Amazon employee booked in Noida for fraud worth ₹7.75 lakh

Noida: An employee of e-commerce giant Amazon was booked on Saturday over alleged fraud on the pretext of refund of products. The Noida Sector 58 police have registered

Noida: An employee of e-commerce giant Amazon was booked on Saturday over alleged fraud on the pretext of refund of products. The Noida Sector 58 police have registered a case on the basis of a complaint by Amazon, and have launched an investigation into the matter.

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According to the police, the suspect, Rajat Sharma, is a resident of Uttam Nagar in Delhi.

The complaint was filed by the company’s authorised representative, Tushar Bagga. In the complaint he alleged that Sharma has been working with the company at its Noida Sector 62 office as a customer service associate. “He abused his authority and approved illegal refunds of fake customers,” he alleged in the FIR.

Bagga alleged that Sharma used to book expensive products such as mobile phones and other digital products using fake IDs, and then facilitated refunds without following company guidelines. “Sharma worked in the customer care department. His works involved addressing complaints and facilitating refunds. There is a process of refund where customers file a complaint and return the products, and then their money is refunded. The refund and concessions are issued when the customers contact the company. In some cases, the suspect himself approved concession/refunds without an application from the customer,” Bagga alleged.

Most of the accounts which had placed such orders and requests for refunds had allegedly been on the same IP address. The company noticed foul play and launched an internal investigation into the matter and allegedly found that one product was booked and a refund request was made on the name of Sharma’s sister.

These products were allegedly booked from September 2019 to January 2020 and then sought illegal refunds. Sharma has allegedly defrauded the company products worth ₹7.75 lakh, Bagga said in the FIR. When contacted, Sharma said that the allegations against him were not true. “I am still an employee of the company,” he said before disconnecting the call.

Athar Khan, senior sub-inspector of Sector 58, the case was registered under sections 66-D and 420 (cheating) of IPC. “We will seek help from cyber cell to investigate the matter and take appropriate action,” he said.

When contacted, an Amazon India spokesperson said: “As India’s most trusted online marketplace we take incidents of fraud seriously. A case has been reported, and the local police are investigating. We will co-operate and support the investigations as and when called for.”