Sales Fraud at Staples

Date: February 24, 2010

Loveland, OH -- In a news story out of Ohio, a man and his two friends are facing up to 20 years in prison on charges stemming from call center fraud at Staples. The scam enabled one of the accused, Paul Shumbayaonda to buy cameras, printers, and computers from Staples for very little money. One of his accomplices, Huyaimuzoona Bere, was employed at the call center and arranged the transactions.

Basically, Sumbayaonda and Bekizulu Mhlanga, the third man, would place online orders for very small things such as ink cartridges and computer disks, and then the orders would be adjusted by Bere. He would add the expensive merchandise and then apply massive discounts to the orders, leaving the expensive items costing little to nothing at all.

There has not been much said about how Bere was actually able to accomplish these price changes. Usually transactions of that nature require a higher level of permission than is given to customer sales representatives.

The items they “purchased” were either given to Bere, kept for themselves, or was auctioned off for a considerable profit on eBay. These transactions were completed 8 times, totaling $118,492 worth of merchandise from Staples.

BY ADAM HAIGH, Editor