Brothers Andrew and Allen Chiu placed $23 million worth of fraudulent orders through FatWallet, a membership shopping community that provides cash back and incentives for shopping with partner merchants, all of which targeting a single retailer. While the retailer never accepted or shipped the orders, the Chiu brothers still somehow generated $1.4 million in commissions paid from the retailer to FatWallet, and $650,000 of this going directly to the scammers.
The Chiu brothers had already been banned from doing business with the retailer Nordstrom after excessive claims that orders had not arrived and other actions signaling friendly fraud. In 2010 the brothers attempted to buy from the retailer again, but this time going through FatWallet to earn cash back incentives. Because of the Chiu brothers’ history with Nordstrom their information had been blacklisted and the orders were not approved, but FatWallet was still paid commission for the orders and they in turn paid the Chiu brothers their share. From January 2011 until October 2011 the Chiu brothers placed hundreds of orders at Nordstrom through FatWallet totaling $23 million, this generated $1.4 million in commissions paid by Nordstrom from these illegitimate sales of which $650,000 went right into the Chiu brother’s pockets.
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