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Woman arrested for Amazon scam

For Immediate Release : Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office
Release Number: 20-320

Date

Location

Tampa, Florida

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office has arrested a woman in connection to a fraudulent return scheme involving dozens of Amazon accounts. 

From March 2015 until August 2020, the suspect was connected to a shipping and return reimbursement scam involving 31 Amazon accounts. The suspect, Hoai Tibma, 32, operated a scheme in which she reused prepaid shipping labels generated for canceled orders, and then applied them on other returns. This tactic would make it appear that she had paid for her own shipping costs on the returns when she actually did not do so. 

Tibma completed 42,000 individual returns on the 31 different accounts. Those returns resulted in more than $100,000 reimbursed to Tibma's name. All of the accounts were linked to Tibma's name and address in Tampa. 

"This woman took advantage of a loophole she discovered in the return process," said Sheriff Chad Chronister. "Through investigative means, our Economic Crimes detectives were able to quickly locate and apprehend the suspect. She was arrested without incident."

Tibma admitted to the crimes and is charged with one count of Grand Theft. 

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