Scam emails demanding money back

[GLNaturals]

Hey there,

We are getting daily emails via our contact form that are from scammers insisting that we charged them even though they didn't buy a product on our site, or that they purchased something from our site but never received it and now they want their money back. They usually include some threat about reporting us to the BBB or calling the authorities. These accusations are untrue and we're ignoring them. Unfortunately, because we want to do our due diligence, we're researching each one to make sure they aren't paying customers and they haven't been charged. It's a complete waste of time.

Our contact form has a CAPTCHA security check point, but these aren't bots, they're real people sending these notes via our site.

Any advice? Thanks much!

[Max]

Hi, @GLNaturals 

This is Max from the Shopify Team. 

Sorry to hear that you're struggling with these spam messages. 

That does sounds tedious. I would suggest a few things in this case. Are you able to review the customer email address and name to make sure that the claims are not valid? Please avoid opening any links contained or entering in any details about your shop or personal information, in case this is a phishing email. 

1. Is the content of the messages similar? If so, it might be a spammer rather than a former customer. Your email service provider might be able to help you create some email filters to rule out repetitive content. 
2. You might want to adjust your form to have a skill testing question or an additional required field that could help you avoid spammers. Maybe a require order number. That could help facilitate a quick look up!
3. If this is not possible, I'd suggest testing out a different contact method for your customers. Perhaps, adding your social links or email address directly would be more successful. 
   
   Let us know if this persists and which option you've chosen to try!

Cheers, 

Max

support@shopify.com

[GLNaturals]

Hey Max,

Thanks for the suggestions. These are definitely spam and not past customers. I think following up with our email provider is a good idea. I'll do that. I'll also pass your other suggestions along to the other folks who open company emails. We will let you know what happens! Fingers crossed we don't have to waste so much valuable time on this in the future!

Best to you :)

[Max]

Thanks for the update! 

Let us know if you have any luck with those approaches and I hope you're able to find a solution without too much tedious work attached. 

Best, 
Max

[ProjectChow]

Hi @GLNaturals, 

Thanks so much for posting about your fraud experience. I received three just like this today through my webform. I contacted each of them as they listed phone numbers and after I spoke with the third person, I realized this was all a scam. 

They all claimed that there was a charge on their card from my shopify company, but didn't know about my company. Two of them mentioned how much they needed the money and two mentioned it was charged from their paypal account and one from their cash app (which doesn't make sense). 

I wanted to add my experience here in case others run into this scam. Be careful out there. 

[OctoDig]

I had two today from contact form and then one yesterday from some FindGlocal site contact.

Hate it..glad to see not just me!

[Enchantails]

We just received this email today:

"I have a transaction from your company on my bank account and I didn't order anything from you.  I was wondering if you could tell me who ordered it and what exactly it is that was ordered?"

I have a transaction from your company on my bank account and I didn't order anything from you. I was wondering if you could tell me who ordered it and what exactly it is that was ordered?

We respnded requesting more information:  Date of charge, amount of charge and a screenshot from the bank....I will update as soon as we hear back...

[OctoDig]

Thank you

I chatted with Shopify customer support and I have no transactions on my business account since July 2020. I have received other messages as well with the same amount but all are different names of the person.
Thank you for reaching out to them..it must be a scam but I wanted you all aware of what was happening as well.