Triangulation Fraud ExamplesTriangulation Fraud in the Wild
Triangulation Fraud Examples: Three Real-World Case Studies
Theory is one thing, but nothing illustrates a threat like hearing about it in action.
From massive international fraud rings targeting coffee pods to opportunistic scammers exploiting high-demand electronics retailers, triangulation fraud takes many shapes and sizes. And regardless of how it manifests, the outcome is the same: legitimate merchants lose.
In this article, I’ll share several real-world examples of triangulation fraud to highlight just how creative, audacious, and sophisticated these bad actors can be.
Triangulation Fraud
In a triangulation scam, a fraudster sets up a fake eCommerce store, attracts real buyers, and uses stolen payment details to dropship an item from a real store. This guide explains how triangulation fraud works, the financial impact of this threat, prevention best practices, and more.
Naval War College Professor Discovers Nespresso Triangulation Fraud Ring
Warfighting scholar and US Naval War College associate professor Nina Kollars accidentally became ensnared in a triangulation fraud scam when she went on eBay hoping to find Nespresso pods on the cheap.
When she came across a listing for 200 Nespresso pods for half MSRP, she thought that the deal was too good to be true. When she placed the order, she received the goods, along with a $280 Nespresso coffee maker free of charge. But, it turns out that Kollars was the unwitting buyer in a triangulation fraud scheme.
The eBay seller listed items at “too-good-to-be-true” prices and fulfilled them using stolen credit cards to make purchases at legitimate online stores. In this arrangement, the buyer receives the goods they ordered, while the scammer gets to extract cash from a stolen card. The loser is the merchant on the back end, who fulfills the order on behalf of the scammer.
Realizing that she was part of a scam, Kollars reported the fraudulent accounts to eBay and the FBI. Neither party reached out to her, but the scammer’s profiles were removed from the marketplace within 30 days.
Indiana Man Sentenced to 8+ Years in Prison for Triangulation Fraud Scheme
In 2024, 36-year-old Tuong Quoc Ho, also known as Robert Parker, was sentenced to the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana to 102 months in federal prison for his role in carrying out an international triangulation fraud scheme between 2013 and February 2020.
According to a press release by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana, Ho stole personally identifying information (PII), including names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, and credit card numbers, from hundreds of victims. He and his co-conspirators then used this PII to fraudulently open PayPal and eBay accounts, where he listed items “such as Vera Bradley handbags, American Girl dolls, PlayStations, and blood pressure monitoring devices” for sale at below-market prices.
However, “Ho did not have the majority, if any, of the items on hand at the time of the sale, but instead purchased the items after they were sold through online retailers using stolen credit card information that he unlawfully obtained, and had those items directly shipped from the retailer to the buyer.”
“In total, Ho stole over $2 million and wired $1.2 million to family and other individuals in Vietnam. Ho also laundered the money, using over $300,000 to purchase his home in Carmel, Indiana.”
In 2018, Carmel Police Department officers raided Ho’s home, where they uncovered 400 packages addressed to Ho’s alias, Robert Parker. After further investigation, it was revealed that Ho had used stolen PII to open more than 500 fake PayPal accounts.
In addition to his federal prison sentence, Ho is required to serve three years of probation and pay $217,147.87 in court-ordered restitution.
Maryland Police Uncover Poshmark Triangulation Scam
In January 2025, detectives from the Montgomery County Department of Police uncovered a triangulation scam on Poshmark. This occurred after a victim reported that their credit card had been “fraudulently used to purchase an online order from Dick's Sporting Goods” in September 2024.
After tracking the purchase, detectives uncovered that the purchase had been made by a different individual from a Poshmark seller named “@Valdez310.”
According to the report, “detectives learned that the original victim’s bank card had been used to buy the Dick’s Sporting Goods item.” The Poshmark seller and suspect in the case, “@Valdez310,” had used credit card information stolen from the victim and other cardholders to fulfill purchases.
