A Dearborn, Michigan man has been sentenced to three years in prison for orchestrating a fraudulent refund scheme that defrauded retailers of more than $4 million. Sajed Al-Maarej, 27, operated a service called "Simple Refunds" through the messaging platform Telegram. The scheme involved impersonating purchasers and lying to retailers about the status of items to secure refunds while allowing purchasers to keep the products.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Teal L. Miller announced the sentencing in Seattle's U.S. District Court, where Al-Maarej was also given three years of supervised release. "This defendant enticed many young and naïve online contacts to his illegal refunding scheme – some perhaps believed Al-Maarej’s spiel that this conduct was not illegal. They were badly misled," said Miller.
U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik emphasized the impact on victim companies, stating that the fraud “was a difficult and expensive proposition” and highlighted the need to send a message against such criminal behavior.
The fraudulent activities spanned from September 2020 to December 2022, with Al-Maarej convincing purchasers they could buy high-value goods and still receive refunds by making false claims about deliveries or damages. For these services, he charged a fee of 15-25% of the purchase price.
Al-Maarej also conducted personal fraudulent refund activities until at least August 2023, obtaining over $1.4 million through such actions alone. His tactics included returning envelopes filled with toy frogs instead of purchased items.
His operation on Telegram attracted over 1,000 subscribers and targeted young men in their teens and twenties for recruitment into criminal activities under false pretenses of legality.
In May 2022, Al-Maarej expanded his operations by offering a "mentorship" program for creating similar scams, charging $6,000 per participant.
Al-Maarej pleaded guilty last summer to wire fraud and mail fraud charges and was ordered to pay restitution amounting to $4,353,819.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI and United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), with assistance from Amazon, Costco, and Microsoft. Assistant United States Attorney Lauren Watts Staniar is prosecuting the case.
