Published
20/01/2026 às 00:14
Updated
20/01/2026 às 00:45
The conviction of a 17-year-old in Shanghai details how a loophole in refunds allowed 11.900 fraudulent returns, resulting in losses of 4,76 million yuan in resold goods over months before his arrest.
A 17-year-old teenager was sentenced to six years in prison after exploiting a loophole in the refund system of an e-commerce platform in Shanghai, allowing him to recover money without returning products and causing losses exceeding US$600.000, according to Chinese authorities.
Discovery of the loophole and beginning of the scheme.
Last year, the young man discovered that he could enter fake tracking numbers into return requests. The system automatically released the refund, even without the goods being returned, which allowed him to repeat the procedure without immediate blocks.
Scale of fraud over months
After realizing the flaw, the teenager expanded the use of the method. Over several months, he filed 11.900 fake refund requests, keeping the products.
The goods, mostly makeup, were resold on platforms of purchases second-hand, expanding the reach of the scheme.
Amounts involved and intended use of the money
Prosecutors reported that the young man received goods valued at 4,76 million yuan, equivalent to US$680.000.
Through the resale, he obtained 4,01 million yuan, approximately US$574.000 in profit, in addition to full refunds, spending the money on cell phones, expensive clothes, video games, and outings with friends, before being arrested.
Some of the expenses were described as superfluous, but the exact amounts for each purchase were not detailed. The volume of orders caught the attention of the authorities.
Judicial process and applied penalty
Chinese courts sentenced the teenager to six years in prison for robbery. Local media highlighted that the sentence took into account the fact that he was a minor at the time of the crimes.
The young man’s name was not released, as is standard practice in cases involving minors.
The case exposed operational flaws in reimbursement systems and reignited debates about control and oversight, although without mentioning immediate changes to the rules.
