Feds Arrest Former Amazon Employee After Company Reported Him to FBI for Fraud

Amazon today disclosed that a previous staff member has been detained for committing fraud versus the online merchant. The company says it reported Vu Anh Nguyen to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in July 2020 for falsely issuing refunds to himself and his associates for items purchased on Amazon.com. The U.S. Dept. of Justice on Friday brought charges against Nguyen for federal wire fraud and worsened identity theft, according to court filings.

Nguyen was formerly employed with Amazon as a Selling Assistance Associate based in Tempe, Arizona. In this function, his job included offering assistance for Amazon’s third-party sellers and assisting in the production and management of seller listings using a “Spoofer” account, which enables Amazon staff members to view and edit third-party seller accounts.

From these accounts, employees have the ability to manually authorize refunds for items bought from third-party sellers, which is how the abuse occurred.

In the criminal problem, Nguyen is declared to have committed wire fraud between November 2019 and February 2020 by utilizing his worker access to falsely and fraudulently release $96,508.13 in refunds to himself and others. These refunds were not requested by genuine purchasers. During the course of this plan, Nguyen used or caused using interstate wires, the filing states.

The scheme included around 318 unauthorized refunds for orders acquired through eight Amazon accounts belonging to Nguyen and others. These consisted of refunds for high-value items, like computer systems and electronic devices, none of which were ever returned to Amazon.

Nguyen likewise ran two third-party seller accounts, Bullsy and ItemsQuest, where refunds were provided to orders he was shipping to his own house or others to which he had gained access to.

Nguyen likewise bought $222.04 worth of items sent out to his house as a part of this scheme, the complaint alleges, then fraudulently authorized a concession refund for the products, enabling him to basically keep the items without paying.

In addition, on August 14, 2019, Nguyen dedicated identity theft associated with the wire fraud activities by utilizing the name and credit card details coming from a third-party, the FBI states. This involved an order totaling simply $47.80 for home items, like a drawer organizer and cabinet liners.

Nguyen had originally been employed by Amazon on March 4, 2019. His employment was terminated on March 24, 2020, after he neglected repeated attempts by Amazon to reach him about the fraudulent activity the merchant had discovered.

Separately from the Amazon scams case, Nguyen was the target of a Dept. of Justice/FBI investigation for a type of securities scams understood as “free-riding,” which had led to losses of approximately $695,000 across 8 brokerage firms, the grievance notes. On the SEC.gov website’s post about the litigation release, however, those losses are said to have totaled more than $1 million.

Amazon, in a news release issued today, notes that it has systems in place to mitigate misuse of its tools and to keep an eye on and detect suspicious habits. These systems had determined the suspicious refunds, prompting its examination. Amazon then reported the case to the FBI.

The merchant routinely pursues investigations and suits targeted at dealing with fraud across its platform. Just recently, this included supporting wire fraud charges against 4 individuals who devoted $19 million in a fraudulent invoicing plan targeting Amazon’s vendor system. It also this summer season launched a counterfeit criminal activities system to deal with the growing issue with fake products offered on its marketplace and helped stop several deceitful affiliate marketing plans.

While a number of the scams plans involved external celebrations, sometimes Amazon’s own staff members are involved. In September, the U.S. Dept. of Justice charged 6 people with paying off Amazon workers in exchange for restoring their banned service or products, an indictment declares, for example. In the past, Amazon employees have likewise been detained for product theft.

Amazon provided a brief declaration on the new charges involving Nguyen.

“We thank the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation for their quick work to hold this fraudster responsible,” a representative said. “There is no place for misbehavior or scams at Amazon. We hold our employees to a high bar, have systems in location to proactively avoid scams, continue to keep track of activity, and will pursue all steps to secure our store and hold bad actors responsible.”