The U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Washington announced that a 27-year-old Dearborn, Michigan, man was sentenced today to three years in prison for a fraud scheme that caused over $4 million in losses to retailers nationwide.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Sajed Al-Maarej ran “Simple Refunds” through the messaging app Telegram.
Al-Maarej and his “professional refunders” impersonated buyers and lied to retailers to secure refunds while allowing buyers to keep the items, the office said.
The department reported that between September 2020 and December 2022, Al-Maarej advertised that purchasers could obtain high-value goods for free by claiming refunds on undelivered or damaged items, according to court records.
The office further reported that purchasers provided order details, and Al-Maarej’s team made false claims to retailers.
In some cases, buyers mailed boxes of junk back to companies; refunds were issued once the boxes were scanned, the department said.
Al-Maarej also recruited insiders at UPS and the U.S. Postal Service to input false tracking scans, making it appear items were lost, stolen, or returned, the department noted.