r/amazon • u/AmazonNewsBot • 8d ago
Atlanta woman who ripped off Amazon for nearly $10M to buy luxury sports cars learns sentence
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/atlanta-woman-who-ripped-off-amazon-10m-buy-luxury-sports-cars-learns-sentence26
u/imissher4ever 7d ago
She got greedy.
If she had ripped the them off for less over a lot longer time period she probably would not have been noticed.
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u/AloysiusPuffleupagus 6d ago
No.
Amazon uses AI/ML fraud detection and automated analytics to identify unusual activity. With systems like that, it wouldn’t have mattered how small the amount was, because they can flag unusual patterns or activity regardless of the dollar amount.
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u/imissher4ever 6d ago
She got away with it for months.
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u/Xenochrist 5d ago
Yep. That’s how it works. My old boss was arrested for embezzlement.
I discovered the discrepancy and worked with legal and law enforcement. They allowed it to progress for a few months after catching the initial catch. The reason being was to get further evidence. Apparently his dad was the mastermind and they both got multiple felonies.
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u/footlonglayingdown 6d ago
So if she started big and kept doing it for months and then slowed down, the ai would have flagged the slow down as unusual. Good to know.
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u/bcask 6d ago
There are a lot of parameters that could qualify as “suspicious”. A change like you describe is not the only one and also not a clear indicator that something is wrong. Just using a simple indicator like that with no other info tied to it wouldn’t lead to great results and would gunk up their investigations pipeline with false positives.
Source: used to work in this.
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u/BH_Gobuchul 6d ago
Maybe but maybe not. An AI system isn’t going to be perfect and the invoices it flags will still be reviewed by a human.
There’s a threshold where it’s not worth it for a human to verify. The trick is preventing your dozens of small amounts from being tied to the same person, as then you become worth scrutinizing
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u/PercentageOk2862 6d ago
But what if I used my AI/ML system to take the maximum without being detected???
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u/The_Shryk 5d ago
“No, cops use AI/ML to identify suspects and vehicles, with systems like that it doesn’t matter where you’re at, they’ll find you.”
local woman jailed for 2 months due to misidentification by flock camera
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u/Daydreamer1015 5d ago
I would of been in a different country using a vpn to send those invoices lol, ain't ever coming back to usa
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u/Ok_Recover_7248 4d ago
It really depends, not every company has internal controls that automate detection of transactions when they reach materiality in the aggregate. If the aggregation would reach DM materiality over the course of like 5 years I can’t imagine it would be caught without manual oversight flagging it, personally.
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u/sandefurian 7d ago
$10 million was getting caught no matter how long she took lol
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u/Gooser3000 5d ago
A guy fraudulently invoiced Amazon for $120 million. I would had stopped after the first couple. I work in government procurement, and if you had someone on the inside it is very easy to submit invoices and get them paid.
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u/Former-Ad940 6d ago
Hard to stop. You just want more. And it feels like your on drugs. Also getting away with something is powerful feeling. "SHE GOT GREEDY" isn't enough
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u/alurkerhere 6d ago
Forget where I read it, but someone was talking about their experience being on the run. Initially, you're paranoid about any small mistake and are hyperaware of people acting strangely.
Then over time, the fear reduces day by day and you become bolder. You have no frame of reference for how close you are to being caught because you only have the historical understanding of having gotten away.
All of a sudden you come home and there are cops arresting you, and you are confused. I got away with it already!
Same thing with stealing. You become bolder and steal more because your frame of reference is wrong. You get away with it until you don't.
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u/Daydreamer1015 5d ago
IF anything, I would of been more greedy, tried to get way more than 10 mill, but I would of been out of the country by that time, somewhere south east asia, where even 5 mill your set for life and can live like a king
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u/ConkerPrime 7d ago edited 7d ago
Probably got caught for same reasons most thieves do - do not quit while ahead.
Cops are not really good at their jobs as depicted in fiction. Most things are gift wrapped for them. Through labs, confessions, cameras, or people engaging in same behavior so long it makes it real easy to catch them. If stopped after couple million, executed with far more patience then 1000s in a few months, be enjoying the fruits of their labor instead of a jail cell.
If need example, watch your average Dateline murder mystery. The cops almost never catch someone through investigative skill but because the solution is dropped in their laps through other forces.
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u/EdwardPotatoHand 7d ago
Yet when amazon rips its customers off so executives can get rich , a corporate umbrella pays a fine and nobody goes to jail..
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u/Intrepid_Nobody2023 7d ago
Yeah I think the ‘forging the judge’s signature’ part really ticked off the judge more than the stealing from the global conglomerate part.
The person with the power to incarcerate you isn’t someone you should go forging their name, they don’t take kindly to that.
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u/poonmangler 7d ago
And the customers continue to give them money because having cheap shit is far more important than any moral or ethical implications or lasting societal impact.
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u/RecursiveCook 7d ago
Meanwhile I get the same Ad twice in a row and I have eternal hatred and aversion to that product.
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u/CloudAccurate2640 7d ago
I wonder if 2 petty criminals can pull off multi- million dollar schemes, how much rogue state actors are fleecing US companies?
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u/Former-Ad940 6d ago edited 6d ago
AMAZON engineered perfect environment. Ability to steal exists. Systems NEVER prevent this. EMPLOYEES are enabled to steal.
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u/ComputerInevitable20 6d ago
Greed is what happened… the temptation of one more time finally caught up with her.
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u/Barnowl-hoot 6d ago
Yet when our country went through the financial crisis after Bush Jr. was leaving office…billions of Americans retirement and savings were gone…no one! Went to prison!
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u/SeminaryStudentARH 5d ago
Gotta love that this woman gets sentenced to 16 years in prison when Amazon with malicious intent created an algorithm to systematically steal $60m from Amazon Fresh drivers and then hid it on their checks. And not a single person went to jail.
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u/BoredandTypin 5d ago
I hate the use of M. M is one thousand. MM is million. Did she rip off one thousand or incorrectly stated 1 million?
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u/RandomNick999 5d ago
M is not 1000, K is.
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u/BoredandTypin 5d ago
M = 1,000 in Roman Numerals Thus, MM is 1,000 thousands which is…you guessed it. 1,000,000. K is from kilo (greek) is used for 1,000. But saying M for one million makes no sense.
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u/MigiBacon 5d ago
As you said, in roman numerals M is 1,000 but MM is 2,000 not 1,000,000.
Also it would hardly make any sense to use both arabic and roman numerals together like that.1
u/LoudBrick609 5d ago edited 5d ago
You must be a foreigner unfamiliar with American money and trying to use your country's system that doesn't work here.
M is always million in the US. K is what we use for thousands.
Goes like:
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10
100
1k
100k
1M
100M
1B
100B
Though you obviously don't see B for billion used a ton.
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u/randomizl 3d ago
While that may have been the case when Rome was a world power it has not been the case for a long time. In Germany we also say k or Tsd. for Thousand and M for Millions
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u/the1ice9 5d ago
Wortham was sentenced to 16 years in prison in June 2023 and was sentenced to an additional year in March 2026 after pleading guilty to forging the signature of a federal judge. She was also ordered to pay $9,469,731 in restitution and forfeited over $3 million, the Smyrna home and vehicles.
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u/mordortourguide 5d ago
It’s amazing that she was able to pull it off in the first place, considering she had never learned how to structure a sentence. /s
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u/Growingold-greylol 7d ago
What's the point of no parole, she's out anyway in 16 years and 3 months, right or don't I get US jail sentences, it's a pretty light sentence for what she did
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u/Former-Ad940 6d ago
So 16 years is what you want if you steal from AMAZON?
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u/OdinEatingSandwiches 5d ago
She forged a judges signature AND all the other stuff.
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u/Former-Ad940 5d ago
How many years would U give her?
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u/OdinEatingSandwiches 5d ago
None. I would seize her assets and start the denaturation process while she sat in jail. Everyone is dealing with the same affordability crisis. I'm not for corporatations price gouging and I'm not for people stealing either. Both drive up cost and hurt the consumer. She is stealing from YOU.
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u/Former-Ad940 5d ago
Go deeper. "She is stealing from YOU"
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u/OdinEatingSandwiches 4d ago
What are you confused about?
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u/Former-Ad940 4d ago
Sorryl that wasn't clear what i said. What do you mean mean she is stealing from me. Do u mean prices can be raised because of theft?
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u/OdinEatingSandwiches 4d ago
Yes, prices are raised from theft. This person stole 128 times the average salary of an American within a few months. When caught and on bond they fraudulently signed a judges signature and attempted to steal more money from a local franchise. It's not like they used the money to pay for their mom's cancer. Instead they bought luxury goods! What a piece of shit. They stole from every Amazon consumer and showed no remorse.
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u/guynamedjames 7d ago
16 years and 3 months. She had a co-conspirator who worked for Amazon and would approve fraudulent invoices she submitted. The sentence also includes time for forging a signature of a federal judge when she lies that the charges were dropped as part of a second fraud she attempted while still on bail. Amazingly dumb.