Really weird activity with Shopify-associated UPS account

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

Topic summary

Multiple Shopify merchants are receiving fraudulent UPS invoices for shipments they never made. The bills arrive by mail addressed to their business name with Shopify listed, containing expensive charges ($335-$757+) for unfamiliar destinations.

Key Issues:

  • Merchants discovered UPS accounts were created on their behalf by Shopify without their knowledge
  • Tracking numbers and shipment details don’t match any orders in their Shopify history
  • At least 9+ merchants affected between December 2022 and February 2023
  • Fraudulent shipments often originated from California or Texas, dropped at UPS facilities

Resolution Attempts:

  • UPS representatives cancel charges when contacted but blame Shopify’s system
  • Shopify Support claims it’s a billing error on UPS’s side where merchant accounts were charged instead of Shopify’s master account
  • Shopify states they’re “working with UPS Business Partner” to prevent future occurrences
  • No clear explanation provided for root cause

Ongoing Concerns:

  • Problem continues recurring months later with new invoices
  • Merchants nearly paid fraudulent bills assuming they were legitimate
  • Neither UPS nor Shopify taking full accountability
  • No proactive merchant notification system implemented despite frequent occurrence
Summarized with AI on November 18. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
13

Hi Rayshuggs, thanks for checking in. I got the following response today from a shipping support specialist. I also received a fifth UPS invoice in the mail today. None of the Shopify support team have offered any answers about why these invoices are occurring.

Heidi S
7:02 am

Hi Georgia,

Heidi here from the Shipping Support team at Shopify. Thanks for getting back to us here - I am following up for Jamie today.

I want to thank you for your concern. I totally understand why this situation might cause some stress for you and your business.

I can confirm that your data and security is not affected in this process, and has not been compromised. Often, we find these invoices are billed in error to your account, which is why none of the tracking numbers are associated with your shipment history.

If you were to receive another invoice in error in the future, please know that we are happy to help with rectifying the invoice directly with UPS. As for the invoice that you initially chatted in about, UPS has confirmed this invoice has been cleared. You may disregard this bill.

If you have any questions or concerns feel free to let me know and I’ll be happy to assist further.

All the best,

Heidi

Support Specialist | Shipping