Fraudulent business?

[abbasi786]

I am not a merchant, I am a buyer.

"Hello, I would like to report a fraudulent business.

A few weeks ago in early July, I purchased a red hooded sweatsheart from the merchant "lalo san" at lalos3192@gmail.com on his store "NONameBrand" (which can be found at this link "https://63e0a3-e2.myshopify.com/collections/all", however it no longer sells the product).

The product was labelled "Spider Hoodiez" and came with an image of the popular clothing line Sp5der hoodie. I bought one on my account to be shipped to my address in Florida, USA for a price of $36.90. I was charged and gave my money through the debit card. All details about the order can be seen here: https://shopify.com/88285905209/account/orders/5992290386233

After placing my order I received a text from an unknown number saying "Your order number is #1004 and here is your order link", and thought my order would be on its way soon (this, by the way, was not an email confirmation, it just linked to the order number, a page which I have no access to look at anything on except how much I paid and what was bought).

However, after a few weeks passed and I had not received my order, any confirmation of it, or any tracking number. The order account website also did not show it any more. On top of this, this seller would discontinue this "red hoodie" product (something I noticed weeks later). "lalo san" hosts a "Contact Us" section of his page found over at this link: https://63e0a3-e2.myshopify.com/pages/contact and I filled out a request ticket on July 15 to 16 inquiring as to the status of my shipment, and I asked for the tracking number ("Can I get a tracking number for my order Order #1004 Red Spider Hoodie").

On July 17, I received an email back from the email address lalos3192@gmail.com. It said,

"NOnamebrand

Hello XXXXXXXXXXXX,

We were advised that our shipment was delayed due to the number of orders coming through but the merchandise will arrive. Your package is on its way and you should have received an email confirmation. We are sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause. "

I had not received an email confirmation and my package was not on its way, though. I once again respectfully reiterated my request for the tracking number, at which point "lalo san" stopped replying to me. I sent two more emails on July 21 and July 30, but with no response. The way I see it, "lalo san" has stolen my money.

If I do not receive a full refund or the product, I am threatening full legal action against Shopify for hosting a fraudulent business to steal money from people, and am going to require the bank account of "lalo san" to be closed. I cannot have my money stolen from me and will not allow for other people's money to be stolen from too."

I sent the above text to Shopify Fraud and Shopify Illegal activity, along with reporting an issue with my order.

Not sure what to do. How can I retrieve my money?

[dylanpierce]

Hi @abbasi786 ,

First of all, sorry to hear that you haven't received the product you spent your hard earned dollars for. But the good news is it sounds like you have a strong case for winning a chargeback with the bank that issued your credit card.

The process of disputing a transaction is called a chargeback. A chargeback is when the customer claims with their credit card's bank that the transaction was fraudulent, or the good was never received. 

However, please note there's a window of time where you can issue a chargeback - typically 30 to 60 days from purchase, depending on the bank that issued your credit card. So you'll need to act sooner than later when filing a chargeback.

Please contact your bank to learn how to file a chargeback, and provide as much evidence to them as you can for your dispute for the highest chance of winning the chargeback and having your money returned in full.

Remember, Shopify is a marketplace. They perform some KYC (Know Your Customer) processes on merchants when they sign up, however there are occasions where merchants don't act in good faith. They rely on customers like you to report bad acting merchants here: https://www.shopify.com/legal/tools/report-an-issue/report-a-merchant

[abbasi786]

Wow, thank you!

I didn't know about chargebacks before

I searched up and luckily 60 days is the limit for Bank of America.

I reported the merchant in three ways as well on Shopify.

However I'm going to do the chargeback just in case.

Once again thanks Dylan, you're a real one for that!

[dylanpierce · Accepted solution]

Sure thing, glad I could help you on that.

Yes, chargebacks are intended to help protect you from fraud, so I highly recommend using credit cards for online purchases. Debit cards do not offer this protection.

Based on what you told me, I highly doubt the merchant will have strong enough evidence to overturn the dispute, you should be fine. Glad I could help.

[abbasi786]

Update: I got all my money back through a debit card transaction dispute.

Thanks for the help, Dylan!