--- title: "Rich Kids Are Using a Clever Trick to Get Stuff From Amazon for Free" description: "When it comes to scamming online retailers and getting free stuff, wealthy Gen Z and Millennials are way ahead of the game." date: "2025-02-01" modified: "2025-02-01" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/rich-kids-amazon-scams" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "Amazon" - "ecommerce" - "scams" - "the digest" --- # Rich Kids Are Using a Clever Trick to Get Stuff From Amazon for Free ![When it comes to scamming online retailers and getting free stuff, wealthy Gen Z and Millennials are way ahead of the game.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Rich Man's Game When it comes to scamming online retailers and getting free stuff, wealthy Gen Z and millennials are way ahead of the game. Known as "digital shoplifting," this newly-viral scheme involves, essentially, ordering products and lying to an e-retailer about never receiving them, often resulting in a refund for products you actually did receive. Hence: free stuff, via the magic of fraud — even if it is glaringly unethical. Amazingly, it's not even poor people doing it. In a new survey of Americans making more than $100,000 a year, the [fraud prevention group Socure found]() that 55 percent of Gen Z-ers and 49 percent of millennials in that income bracket admitted to scamming websites by lying about never receiving the stuff they ordered. Though the survey found that while one in eight Americans, admitted to this kind of scam regardless of age or income, wealthier and younger people seemed to do so more often. As Socure product management head [Ori Snir told *Fortune* magazine,]() "there might be a link between those who better understand bank and merchant obligations to those that are taking advantage of them." In a [TikTok video from last December](), popular money vlogger Faares Quadri explained how to do this "secret Amazon hack," though he couched it — wink-wink, nudge-nudge, it seems — by instructing viewers to only do so when their packages are legitimately delayed. "I know your chat support is way more lenient when it comes to helping customers," Qaudri said in his faux exchange with a live Amazon customer service staffer. "And 99 percent of the time when the package arrives, they won’t even ask you to send it back." ## No Pain, No Gain While falsely claiming an item was never delivered is the most common route taken in this "hack," others will simply dispute credit card charges or even say the purchase was made in error — but only after receiving the thing they wanted to order, of course. This scam seems to be on the rise, Snir explained, because people have little to lose from doing it. "The best-case scenario is that the person goes unpunished and gets away with it entirely, which often leads them to do it again," the Socure product head said. "Another potential outcome is that their dispute gets denied and they ultimately still have to pay for their purchase." While ripping off big companies like Amazon or Walmart is relatively victimless — aside from slightly raising prices for everybody who plays by the rules, at least — Snir said that some emboldened scammers are taking their digital shoplifting prowess out on independent merchants as well, which seems really low. For those small online shops that get caught up in this scheme, the Socure executive advised them to "fight back." "Gain evidence that the consumers themselves are making the purchase by collecting further information and use that to deny claims or chargebacks," he told *Fortune*. "Doing so will help to prove that these purchases are legitimate." **More on scams**: [*Someone Invented a Fake Therapist and Got "Her" Quoted in Tons of News Articles*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()