Amazon Scammers Get Prison Time Over Stolen Gadgets

Tempted to take advantage of Amazon's return policy to score some gratuitous electronics? Doing so could country y'all in prison for a long time.

Take it from one Indiana couple, who defrauded Amazon out of $1.2 one thousand thousand in consumer electronics between 2022 and 2022. The duo—Erin and Leah Finan, both 38—repeatedly claimed that the electronics they ordered on Amazon were damaged or broken and requested free replacements. For ii years, the scheme worked. They managed to steal more than than 2,700 pricey gadgets—everything from GoPro action cameras and Microsoft Xbox consoles to Samsung smartwatches, Apple tree MacBooks, and Microsoft Surface tablets.

And now, Erin and Leah Finans will be spending the next couple of years behind bars. They pleaded guilty to federal mail fraud and money laundering charges and were sentenced to 71 months and 68 months in prison house, respectively, according to the The states Department of Justice.

"For the Finans, fraud had become a way of life," the Justice Department wrote in a news release. "Their Amazon scheme was their 'job.' It involved placing thousands of Amazon orders, creating hundreds of imitation identities, retrieving their stolen goods from retail aircraft stores all over Indiana."

A third individual involved in the scheme, Danijel Glumac, 29, of Indianapolis, pleaded guilty to coin laundering and fencing, or knowingly ownership and reselling stolen goods. The Finans would, "on a most-daily basis," sell the stolen items to Glumac, who would mark upwards their prices and ship them off to a buyer in New York who would sell them, ironically, on Amazon.

The Finans netted around $750,000 over the course of two years while Glumac fabricated near $500,000. Now, they will have to pay restitution of more than than $ane.2 meg.

"Consumer fraud not only unjustly enriches the perpetrator, it causes all of us to pay higher retail prices," US Attorney Josh J. Minkler said in a statement. "To those who seek to exploit the convenience of online shopping through fraud, remember this case. You will exist defenseless. You will be prosecuted. And you will go to federal prison for a long time."

Most Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo is PCMag'southward skillful on fettle and smart abode products. Teaching yoga for nearly 10 years has helped her in evaluating a range of connected health products including fettle trackers, heart rate monitors, rowers, smart scales, stationary bikes, strength training machines, treadmills, and more than. Angela also tests smart home devices from her ranch in Florida, including air purifiers, kitchen appliances, and robot vacuums, just to name a few.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/news/21454/amazon-scammers-get-prison-time-over-stolen-gadgets

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