Any tips for handling this refund scam?
So I received a message from a customer that was very aggressive in its language of demanding a refund and that they would not return the item or provide any evidence. The whole thing felt odd so I did some digging in the forums and have found that other sellers have received similar messages with near exact same language as if they were being written from templates.
The top theory I have heard is that these are drop-shippers who are running a refund scam by selling your product and then demanding a refund so they can make the profit on the sale.
Since this is a first time for me, I initiated the refund just in case as protection while reporting the message to Amazon and also filing a buyers refund violation report. This was all last night. This morning I checked my account and found that the refund has gone through and Amazon emailed me to say they have finished their buyer violation investigation but can't give me any details. All they could say was that no further action was needed by me.
As a one off this whole thing isn't terrible, we're not talking about all the money in the world. But going forward does anyone have any tips if this kind of scam tries to get me again?
@KJ_Amazon@Joey_Amazondo you or any of the other mods have an experience with this situation and advice for us? That would be great, thanks!
Any tips for handling this refund scam?
So I received a message from a customer that was very aggressive in its language of demanding a refund and that they would not return the item or provide any evidence. The whole thing felt odd so I did some digging in the forums and have found that other sellers have received similar messages with near exact same language as if they were being written from templates.
The top theory I have heard is that these are drop-shippers who are running a refund scam by selling your product and then demanding a refund so they can make the profit on the sale.
Since this is a first time for me, I initiated the refund just in case as protection while reporting the message to Amazon and also filing a buyers refund violation report. This was all last night. This morning I checked my account and found that the refund has gone through and Amazon emailed me to say they have finished their buyer violation investigation but can't give me any details. All they could say was that no further action was needed by me.
As a one off this whole thing isn't terrible, we're not talking about all the money in the world. But going forward does anyone have any tips if this kind of scam tries to get me again?
@KJ_Amazon@Joey_Amazondo you or any of the other mods have an experience with this situation and advice for us? That would be great, thanks!
11 replies
Seller_Sram36TnVt73c
Respond, "I am sorry you are unhappy with your purchase. Please return it for a full refund."
Mark any subsequent messages as NO RESPONSE NECESSARY.
Report the message through the messaging center..
Seller_Hi7wbO2Kbo6bl
There's no "as if" involved -- that is a template.
Never respond directly to anything in that template.
As advised above just treat it as any other request for refund -- and then report the message.
Seller_rGcQW1yb6ZWbC
Just in case what? You are protected only if you follow Amzaon's seller guidelines and respond by telling him to open a return request or file a claim. That's it. This guy is not going to press the issue. If he doesn't get you to do just what you did, he will move on. He does not want to draw attention to himself. He is out for the quick buck-return.
You did exactly what this guy wants. He wants new sellers to be scared and click the refund button right away out of fear. I hate to tell you this, but you played right into his hand. This is a known scam. This guy has sent this message out countless times and has stolen who knows how much from sellers just like you.
Since you were so nice to him and issued a refund with no additional questions asked, he may come back. Next time, do as the others have stated. Tell the buyer to initial a return request for a refund through Amazon's system. Report any additional correspondence to Amazon. We have to figure out how to shut this guy's buying privileges down. And the only power we have to do that is to report him each and every time he tries to pull this same stunt.
'Fool me once, shame on you. Foool me twice, shame on me.'
Joey_Amazon
Hello @Seller_jmtuZ83M952ok,
Appreciate you posting here at the Seller Forums.
The initial step would be to document this issue utilizing the Report Abuse tool, file the case under "An abusive message was sent by a buyer".
In future instances this will help with the investigation.
Hope this helps,
Joey
Seller_MUBN0Jm00YVZK
The reality is that Amazon's preference and protection to buyers have attracted countless scammers. Amazon's policies are entirely designed to train wave after wave of scammers. Even if you try your hardest, with a bit of luck and perhaps come across a "friendly" Amazon employee, the best outcome you can hope for is to take back what you deserve.
Seller_TTG0TX5GOhqmW
@Joey_Amazon
We are a 15+ year seller and just received our first "refund scam" a few weeks ago, and now just received 2 more of the same thing tonight from the same "customer".
It's clear buyers are using AI to generate "stories" about the issues they had with products purchased. I agree that they are probably reselling our products using arbitrage then hoping they get refunds for the products.
Not only is the risk of accidental refund but there is risk of triggering Amazon bots as these "complaints" contain phrasing talking about product safety, etc.
In our case, we had a newer customer service rep who did not realize this was a scam and refunded it... as mentioned we have never received anything like this in 15+ years of selling -- and now in a few weeks receive 3 very similar messages that were obviously AI generated. I fear this will get exponentially worse.
This seems to be something Amazon should send a message about to sellers and also note whether they will be filtering and addressing these issues -- maybe putting an auto generated "ALERT" on the email in Seller Central that the message(s) may need more review (and to make us confident that Amazon will look at the customers complaint more seriously if it is escalated).
Shopify has a flag that appears on orders that tell what the likelihood is of a legitimate order, it would seem something similar is in order here.
Seller_OthBN9x04F3zZ
I had 7 of these last spring from similar 'buyers', all the messages were in poor English and demanded that I refund them. Found out through another Seller that my items were on Walmart.com and this was a known scam. I was able to recover 6 of the 7 from Amazon so this wasn't a total loss.
I did switch to buying my shipping labels through Amazon now for the added protection. I'm sure that some of the return requests we get now are scams but I send them to Amazon Customer Service and let them sort it out.
