Sand on delivery: Here's how 2 Hyderabad boys conned Flipkart, Amazon for over a year

Two students from Hyderabad were arrested on Thursday for allegedly duping e-commerce retailers Amazon and Flipkart, police said.

Based on credible information, Commissioner's Task Force (Central Zone Team) arrested Yahiya Mohammad Ishaque and Mohammad Shahroz Ansari on Wednesday, a release from Hyderabad Police said.

The accused, who are related, hail from Gondia district of Maharashtra. From the past one year Ishaque, who resides in Golconda, Hyderabad, was selling books online as registered a bookseller with Amazon, police said.

In last four months, the two accused placed online orders for electronic goods like mobile phones, laptops, cameras, DVDs etc, on Flipkart and Amazon.

"According to their plan, when the representative of the firm came to deliver the booking order, Ishaque used to receive the item and his brother-in-law, Ansari, used to stay with the delivery boy outside the house," police said, explaining their modus operandi.

On the pretext of bringing their debit card, Ishaque would take the parcel inside the house and remove its seal very carefully. He would then take out the item and replace it with sand of the same weight in the box and re-seal it, said the police.

"After that, he would come out from his house along with the parcel and debit card. When the delivery boy used to swipe the debit card, it would show that the card was being declined. After this, Ishaque used to return the parcel to the delivery boy and take back his debit card," police were quoted as saying.

Using this modus operandi, the accused had stolen three high-end mobile phones, one laptop and one digital camera and other electronic gadgets, which were recovered from them.

-PTI