Cisco equipment at heart of £9m alleged scam

Warranty shenanigans

Co-ordinated raids by police on both sides of the Atlantic have resulted in the capture of two Russians suspected of operating a warranty scam using Cisco equipment.

The two Russians, a man aged 46 and a woman aged 23, were questioned by police, said the Daily Telegraph. The suspected fraud was said to be worth £9m.

The raids were on a company called Com-wealth and involved over 30 police officers, including several computer specialists.

The alleged scam involved using Cisco's warranties to receive replacement parts for supposedly faulty ones. Those faulty ones were never returned and both parts were sold on auction websites or on the 'grey' resale market.

The police operation took six months, Detective Sergeant Martin Peters told the Telegraph, and involved close cooperation with the US Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice.

The report said that 20 service contracts were used to take possession of more than 1,000 pieces of Cisco equipment. Paperwork and computer equipment were taken in the raid, which was codenamed Operation Sky. ®

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