Can Shopify help consumers who bought from a fraudulent store?

[cercareineri]

I bought something from a Shopify store ("Martozi.com") that required that I pay via an Affirm loan. I never received any shipping info but can see that the order was received in the Shop app.  The store is now offline, and the scammers never responded to any communications of course. 

Other than appealing to Affirm (which I have done), do I have any recourse via Shopify? I realize you are a platform with a set of tools, but do you have any way to reach out to the store owners? Is there anything you can help me with? 

(Note that the Affirm relationship is very sticky -- since I didn't pay with a credit card or bank account, I cannot use their well-established fraud protection services. Affirm is incredibly obstructionist to deal with in this regard.)

[Blair · Accepted solution]

Hi @cercareineri,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community!

I definitely understand where you're coming from regarding your order and would be happy to share some insight on how we can help. 

As Shopify is a platform used by many merchants to sell online, we are unable to manage day-to-day operations or intervene in the order process. We do however, encourage you to fill out the Report An Issue Form if you believe the store you purchased from is using Shopify as a platform. This will allow any necessary steps to be taken as we do not condone this type of activity on the platform. 

It's important to note however, the findings of the report are unable to be shared due to legal reasons and ultimately recommend getting in touch with the bank and/or payment provider directly. This will ensure that the appropriate guidance can be given as well as the next steps on how to retrieve funds to get this resolved. 

Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns. 

[cercareineri]

Hi, Blair - here is the order confirmation url, but your site says the
order cannot be found.

https://martozi.com/62128193722/orders/f604e6822fed434d2ccae684391f40d4/authenticate?key=891b6cf14fe...

The return email (from the order confirm email) is
Martozi samuelbasil562@gmail.com via
<> shopifyemail.com


Martozi.com took down its site of shopify (after scamming me and others. I
cannot believe how dumb I was not to realize it was too good to be true).

Is there ANYTHING else I can do?

[cercareineri]

PS, Here is a screenshot of the Shop app's details of my Martozi order confirmation (July 9 purchase) and the Shop page that never showed any shipping info. Affirm is pushing back hard, of course. But I can't do anything really if I can't prove that I didn't already receive the product. 

[cercareineri]

Thank you for sending the link to register a complaint. I tried entering the order confirmation url, but your site says the order cannot be found. 

https://martozi.com/62128193722/orders/f604e6822fed434d2ccae684391f40d4/authenticate?key=891b6cf14fe...

Their return email "via Shopify" was samuelbasil562@gmail.com

Martozi.com took down its shopify site (after scamming me and others. I cannot believe how dumb I was not to realize it was too good to be true). 

Is there ANYTHING else I can do? 

[Blair]

Hi @cercareineri,

Thank you for the prompt response and sharing this information. If you are receiving an error when completing the form I would recommend following up with your bank for steps on how to proceed. I can completely understand the impact of this, but can assure looking to them for guidance on how to dispute those charges will be the best course of action.

Please let me know if I can provide any other assistance. Take care.   

[Sturner22]

What a b.s. and useless answer. This process DOES NOT WORK.

[Bglynn58]

Shopify is promoting fraud by not adequately screening storefronts.  This just smells of a class action lawsuit which I will sign on to.  I will never again trust a Shopify merchant.  Good luck with your business model when people learn about the Shopify Scam!