Is there a way to get a refund for a potentially fraudulent order?

[landon]

I went to this Shopify website (https://timberfitness.com) after seeing an ad on Kijiji say that they were giving away free watches. After thinking that it was probably was a scam I started to look around and seeing that they looked pretty legit. So thinking that if it was a scam I knew that Shopify could help me get my money back if it was. So I bought one for free but the shipping was 13 dollars. But then after that I went on to google and reversed the image and found that the image comes back to a watch under a different name. I contacted the support on their website and on their email 3 days ago but still haven't received anything back. Is there a way I could get a refund for Order #2015. Also, I would suggest taking down the website before more people get scammed.

Thanks,

[Hank]

Hi, @landon,

Hank here from Shopify.

Thank you for reaching out on the Forums, and while I cannot confirm if this is a Shopify store, but I am sorry to hear this has happened to you after ordering from this store but there is definitely a course of action you can take to help you here.

The first thing I would always suggest is to reach out to the store directly but since you have done this already with no response, your best step is to reach out to your bank directly about this. Your bank will have measures in place for you to follow in this case and will be able to help you in relation to the payment made from your account.

We do also have an FAQ community post going through all the details of this process which you might find useful. You can see this topic here.

There may also be a delay with your order/response due to the current Pandemic, but I would also recommend reaching out to any social media accounts that the store has.

To assist you in the future to distinguish if a store is legitimate, we have a very detailed post here that will give you the telltale signs also. 

If you have any other questions about this, don’t hesitate to let me know.
 
All the best,

Hank

[landon]

It's been over six weeks haven't received an email notification or anything where do I go from here.

[Hank]

If you file a case with the legal team, they will conduct a review to determine any foul activity on our platform. I would not be able to advise of any update on the investigation, but also the team may only reach out to you should they need additional information, they may not advise of updates due to data protection.

But if you reached out to your bank, they should be able to get you a refund, and the legal team will investigate any issues with the store if it is on Shopify's platform.

[dylanpierce]

Hello,

I'm sorry you're going through this. From Shopify's point of view, they're trying to grow as fast as possible to provide value to their investors. This means that unfortunately bad actors find a way to make a quick buck, and Shopify's not totally incentivized because the chargeback you're filing doesn't affect them directly.

They'll still collect any subscription fee from the end merchant, you're stuck with the bill.

Recently a study showed that potentially up to 20% of Shopify stores are fraudulent:

https://news.yahoo.com/nearly-21-percent-of-shopify-stores-pose-fraud-risk-to-customers-101453879.ht...

I created the Trust & Security department for another, albeit smaller marketplace and as soon as we found traction we saw a similar uptick in bad actors on the platform.

The only way to efficiently protect consumers like you is for Shopify to increase their KYC (know your customer) rules around merchant registration. ID verification, ACH banking information required during onboarding, and better tooling to detect & act on combinations of fraudulent signals on merchant accounts.

In Shopify's defense, this is a constant cat & mouse game. You can figure out a "tell" that a new merchant is fraudulent, and your detection method might work for sometime. But as long as there's a motivated person trying to defeat those measures, eventually they will.

In the end, I hope Shopify raises the bar for merchant quality standards, although I doubt this will happen in the short term as it's clearly a growth focused company. Looking at the URL bar for the green lock (aka HTTPS) is no longer enough to determine if a shop is legitimate. You should always Google search the store you'd like the purchase from first so you know you're clicking on the true shop you're looking for.

PS - that link you shared is using the Shopify CDN and the frontend assets from a Shopify app. It doesn't say definitively if it is a Shopify store or not but it's a hint.

[heavyend81]

I think the lesson here is Nothing in life is free..

[Andrew]

I fully appreciate that ordering something online, only to have it not arrive, can be disappointing. As mentioned by others, like @dylanpierce, there are a few things you can do to determine if a store is trustworthy and we do have a guide on How to Safely Shop Online.

I will say this though, we absolutely do not condone any type of fraudulent activity on Shopify. If this does happen to be a Shopify store, filing a claim with your bank will trigger a notification internally, which we can use to investigate a shop as needed. We will take a look into the store's activity and take action where appropriate. For legal and privacy reasons we will not be able to share the results of this investigation with you.

[Sidharth]

You should also check up on Silkpoint.in

I purchased a T shirt from them 20 days back  still hasn't been delivered. And the merchant refuses to answer the mails. Plus your platform allows them to create a store without giving a phone number