A Chinese teenager was recently sentenced to six years behind bars for exploiting a refund loophole that allowed him to recover his money without returning the products.
Last year, a 17-year-old from Shanghai received a painful verdict for the crime of stealing over $600,000 in makeup products from an online commerce platform after discovering a loophole. The unnamed teen reportedly noticed that he could fill in fake courier numbers in his product return request and automatically receive a refund without actually returning the products.
If the young man had abused the loophole once or twice, it’s likely that no one would have bothered to report him, but the protagonist of this story saw his discovery as an opportunity to make a fortune and proceeded to do just that. Over several months, the teenager made 11,900 fake refund applications without returning the goods, which he later sold on second-hand shopping platforms.
Prosecutors accused the teenager of receiving products worth 4.76 million yuan ($680,000), which he then proceeded to sell for 4.01 million yuan ($574,000) in profit, after also getting a full refund. He spent all that money on phones, expensive clothes, video games, and treating his friends before finally getting arrested.
Chinese media reported that the 17-year-old received just six years behind bars on account of being a minor when he committed the crime.
