At Amazon, customers can shop with confidence knowing they have access to a vast selection of safe and authentic products, along with hassle-free returns and refunds if they’re not satisfied with their purchase. However, organized retail crime (ORC) threatens this trustworthy shopping experience, as bad actors exploit vulnerabilities across the entire retail supply chain - from manufacturers and logistics services to cargo carriers and warehouses. Organized refund fraud represents a notable component of ORC. Unlike legitimate customer returns, these criminal networks systematically exploit the refund process at scale for their personal gain.
Refund fraud groups are an industry-wide problem operating as part of a global underground network, negatively impacting customers, sellers, and all participants in the retail supply chain. Using encrypted messaging services, they advertise their illicit services and charge a fee to obtain fraudulent refunds from retailers worldwide. After the user purchases the product, the group uses sophisticated methods to obtain the refund, such as social engineering or manipulating customer service, to process refunds for items that are never returned.
“These refund fraud groups operate like criminal enterprises, complete with their own customer service and marketing departments,” said Scott Knapp, vice president of worldwide buyer risk prevention at Amazon. “Their activities cause real harm not just to retailers across multiple channels, but ultimately to honest consumers through decreased inventory and increased costs across the industry.”
To combat this threat, Amazon has established a dedicated team that implements a comprehensive strategy. This approach combines advanced technology, expert investigations, law enforcement collaboration, and civil litigation. Our efforts have led to significant breakthroughs in disrupting these transnational criminal networks and their operations.
Amazon’s advanced technology and expert teams target organized refund fraud
Building on our comprehensive strategy to combat this type of organized retail crime, Amazon has developed a holistic approach with sophisticated systems focusing on early detection and disruption of criminal activities. In 2024, we invested more than a billion dollars and employed thousands of people – including machine learning scientists, software developers, and expert investigators – dedicated to protecting customers from counterfeits, fraud, and other forms of abuse. We leverage advanced machine learning models to analyze signals and data points, identifying patterns of abuse and shutting down bad actors before they can cause harm.
As fraud tactics evolve, so do our detection capabilities. We continuously incorporate new signals and insights from our investigations, strengthening our ability to identify and stop emerging fraud schemes before they can impact our customers or selling partners.
Amazon moves to protect customers and selling partners with new wave of lawsuits
Amazon’s fight against refund fraud includes coordinated legal actions against dozens of groups, including filing five lawsuits in the U.S. and the UK. These actions are part of our multi-pronged strategy to dismantle the fraudulent enterprises that orchestrate illicit refunds. The lawsuits target refund fraud groups known as Mario Refunds, A$O, Plugged, Kanan, and Wave. These groups operate on messaging apps like Telegram and are collectively responsible for millions of dollars in fraudulent refunds.
In lawsuits against refund fraud groups like REKK, Chin Chopa, and Spectre, we have successfully used this legal approach to shut down these groups. By leveraging the civil discovery process, we have been able to unmask the operators, leading to multimillion-dollar judgments and collaboration with law enforcement on criminal prosecutions. The goal of these lawsuits is to hold these organized transnational criminal networks accountable and prevent further potential harm to customers, selling partners, and other retailers.
Collaboration leads to major criminal enforcement actions
Amazon’s commitment to maintaining a trustworthy shopping experience drives our coordinated enforcement efforts with global law enforcement agencies against refund fraud networks. These international partnerships have led to arrests, indictments, jail sentences, and substantial asset recoveries. The following cases highlight how our collaborative approach has successfully protected our store while holding bad actors accountable.
- REKK Investigation
In March 2025, following an extensive investigation by our teams that resulted in unmasking of the operator, Lithuanian authorities arrested the operator of REKK, a major refund fraud group. The group operated across multiple platforms including Telegram and Reddit, where they openly advertised their fraudulent services. Our investigative teams built the case from the ground up, starting with external data collection and monitoring public communications across social media platforms. Lithuanian authorities seized approximately €6 million in illicit assets, demonstrating the scale of these operations.
- Operation Chargeback
The Department of Justice initiated Operation Chargeback to investigate organized refund fraud groups across the United States and abroad. Through collaboration with law enforcement, we have supported successful criminal prosecutions of some of the largest refund fraud groups:
- Noir’s Luxury Refunds: This group, with over 5,900 followers, advertised “instant refunds” and claimed to have processed more than $1.2 million for their customers. The group was dismantled through coordinated law enforcement action.
- Artemis Refund Group: Ten individuals were indicted, revealing an extensive network that ranged from New York to California to Singapore. The case demonstrated the international scope of these criminal enterprises.
- Simple Refunds: In Michigan, an operator received a three-year prison sentence for orchestrating a scheme causing more than $4 million in losses to retailers across the country. This case highlighted the severe consequences facing those who engage in organized refund fraud.
“Our approach to these investigations is comprehensive,” Knapp stated. “We compile and share data in ways that directly support law enforcement needs, helping dismantle these criminal networks at their source. The impact of our actions ripples through the entire refund fraud community. When we took action against one major group, many other refund fraud channels shut down in response.”
Strengthening industry-wide efforts to combat refund fraud
While progress has been made in the fight against refund fraud groups, we recognize that no single organization can solve this problem alone. That’s why we remain committed to ongoing innovation and investment, while actively partnering with retailers, brands, law enforcement, and policymakers to make meaningful progress.
We support the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act, or CORCA. Passage of the bipartisan, bicameral federal legislation is critical to establish a national coordination center, combining expertise and resources from federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and retail industry representatives to build stronger cases to hold these criminal rings accountable. CORCA goes to the heart of the issue by creating a national structure to investigate and prosecute ORC bad actors. Through continued collaboration with law enforcement worldwide, we remain committed to pursuing and prosecuting organized retail crime wherever it occurs.
We invite law enforcement agencies and retailers worldwide to partner with us in this crucial fight against organized retail crime. Together, we can create a safer, more secure retail environment for businesses and consumers alike.
Learn more about Amazon’s efforts to combat organized retail crime.