iPhone Heist Unearthed At Flipkart – Delivery Boy Makes Lakhs by Swapping iPhones with Fakes!

A unique case of ecommerce heist was unearthed at Flipkart, when it was found that one of their delivery boys’ is stealing iPhones in a smart but deceitful manner. The case was cracked after 12 iPhones worth Rs 5 lakh were exchanged with faked models; and suspicion was aroused when all of these exchanges happened from one particular area in Chennai, and all the stolen ‘exchanged’ iPhones belonged to one warehouse.

Police has arrested the 21 year old delivery boy and as per his confession, extravagant lifestyle led to this crime.

Modus Operandi

B. Naveen, a young 21 year old BCom pass out, was actually placed in a Chennai based management firm as a trainee. Due to some reasons, he joined Flipkart as a delivery boy. He was working at a warehouse located in North Chennai since last 6 months.

He led an extravagant lifestyle at college, and was under heavy debt from his friends and family. In order to pay his debts, he schemed a plan to steal iPhones.

For the first time he committed the crime, he ordered a new iPhone from a fake address, and delivered it himself. Once the handset was officially received, he replaced it with a fake iPhone bought from Ritchie Street, Chennai. As he gave it back to the warehouse, he claimed that the customer returned it due to some issues.

Once this first cycle was completed, he didn’t stop and continued for 11 more times, until his luck ran out.

Reportedly, he was acting smart, as he used to swap the handsets at his home because he was aware that warehouse has CCTVs, and he can be caught. When Flipkart found that majority of the returns were happening from one particular Chennai area (Washermenpet), they initiated an internal investigation, which revealed Naveen’s involvement.

The case grew stronger after it was found that Naveen was responsible for deliveries in the Washermenpet area.

After warehouse owner Vetriselvam lodged a complaint at the Madhavram police station, Naveen was interrogated, and he confessed his crime.

Officials at the police station said, “First, he ordered one phone using a fake address and replaced it with a phone, a china model he bought from Ritchie street and sent it back to the warehouse saying that it was returned by customer. As he didn’t get caught, he followed it up twice by ordering in bulk,”

Police has recovered all the 12 iPhones from his possession.

iPhone Is The Favourite Of Ecommerce Robbers?

It seems due to its heavy price tag, iPhones are the favourite devices when it comes to robbing from ecommerce portals.

In April this year, it was found that a mother-son duo has been robbing Snapdeal by exchanging iPhones right infront of the delivery boy. Rs 8.16 lakh worth of iPhones were robbed before police caught them.

In March, a gang from Punjab robbed Flipkart of Rs 80 lakh by swapping high end worth of smartphones with fake ones; and iPhones constituted a larger percentage of this robbery.

Last year, two techies from Hyderabad were arrested for stealing iPhones from Flipkart.

We hope that ecommerce companies come up with stringent checks to avoid such daylight robberies, which is not only harming the industry as a whole, but also encouraging anti-social elements to carry out more heists.