Why does Shopify knowingly facilitate fraud?

[Ditchmonkey]

It finally happened, I got scammed by a fraudulent Shopify store. I don't think they were always a scam, but it seems they no longer have the ability to fulfill orders, and are instead taking all the money they can from customers while they are able to.

I ordered an item, about 2.5 weeks later I got a shipping notification, now 2.5 weeks after that USPS tracking indicates no item was every delivered to them, which seems to be a delaying tactic by the seller to prolong the period of time in which the sea of complaints will finally overwhelm them. They do not respond to support emails. The company has deleted most of their social accounts, and on their remaining Instagram accounts, many comments indicate that they never received the products they purchased.

Yet the seller still advertises on Google, and still takes people's money through their Shopify store. They are actively ripping people off every day, enabled by Shopify and likely Shopify payments. I have made a fraud complaint to Shopify but I do not expect a response or any action.

A BBC article stated that "Nearly 21% of Shopify stores pose a risk to their customers"

I'm surprised that Shopify has such a high tolerance for this level of fraud, especially when their own payment processor is likely often involved with the fraudulent payments.

[claricelin]

Hi @Ditchmonkey , if you still see the same Google ad showing up,  I recommend you to report the ad listing to Google here: https://support.google.com/ads/troubleshooter/4578507

Hopefully that would prevent the store from continuing their activities.

[Ditchmonkey]

Thanks, I reported the ad to Google.

[EBee1]

This is a good course of action, but entirely ridiculous to have to resort to a workaround as such when Shopify could and should be ceasing the merchant account.

[Sophia]

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 @Ditchmonkey wrote:

It finally happened, I got scammed by a fraudulent Shopify store. I don't think they were always a scam, but it seems they no longer have the ability to fulfill orders, and are instead taking all the money they can from customers while they are able to.

I ordered an item, about 2.5 weeks later I got a shipping notification, now 2.5 weeks after that USPS tracking indicates no item was every delivered to them, which seems to be a delaying tactic by the seller to prolong the period of time in which the sea of complaints will finally overwhelm them. They do not respond to support emails. The company has deleted most of their social accounts, and on their remaining Instagram accounts, many comments indicate that they never received the products they purchased.

Yet the seller still advertises on Google, and still takes people's money through their Shopify store. They are actively ripping people off every day, enabled by Shopify and likely Shopify payments. I have made a fraud complaint to Shopify but I do not expect a response or any action.

A BBC article stated that "Nearly 21% of Shopify stores pose a risk to their customers"

I'm surprised that Shopify has such a high tolerance for this level of fraud, especially when their own payment processor is likely often involved with the fraudulent payments.

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Hi, there.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm sorry to hear that you haven't received your order and that the store has been unresponsive.

Shopify will investigate any reports of fraudulent activity on the platform. If you received an order confirmation email from the store, you can submit a report to our team using the link on this page: FAQ: Your Online Order.

[Ditchmonkey]

Quoting myself: "I have made a fraud complaint to Shopify but I do not expect a response or any action."

[Sophia]

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@Ditchmonkey wrote:

Quoting myself: "I have made a fraud complaint to Shopify but I do not expect a response or any action."

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I appreciate you submitting a report. When Shopify receives a report that a store may be in violation of the Acceptable Use Policy, we review and, depending on our findings, take appropriate action such as removing a problematic product or the store from the platform. We'll only contact you if more information is needed. In the meantime, you can contact your bank or payment provider for next steps.

[Ditchmonkey]

I got my money back from my credit card company. It seems Google pulled their ads based on my complaint. The only issue here is Shopify's lack of doing anything, because you clearly don't care about fraud so long as you are making money.

[claricelin]

Glad to hear you got your money back, @Ditchmonkey And great to know about the update about Google :).

That's also the reason why Google has a stringent set of guidelines and not 100% clearly stated guidelines for merchants who want to get their products seen on Google Shopping. They are concerned that fraudulent merchants will flood Google Shopping if the guidelines are all explicitly stated. It's not a perfect framework but usually authentic, legit merchants are more likely to get their stores approved while the rest who are looking for shortcuts are more likely to be rejected.

[EBee1]

Money back and google taking action - why are you continuously dodging any comment or action from Shopify which is clearly enabling this?

[BenAG]

I can’t believe i had ti create an account to report fraud by one of your sellers. Shopify clearly either has a low tolerance to fraud or actively facilitates fraud by creating a medium for such sellers to keep registering on your website. Payment for products was taken via shopify and the seller immediately deleted their accounts so there is no contact, no links to report and trying to contact Shopify for weeks has been futile. Shopify is the problem. 

[shroomability]

Shopify commits fraud against merchants accept it is legal fraud because they put it in the terms of service. Shopify built a fraud app that flags most orders as fraud and not a single one was fraudulent. Then when a seller refunds the buyers money shopify does not return the transaction fees, they steal them by putting in the terms they are non refundable. This is clearly a scam because no platform does this.  This is unheard of in the business world. I filed an FTC complaint and also called a friend at the FTC to speed up review of this scam. As a person who spent 2 years working for a major credit card processor I can truly say what shopify is doing is wrong and should be illegal regardless of what words they put in their terms.

[Jloff1010]

Certain your right about SHOP/SHOPIFY DEFRAUDING CONSUMERS. TIME FIR CLASS ACTION.

[Stacey_a_l]

I am having issues with sugarhomeco.com 

they were able to fraudulently obtain tracking numbers for fed ex that make it look like the item is coming to you. Shows your city. When it says delivered it is not to you or your address. And it is from another company. It is a scam. And Shopify wont help. We need to be able to contact the seller. We need a physical address for police theft repots. This is a

scam!!