Crime - Fraud with returns - suspected gang charged
They have been charged in large scale for falsely claiming returns on online orders and have allegedly stolen over half a million Euro: Seven suspects between the ages of 23 and 41 have been charged by the Bamberg Public Prosecutor's Office for this scam, according to a spokesperson.
The suspects are accused of running the Telegram group "GermanRefundCrew" and committing approximately 600 fraudulent acts. The scam reportedly worked as follows: Someone would place an order online, and then the return shipment would be falsely claimed, allowing for a refund of the purchase price. The men are said to have offered this service through the Telegram group and received an agreed-upon percentage of the product value or a fixed price in return. Between July and October 2020, damages totaling around 530,000 Euro are said to have occurred at two major online retailers through this method.
A man from the Miesbach district is believed to have played a central role in the alleged fraud, leading to the indictment of computer fraud and organized crime at the Munich II Regional Court. The other suspects are reportedly from Neuwied (Rhineland-Palatinate), Bochum, Gelsenkirchen, Recklinghausen (North Rhine-Westphalia), Barnim (Brandenburg), and the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis (Baden-Württemberg).
A 37-year-old man from the Wesel district in North Rhine-Westphalia is also accused of assisting the group in six cases of payment processing and in nine cases of falsely claiming returns. He is charged with accessory to organized and commercial computer fraud, as well as computer fraud. Since one of the suspects was under the age of 21 during the commission of the crime, a youth court must decide on the admissibility of the indictment.
The suspects, according to the reports, have no prior convictions. The presumption of innocence applies to them. The investigations against the customers of "GermanRefundCrew" are ongoing.
The scam was not limited to Bamberg, as suspects from various regions were involved. residence in Neuwied, Bochum, Gelsenkirchen, Recklinghausen, Barnim, and the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis in different federal states of Germany, including Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg, and Baden-Württemberg, were named.
The BKA, Germany's federal criminal police office, might be involved in the investigations, given the transnational nature and complexity of the organized crime involved.
The fraudulent activities are not restricted to online orders from Bavaria, as two major retailers from other parts of Germany, like North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg, have reported damages.
The fraudulent returns were claimed through the internet, a method easily accessible from any location in Germany, suggesting a potential for wider involvement in this type of crime.
The suspects elected to use a telegram group to organize their criminal activities, which could potentially lead to investigations in other regions or countries, considering Telegram's global user base.
The alleged fraud case does not seem to be an isolated incident in Brandenburg, as the district of Barnim is mentioned as the residence of one of the suspects, highlighting the need for increased vigilance and cybersecurity measures in this region.
