Woman Arrested After Making $100,000 Using Loophole in Amazon’s Return Policy

Hoai Tibma was arrested on Tuesday and is facing a second-degree grand theft charge, according to ABC Action News.

“This woman took advantage of a loophole she discovered in the return process,” Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement. “Through investigative means, our Economic Crimes detectives were able to quickly locate and apprehend the suspect. She was arrested without incident.”

Tibma, who used 31 Amazon accounts all linked to her name and Tampa address, reused prepaid shipping labels and applied them on other returns. These prepaid shipping labels were generated for canceled orders on the e-commerce site.

The loophole made it appear as if Tibma was the one who paid for the shipping costs on the returns. She made 42,000 returns throughout the course of the scam from March 2015 to August 2020.

Amazon said the company has “systems and processes to detect suspicious behavior and we have teams that investigate and take action quickly.”

“We identified this threat and cooperated with law enforcement to hold this bad actor accountable,” Amazon added in its statement via Fox13 News.

“Grand Theft of the Second Degree in Florida is classified as a second degree felony with a maximum statutory penalty of up to fifteen (15) years in prison or fifteen (15) years on probation and/or a fine of $10,000,” Sammis Law Firm explains.

Feature Image via Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office