Some people just aren’t as smart as they think they are. 

Hudson Hamrick of Charlotte, North Carolina falls into that category.

Here’s what this Einstein tried to pull. 

For five years he purchased expensive stuff from Amazon. We’re talking high end march, including a top of the line iMac Pro. 

Over that course of those five years the Department of Justice said he made about 300 fraudulent purchases on amazon.com.  Roughly 270 of those items he returned, but in those return packages he had placed products that were, according to the DOJ, “materially different in value,” which added up to almost $300 K in total fraud. 

That is what is commonly referred to as a “Felony.”  He faces a max sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. 

Here’s how Hamrick tried to pull off his massive scam.  He would order something expensive, initiate a return of that item, but place in the box something less valuable. Often times he would even sell the expensive item he purchased, which meant he was double dipping and making money off the return and resale. 

Here’s one example from August of 2019.  He bought an Apple iMac Pro for $4,256.85 according to a story in Business Inside. 

Two weeks after the purchase, he returned the computer and got his money back.  But instead of putting that new computer in the return box, he sent back an older, less valuable model with a different serial number. 

Some of the other items he bought, then returned a less valuable product included a coffee machine that cost $3,500 and a Fuji Spray system for $1,225. 

How did  he get caught?  Here’s what a rep for Amazon told Insider. 

“Amazon has systems in place to detect suspicious behavior, and teams in place to investigate and stop prohibited activity. There is no place for fraud at Amazon, and we will continue to pursue all measures to hold bad actors accountable.”

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