6 arrested in $1.2 million Walmart fraud scheme after dozens of packages found piling up

PEORIA, Ariz. (KPHO/Gray News) — What began with a Walmart driver’s tip about dozens of packages piling up at a home in Arizona led investigators to a million-dollar fraud scheme that stretched to Southeast Asia.Authorities in Arizona said a Walmart driver told them on Aug. 22 that he’d delivered 30 to 50 packages under different names to the same Peoria-area home in just a couple of days. Days later, a customer reported that someone had hacked their Walmart account and used it to buy items.According to court documents, those two reports sparked a two-month investigation that ended Thursday morning with six arrests.How it happenedInvestigators say the group placed about 15,500 orders on Walmart.com using hacked customer accounts and stolen credit and debit card numbers. They reportedly altered delivery addresses to get around fraud alerts.“Without that delivery driver, I don’t know if it would have come across our radar,” Peoria police officer William Kennedy said.Police linked 11,364