Man sold furniture, decor that didn’t exist on Amazon in $1.3 million scam, feds say
Correction: Ting Hong Yeung pleaded guilty on Monday, June 6, to wire fraud in scamming Amazon out of $1.3 million. The original story below should have said he agreed to plead guilty when charged with felony wire fraud in March.
A 41-year-old man is accused of scamming Amazon out of $1.3 million by selling furniture and decor that didn’t exist, federal officials say.
Ting Hong Yeung of Hacienda Heights pleaded guilty to wire fraud on March 21, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California said in a news release.
Prosecutors said from 2013 to 2020 Yeung acted as a third-party seller on Amazon where he listed items such as furniture and home decor under multiple seller accounts, according to court documents.
An attorney for Yeung was not listed in court documents.
He listed the products at a discounted rate to draw in customers, prosecutors said in court documents.
But customers never received the items they purchased from Yeung, prosecutors said.
Yeung would tell the customers their items had shipped and then would provide them and Amazon with a fake shipping tracking number, court documents show.
If a customer complained about their order not arriving, Yeung ensured them through Amazon’s messaging service that they would get their product, court documents show.
By doing this, Yeung stalled their complaints and potential demands for refunds, which allowed Amazon to disburse their funds into his account, prosecutors said in court documents.
Yeung shipped crystal ornaments to some customers to generate a tracking number to keep the scam going, prosecutors said.
The shipping numbers allowed Amazon to disburse funds into his accounts.
He also defrauded Amazon in another way, proseuctors said.
Yeung is accused of buying products from Amazon using credit cards that were in the names of other people or people who didn’t exist, according to court documents.
He sold these goods to customers on Amazon and then requested refunds from the company when the products were delivered, prosecutors said in the news release.
He said the product was “different from what was ordered” and then returned items of lower value, the news release said. In this way, he kept the refund from Amazon and the money from the customer purchasing the item.
The scam cost Amazon $1,302,954, prosecutors said.
Yeung faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the wire fraud charge. He will also pay restitution. Some of it will be paid with gold and silver bars that detectives found in his home, according to the news release.
His next court hearing will be on April 12.
This story was originally published March 23, 2022 at 12:48 PM with the headline "Man sold furniture, decor that didn’t exist on Amazon in $1.3 million scam, feds say."
