the course of two years, four brothers in New York allegedly swindled Amazon out of at least $19 million using thousands of $94 toothbrushes and other expensive goods, according to a Department of Justice indictment unsealed Wednesday. Federal prosecutors accused Yoel Abraham, Heshl Abraham, Zishe Abraham, and Shmuel Abraham of invoicing Amazon for a large number of products the company never ordered. The defendants allegedly discussed their gimmick openly in a family WhatsApp group. In one message from May 2018, the indictment says, Yoel wrote that he was “so in the mood to fuck Amazon.”

All four brothers, who were arrested Wednesday, are accused of using wholesale businesses they opened to engage in a scam called “overshipping.” It works by intentionally sending a company more goods than it ordered and billing for it. On Amazon, every product is given a unique identifier, a string of numbers called an Amazon Standard Identification Number. They are part of an item’s listing in Amazon’s catalog. Vendors have the ability to change listings, to make sure things like product descriptions are accurate.

According to the indictment, the brothers swapped ASINs for items Amazon ordered to send large quantities of different goods instead. In one instance, Amazon ordered 12 canisters of disinfectant spray costing $94.03. The defendants allegedly shipped 7,000 toothbrushes costing $94.03 each, using the code for the disinfectant spray, and later billed Amazon for over $650,000.

In another instance, Amazon ordered a single bottle of designer perfume for $289.78. In response, according to the indictment, the defendants sent 927 plastic beard trimmers costing $289.79 each, using the ASIN for the perfume. Prosecutors say the brothers frequently shipped and charged Amazon for more than 10,000 units of an item when it had requested fewer than 100. Once Amazon detected the fraud and shut down their accounts, the brothers allegedly tried to open new ones using fake names, different email addresses, and VPNs to obscure their identity. “Open account under dummy names and they can go look for no one,” Yoel allegedly wrote on WhatsApp in the fall of 2018.

cheats and theives are everywhere.

[KG]

1. I'm conflicted here.

[Neema]

2. And in the time it took me to read that article, Jeff Bezos probably made back that $19M.

I know fraud is fraud but it's hard to get too mad at someone screwing Amazon.

[whistler162]

5. Yup a slow day for ordering

[NCjack]

3. Trump will not sleep for next several days because he is searching

for a way to pardon these crooks who screwed Bezos.

[mitch96]

6. Or give them the medal of freedom for their great business acumen... nt

[Nevilledog]

4. Is this another example of Ivanka's Find Something New initiative?

[Talitha]

7. Hahahaha!!!!