Someone unknown to me used my Shopify to purchase two gift cards from a ■■■■■■ store in London. My bank will not refund the money as it was made using via shopify - ie, my bank account was not comprimised. The merchant refused to cancel the transactions or tell me where the goods were sent. Do you have a fraud process?
Yes, Shopify does have a process for reporting suspected fraud. If you believe the merchant is violating Shopify’s policies, you can report it here:
https://www.shopify.com/legal/report-aup-violation
Shopify will review the report and investigate if the store is breaking their policies. At the same time, you should contact your bank again and request a chargeback for the unauthorized transaction, as banks are usually the ones who can reverse the payment.
The merchant is likely stonewalling you because gift cards are heavily targeted by fraudsters. They are instant, untraceable, and easily resold. When your bank inevitably processes the chargeback, the merchant will lose the revenue, lose the gift card value, and get hit with a chargeback penalty fee. Relying on basic, native fraud filters or dealing with fraud after it happens is a losing battle. The root cause here is an Account Takeover (ATO) or stolen credential testing that slipped right past the merchant’s defences. Merchants need to look into proactive fraud prevention tools like Sensfrx, which uses device fingerprinting, behavioural analysis, and real-time risk scoring to instantly block Account Takeovers and unauthorized purchases before the transaction even goes through.