Tampa Woman Accused In Amazon Postage Scam That Netted $100,000

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

According to the sheriff's office, from March 2015 to August, Hoai Tibma, 32, was connected to a shipping and return reimbursement scam involving 31 Amazon accounts. Tibma 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 had not.

The sheriff's office said Tibma completed 42,000 individual returns on the 31 different accounts. Those returns resulted in more than $100,000 reimbursed in Tibma's name. All the accounts were linked to Timba'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.