Mother-Son duo charged with Game-CD Refund Fraud
Photo by: Daniel*1977
Albert Lea resident, Frank Buchanan, along with his mother, has been charged with playing out a refund scam on big retail outlets in and around Minnesota. He is said to have made 192 purchases over a period of one year on stores like ShopKo, Wal-Mart and Target using two credit cards. He later claimed refund from these stores after allegedly replacing the original CD’s with blank game discs.
The refund requests fell through 183 times and was said to have fetched him $23,178. Further, it is claimed he sold the stolen goods on eBay as used CD’s and topped up the refund amount with $19,562 in this manne. His mother is alleged to have helped Buchanan with repackaging of the blank CD’s.
This is how it is said Buchanan played out the scam:
After purchasing the game CD at a store, he opened the packaging and took the original CD out. Then, he scanned and printed the art work of the game on the cover and pasted it on a blank CD. He replaced this CD on the original packaging and resealed the package.
Next, armed with the purchase receipt, he would approach the stores and claim refund. The original CD’s were later sold on eBay as used software.
A search by law enforcement officials at his home yielded a heat sealing machine, computers, game CD’s in various stages of being packaged, and a diary maintaining the purchase-refund record of CD’s.
It was agents from one of the stores who sounded the alarm against the scam. It’s curious, though, why this did not happen before the duo had received 183 refunds. I wonder what Buchanan’s excuse was each time for returning the CD’s.
This could be the reason why whispers of insider involvement are also being alleged in the case.
Source: PostBulletin.com
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