A gaggle of scammers stole $4 million price of merchandise from Amazon, together with graphics playing cards and laptops, through the use of pretend police studies about lacking packages to dupe buyer assist.
In a lawsuit filed in a Washington state District Court docket this week, Amazon alleges that an individual in Kazakhstan orchestrated the scheme utilizing the chat app Telegram. A gaggle known as RBK has been promoting providers to assist Amazon prospects commit reimbursement fraud by exploiting how the corporate points refunds for packages that are not delivered, in keeping with the 41-page grievance. In return, RBK expenses between a 15% to 30% minimize of the refund.
“Customers present their Amazon login credentials to RBK, and RBK contacts Amazon customer support posing because the person,” the corporate’s legal professionals wrote. “Sometimes, RBK claims the merchandise obtained was an empty bundle.”
(Credit score: Amazon)
To dupe Amazon’s buyer assist into believing the declare, RBK will use elaborate, pretend police studies in regards to the lacking bundle, amongst different social engineering strategies.
“Whereas Amazon Buyer Service representatives believed the studies have been official and licensed refunds based mostly on the studies, nearer inspection suggests the studies are, the truth is, fraudulent. In at the least one occasion, an Amazon customer support worker known as a quantity on the pretend police report and spoke to a person posing as a police officer,” the lawsuit notes.
The group has been focusing on Amazon within the US, Canada, and Europe, in addition to different retailers. “RBK’s essential channel, ‘MAIN RBK,’ had over 1,000 subscribers as of June 2025. Since February 2023, RBK has posted over $4,000,000.00 in vouches for Amazon refunds,” the lawsuit provides.
The corporate uncovered the scheme after an Amazon investigator posed as a purchaser fascinated about RBK’s providers. The corporate’s investigation additionally uncovered a video and a picture on the RBK Telegram channel that appeared to disclose the mailing handle and cellphone variety of the alleged administrator of the rip-off group, Kazakhstan-based Dias Temirbekul Zhumaniyaz.
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“Amazon’s inside investigators used this info to determine login info, together with IP addresses positioned in Kazakhstan, that have been used to entry Amazon accounts related to Zhumaniyaz,” the corporate says. The identical login info was linked to different buyer accounts concerned within the refund fraud, together with for high-value gadgets corresponding to laptops and drones, as wellas “two PowerColor AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT Graphics Playing cards for $2,054.43.”
(Credit score: Amazon)
Amazon is Zhumaniyaz and two different defendants—Michael Bauschelt of Lakeside, California, and Adnan Islam of Astoria, New York—who allegedly used the refund fraud providers.
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The lawsuit claims Bauschelt tapped RBK to acquire refunds for 2 Dell gaming laptops ordered in 2024, whereas Islam obtained a refund for an Apple MacBook Professional bought in 2025.
The corporate is now demanding that the suspects pay restitution for the fraud and canopy the corporate’s lawyer charges within the lawsuit. The e-commerce supplier can be urging the court docket to dam the defendants from utilizing Telegram or Amazon emblems to have interaction in comparable schemes.
The corporate’s grievance additionally says 20 different unidentified co-conspirators labored with Zhumaniyaz on RBK’s actions. Following the lawsuit, the RBK channel on Telegram appears to now not be accessible, suggesting the group shut down the operation to erase proof or that Telegram took motion.
In 2023, Amazon filed the same lawsuit in opposition to an underground fraud ring known as REKK that used hacking and bribing firm workers to safe refunds for merchandise. The lawsuit recognized 20 individuals who allegedly purchased providers from the group, together with the workers concerned. Amazon later secured settlements from the defendants, whereas the court docket additionally issued injunctions restraining them from abusing the corporate’s providers once more.
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Michael Kan
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I have been a journalist for over 15 years. I acquired my begin as a colleges and cities reporter in Kansas Metropolis and joined PCMag in 2017, the place I cowl satellite tv for pc web providers, cybersecurity, PC {hardware}, and extra. I am at present based mostly in San Francisco, however beforehand spent over 5 years in China, overlaying the nation’s expertise sector.
Since 2020, I’ve lined the launch and explosive development of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite tv for pc web service, writing 600+ tales on availability and have launches, but in addition the regulatory battles over the enlargement of satellite tv for pc constellations, fights with rival suppliers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the trouble to increase into satellite-based cell service. I’ve combed by way of FCC filings for the most recent information and pushed to distant corners of California to check Starlink’s mobile service.
I additionally cowl cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC pressured Avast to pay customers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and promoting their private info to third-party shoppers, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I additionally cowl the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in entrance of a Finest Purchase to get an RTX 3000. I am now following how the AI-driven reminiscence scarcity is impacting your complete client electronics market. I am at all times wanting to be taught extra, so please leap within the feedback with suggestions and ship me ideas.
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