A little scam genius embezzles €82,000 from Amazon packages, his mother ordered to reimburse

His son was accused of fraud. Ultimately it is her mother who will have to pay for her mistakes. On Thursday, October 24, the Lyon criminal court judged the woman and ordered her to repay €72,000, Actu Lyon reveals.

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The case dates back to February 2022. The Lyon police station then received “anonymous information” about an 18-year-old teenager who would be the author of a vast fraud enterprise. He was committing what is called “reimbursement fraud.” This computer science student had discovered a vulnerability which he exploited. He ordered on Amazon then, upon receiving the package, he declared it empty.

“The company prefers to pay than track each of its packages,” explains the president of the court cited by Actu Lyon.

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The young man then set up a truly large-scale business. On social networks like X or Telegram, he offered his services in exchange for a “commission” on the reimbursement. He was then paid in cryptocurrencies or cash, probably for the sake of traceability.

He allegedly misappropriated more than €82,000 worth of goods by this means. Tried by the juvenile court, he was then given a 5-month suspended prison sentence.

“I had no sign he had any money”

The mother is accused of complicity. What the courts accuse him of is opening several bank accounts in the name of his son. It was from these accounts that he received his profits. “I don’t even know how it works, my son took care of it,” she explained. The accused claims to have never known anything about her son's activities. The accounts were only dedicated to the payment of her scholarship, she promises.

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When she is accused of payments from her son, she explains that they were reimbursements. “For me, it was legal, I didn’t know he had €82,000, I had no sign that he had money,” she pleaded before the judge. She herself declared herself “deceived” by her son who had promised her that these reimbursements were in fact completely legal promotions.

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Despite these explanations, the Lyon criminal court ruled that she “could not be unaware of her son's activity”. She received a 6-month suspended prison sentence, a fine of €2,500 and above all the obligation to reimburse Amazon €72,000. Text messages where she talks about “reimbursements of €1,000” and the fact that her son wears luxurious clothes and buys a scooter for €2,000 convinced the court that she had “the elements to ask questions”.