Amazon filed a lawsuit in Washington state District Court alleging that a Telegram-based group called RBK, led by a Kazakhstan-based individual, orchestrated a refund fraud scheme that stole over $4M in products including graphics cards, laptops, and drones by submitting fake police reports about missing packages to trick Amazon customer service into issuing refunds. RBK charged customers 15% to 30% of the refund value for its services and had over 1,000 Telegram subscribers, with Amazon uncovering the scheme after an investigator posed as a buyer interested in RBK’s services. The RBK Telegram channel appears to have been taken down following the lawsuit, and Amazon is seeking restitution and injunctions against the defendants, following a similar 2023 lawsuit against a fraud ring called REKK that resulted in settlements.
