Fraudulent store opened with my information today. Unable to reach customer support.

[Limabean100]

I am at my wit’s end and am ready to contact an attorney tomorrow morning to help me contact this useless company and determine my options due to my inability to reach a human being on any level to resolve my fraud issue. I received a series of emails today confirming that a Shopify store was opened, with credit, using my email address (and possibly my name/social, but I have no idea). I tried changing the password so I could view the account but was unable to do so bc the person opened this account using my email address used second factor authentication that I can’t get past. There is only a useless AI bot that resolves nothing. It directed me to open a new account so I could reach customer service. I did so. In the new account when you click “contact customer support,” it takes you back to the AI bot. It’s a LOOP where all roads take you back to the AI Bot. It’s completely unacceptable that this company is making millions of dollars yet has ZERO customer support via chat or phone. To me, it seems this company is supporting, and even encouraging, fraudulent activities on its platform. If you are the victim of fraud, yet can’t report it to the company in any meaningful way, you are facilitating fraud. The bot also told me to use the link to “report merchant fraud” or something to that effect. Well, you need the store link (!) to do so. I don’t have the store link. Please Help. I do not run a store on Shopify nor do I want to. I need the account using my information deleted asap before I suffer real financial harm (if I haven’t already.)

[digital_201]

@Limabean100 

I understand your frustration...Here’s what you can do for solving this issue

1. Contact Shopify Support via Social Media: Reach out on Twitter (@ShopifySupport) or Facebook for faster fraud-related assistance.
   
   

2. Report Identity Theft: File a report with local authorities or an identity theft protection service to secure your personal information.
   
   

3. Submit a Merchant Fraud Form: Use Shopify’s fraud form and provide as many details as possible, even without the store link
   
   

4. Consider Legal Action: If unresolved, contact an attorney to protect your financial information.

These steps should help you address the issue quickly

[Limabean100]

The response is not helpful at all. I don’t have a twitter account and should not have to engage with twitter and open an account to access a human being with your company. I messaged Shopify on FB messenger and, what a surprise, no one responded. This is such a wonderful company. I love that this company freely supports allowing third parties to fraudulently open accounts using a person’s identity and then shuts down the victim’s ability to contact a human customer support representative to get help with resolving the issue. Contact local law enforcement? Golly gee, that’s so incredibly helpful. Thanks Shopify! Hire a private attorney? Wow, again, great advice - thank you so much. It’s awesome that Shopify’s offer of help is for me to hire a private attorney to address fraud issues on Shopify’s platform instead of proving a basic mechanism to have my concerns addressed directly by Shopify. 

[Limabean100]

And one more thing - as I stated in my original post, Shopify’s website does not allow you to submit a report using the merchant fraud form unless you have the link to the store link. This is a mandatory requirement to complete the form (or I would have competed the form). Shopify will not allow you to submit a report without this information. 

[digital_201]

Here’s what you can do to resolve the issue. First, I recommend reaching out to Shopify directly by emailing their support team at support@shopify.com, explaining that your personal information has been used to create a fraudulent account. Be specific about the situation, making it clear that you're not associated with the store in any way and are the victim of fraud. If you're unable to make progress through the standard support channels, I suggest escalating the issue by contacting Shopify’s legal team at legal@shopify.com. This approach often gets more immediate attention when it comes to fraud-related cases. Additionally, you may want to bypass the AI bot by visiting Shopify’s Help Center in a private or incognito window, as this can sometimes lead to more direct support options without being stuck in the automated system. In the meantime, I strongly encourage you to file a fraud alert with the major credit bureaus to protect your financial information while Shopify investigates the matter. By following these steps, you should be able to get in touch with the right people at Shopify and have this issue resolved swiftly. Let me know if you need any further assistance as you move forward.

[brain39945]

This is what happens when you contact support....

Hi Brian,

Your chat has been logged and can be referenced by the ticket number 54438275.

To add further comments, just reply to this email and you'll hear from us soon!

Matthew Tang (Shopify)

Jan 23, 2025, 20:06 EST

Full chat transcript below. All timestamps in UTC timezone.

00:44 Brian Arch: I am reporting a fraudulent website, vitamin-place.com, which is using Shopify's platform. I placed an order with them, paid in full, but never received the product. Despite multiple attempts to contact them, I have not received any response or the goods I paid for.

Please investigate this seller and take appropriate action to prevent further scams.

00:44 Bot: To report the fraudulent website vitamin-place.com, you can use the following steps:

Since it has been over 30 days since you placed your order and you have attempted to contact the store without a response, you can use the Report an issue with an order form to report the store to Shopify.
Ensure that you provide any relevant details and documentation regarding your order to assist in the investigation.

If you need further assistance or have additional information to share, let me know!

00:45 Brian Arch: It says the order number does not exist

00:45 Bot: If you're receiving a message that the order number does not exist, here are a few steps you can take:

Check Your Email: Look for your order confirmation email. It should contain your order number. If you can't find it, check your spam or junk folder.
Verify the Order Number: Make sure you are entering the order number correctly. Sometimes, there might be a typo or formatting issue.
Contact the Store: If you still can't find your order number, try reaching out to the store directly through any contact methods available on their website.
Report the Issue: If you are unable to resolve the issue with the store and it has been over 30 days since your order, you can still report the store using the Report an issue with an order form, even without an order number. Just provide as much detail as possible about your transaction.

Let me know if you need further assistance!

00:46 Brian Arch: I was never sent an email, I was only charged. Can I please speak to a human, I already sent you that information

00:47 Brian Arch: I sent an email to support@shopify.com but I received an automated email saying that my ticket was not created

00:47 Bot: A Support Advisor will join the chat soon. Thank you for your patience.

00:49 Matthew T (Support Advisor): Hi, this is Matthew, your Shopify Support Advisor! I will be assisting you today. I am currently reviewing your conversation with the Help Center Assistant to better understand the issue at hand. If you need to share further context, please feel free to do so as I review.

00:49 System: An advisor has joined the chat

00:49 Brian Arch: Did you see the email I tried sending?

00:49 Brian Arch: I am reporting a fraudulent website, vitamin-place.com, which is using Shopify's platform. I placed an order with them, paid in full, but never received the product. Despite multiple attempts to contact them, I have not received any response or the goods I paid for.

Please investigate this seller and take appropriate action to prevent further scams.

00:51 Matthew T (Support Advisor): Thanks for bring this to our attention Brian and I do recognize the experience wasn't ideal. For next steps, we do have a dedicated team handling buyer complaints and I would recommend filling out the complaint form here if you haven't already. The completed form will get sent directly to our dedicate team for further investigation

00:52 Brian Arch: I already tried that URL, it said the order does not exist and will not let me create a report.

00:52 Brian Arch: https://vitamin-place.com/orders/900043577

00:52 Brian Arch: I was not sent a confirmation email either. So I dont think it was real. They are just scamming people and using your platform to do it.

00:55 Brian Arch: Hello?

00:56 Matthew T (Support Advisor): The order confirmation email should be sent automatically as I don't believe it can be disabled. Did you check your spam inbox?

00:56 Brian Arch: Yes I checked, they overcharged me a couple 100 as well

00:56 Brian Arch: never sent anything, and do not respond

00:57 Matthew T (Support Advisor): I see. We do need that URL for our team to continue with the investigation but since it is not available at this time, I would recommend getting in touch with your bank. You can gather evidence and submit it to them and they can launch an investigation on your behalf.

00:58 Brian Arch: Are you serious you're allowing them to scam?

00:58 Brian Arch: I am saving this conversation this is ridiculous

00:59 Brian Arch: I am not trying to get a refund from you, I already did with my bank. I'm trying to expose some scammers that are stealing money from people and you won't help?

01:02 Brian Arch: Hello????

01:02 Matthew T (Support Advisor): This is definitely not what I'm saying Brain and we genuinely do appreciate you letting us know. However, we are not able to launch an investigation without the proper URL. It's also worth noting that for privacy reasons, we are unable to confirm or deny if the store is hosted on Shopify or not. The URL is important to help us identify the order in order to investigate further. If that cannot be provided, your bank will be better equipped to assist further. When launching an investigation and assuming the store is indeed hosted by us, the matter will be brought to our attention for further handling

01:03 Brian Arch: So what do I need to do? Get a lawyer involved against shopify? Would a legal letter help?

01:03 Matthew T (Support Advisor): If you do believe that is the best course of action, I would suggest having your legal representative getting in touch with our legal team at legal@shopify.com

01:04 Brian Arch: I will, youre horrible people.

01:05 Brian Arch: i sent them this chat to show you wont help as well

01:05 System: Chat ended by client