New Delhi, Jan. 14 -- A Chinese teenager carried out a large-scale online refund fraud. He exploited a loophole in an e-commerce platform's return system.

The 17-year-old, identified by the surname Lu, made nearly 11,900 fake refund requests without actually returning any products.

He entered false courier tracking numbers. Thus, he managed to receive refunds even though sellers never got the goods back, according to the South China Morning Post.

The scam came to light in March 2024 after a cosmetics shopping platform reported suspicious refund activity to the police. Investigators found that Lu had opened multiple buyer accounts to place orders and repeatedly misused the refund process.

According to court findings, Lu received goods ...