A Kerala man who ordered an iPhone 12 from Amazon was shocked to receive a bar of soap and a coin instead. Aluva native Noorul Ameen had ordered the smartphone on October 12, paying Rs 70,900 for it using his Amazon Pay card. According to the New Indian Express, he received his consignment on October 15.
Mr Ameen, however, was suspicious as the package had been halted in Salem for a day after being dispatched from Hyderabad. A regular Amazon customer, he knew that most packages arrived from Hyderabad to Kochi in two days, but his iPhone 12 order took three days. Aware of rising fraud cases, he opened the box in front of the Amazon delivery partner and shot a video of it too.
The NRI was shocked to see that his box contained a bar of Vim soap and a Rs 5 coin instead of the iPhone 12 he had ordered. The items felt similar in weight to an iPhone, he told Mathrubhumi.
Noorul Ameen immediately called Amazon customer care and filed a police complaint.
After the Cyber Police Station launched an investigation, they found that the iPhone had been used by someone in Jharkhand from September 25. This was 15 days before Mr Ameen booked the phone.
"We contacted the Amazon authorities and the Telangana-based seller. The phone has been in use in Jharkhand since September 25 this year, even though the order was placed only in October. When we contacted the seller, he said the phone was out of stock and that the amount paid by Noorul would be returned," said an officer with the investigation team.
In a Facebook post, Kerala Police said that the seller returned the money to Mr Ameen. The amount was credited to his account on Thursday, October 22, but an investigation into the case in ongoing.
