Scam Alert: Big order paid and now want a refund

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

A merchant received what appeared to be a legitimate large order for 84 cake stands from a company. After payment was processed, the buyer claimed a client dropped out and requested to reduce the order to 42 units.

Red flags identified:

  • Refund requested via wire transfer to a bank account (not original payment method)
  • LinkedIn verification revealed the named person never placed the order

Actions taken:

  • Immediately contacted QuickBooks merchant services and opened a case
  • Isolated the funds in a separate account pending resolution
  • Awaiting instructions from payment processor

This follows a common refund scam pattern where fraudsters use stolen payment methods, then request refunds to different accounts before the original payment is reversed.

Summarized with AI on October 29. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Hi

I just want to let everyone know what happened to me. I got an email from what looked like a legit company asking to place a large order from us. They ordered and paid for 84 cake stands only to come back a couple of days later telling me that one of the clients fell off the project and asked to change the order to 42 cake stands and asked for a refund. Then I was asked to refund by write transfer to a bank account. I instantly recognized this scam. I looked up the name of the person on linked in and when I asked him, the man answered me and told me he didn’t order anything from us. I immediately contacted QuickBooks merchant services, told them what happened and I have a case number. I put the money in a separate account until QuickBooks tells me where to mail the check to. Watch out for this scan!

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