Unable to report scam

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment
1

I recently ordered a product from a Shopify store. At first everything seemed ok, I got a tracking link and the order looked like it was delivered. Only not to my address, but to an address 200km. from my home. I contacted the seller who first tried to get met to solve the issue with with the delivery company, than kept sending non-descript apologies, but actually did nothing.

Looking further into this I found out this was a common practice for this store and multiple people reported on this. There were more red flags like disearing order confirmation, a strange company address, etc. This company is obviously a scam.

When I tried reporting this to Shopify I ran into a problem. I tried to use this form: Issue with an order - Shopify

The forms asks me to input my order confirmation url and gives the example “Example: /123/account/orders/456” My order confirmation url is not formatted like this, but is [company-url]/_t/c/v3/AAAok9ZaYY6biCnVYgZr0l5GeNyrz6d_WPsRKG6IT-6zLbeKuqZTY-sz8kULTNreRZe9V793cuTnBb9mOo9HIYqT5XkEYA8eHb18GBKddL35KkLM9_5O6e7yFhPeF1tU0sipJG7__G3JHxpdo83v3um5UeIkQo3Qmol3miff8j4kE0B80xUAGdzfotGHW5jPBBuwRcD6ou6FeXLafQD8VzY8Gj0jmsUe_xwZVE8LK8aKSv38O3blkalHgNQ3Q4caiApb7vDyi9kv7cSc58bQKRyUeTLKjeIMBx-O5KyLZ9AfM9EYnG1J67mDBSqCEnDoAg_1-DQmfKDAgBP-iADlaR16GxJErK7NvczZjoQwNLuXovijRqh6pFUR2GVm4jNyDRF2yoCwEq5O3k0YIXtPe3OAzH-RQKXZqNTlEXixeTce5vIInAUbQHa8aDiqO37hAIyK5Zf8Rh-VtulXthN76TQkk5BvSwjWv6_oo7n5dweaRTaFajYoBQPe6EHpaZAqO_yJePD2xngCgFWW0aDFWLKkImv-i-n7_5NhETJchRg6tCNxfILDfJxWaMZk7YloPsuu4Sk9pRmDRZ_J7-3NvvC9OtrKyImOfL64KnNjpX7owz__DQra5SKwbGt_bvtaaRcWrzu0wIy2Z0vbyD7CSXcZg2WaZ-UcrR8J36ItFO-xz3YXZ1GYc8RUU6QxOeWu_h1o2ucEmWwgbIinn70nRSsc4qhC1bnCy9RaSH5bAHheA45sKxkSSSpZGSgVDosC1nsxXDrO32HQ-rNpumE9qAsapKGnx-pnKmCx9c5Hwl7mM-JK_UML3KUBfoLRPnyOiOAf6Q8oVguM5vfRDGDHiwdlot-jnubl0eJh6S8oW6ztSfu2r1LcvF8SLphlRNwmcYqSO3wcXFbQKGJ6gqBEn7FtTkERFQQVPIp2hBLHJAfDZCXTXgbPYp_TBr_OnZo5Gn_gQJ0P8LhOBv0dfTVWQYm4mqu5Tlj8aTmvxMpd1W5jROGqFlbi9v6nvW-c30pVbP0RnA35-a4LXPlOgvS0P5ixdBeNO1KJ4IO2Jdj9ZQI4d2kKBuV6T0AFSxU6E4MYBvuDEYoSdBumVFSgCYGAdonT01k6EIsUP8nEyr6oqn9zp-GfF5SaW9LeSs8WtXaRPEbx1zAlhYOUshgXk3-9r17TyQHKp-jx0bE8Iprsc71-JzlSHP6Cl2Y8dAhpX_Pi9DxzUY6u2q0BxI-0_xGp69QweRVsHuH-12KFEMerEn_sVKPjfD3y-3f627hi0TwdPA_LRWL6TKJAywUDaVgfoBYrZdw5NjKGV0GZ5bW3lvDel5BjjkEhuCI8BgCoH0ba8LlD8bN3zG9mcvb9Mz5SdiDvyBADnAC-BfkF99vMoMf3UTKwfkm_2MEI5ticrAvCUdXAgNZ9YMSAmNs5OdGX3xqEA5jUBVKpE4v4fKiHyvlpCLyyNFHaFZ-V49bt6YyS11rmIZ3tsn01IUfNyFgxHoQesZ3_BRCFLP55v0Sm4M8z_2qHGD_qG_YojfXnUoYhKMJlFB2Btx9clnl95qBUjHk_m72iBfFePesv3TN4V (put in an extra space after base url to prevent url from being “translated”)

Since this url is different from the one the form is expecting, I am unable to send in the report and the scamming company can keep scamming other customers. When I looked at this forum I noticed more people ran into this issue, e.g SCAM store - unable to report it on the SHOP app because the form doesn't recognize the conf URL

The response from Shopify is always the same: contact your credit card company and perform a chargeback. I did this of course, but that only solves my problem, not the bigger problem of companies using the Shopify platform for scams and fraud. It gives the impression Shopify is unwilling or unable to protect their customers, since this issue is widely reported since at least 2024.

2

Hi @PepijnL

Welcome to the community, but sorry it is under these circumstances.

One thing to notice: I learned that recently here. An issue with an order is actually sent to the store owner. Not sure if Shopify gets a copy too, though.

So, best to try to report a merchant under Fraud. If you have not already.

And yeah, there are a lot of scams, and Shopify could do more on their side, implement some changes that will not affect regular store owners.

3

Hey @PepijnL

Laza’s pointing you the right way, and the important detail is that they’re two different forms with two different destinations. The “Issue with an order” one you tried goes to the store owner, which is useless when the store is the scam, and that’s the one demanding an order confirmation URL in that specific format. The Report a Merchant form under the fraud section goes to Shopify’s own Trust team instead, and it doesn’t ask for that URL, so your blocker disappears. Give it the store domain, the order date and amount, the delivery to a wrong address 200km away, and links to the other reports you found, since a pattern across multiple buyers is what actually gets a store investigated.

Being transparent, this forum is merchants and partners, so nobody here can take the store down, and your wider point stands, a fraud report shouldn’t be blocked by a URL format mismatch. That’s a fair criticism worth making, just make it where it counts rather than only here.

Hope that helps! If it did, a Like and Marking it as Solution goes a long way and helps others find the fix faster too.

Best,
Moeed

4

Hi @Laza_Binaery

Thank you for your quick reply. I was unaware that there was a seperate form for reporting fraud, but @Moeed pointed me in the right direction. I will report there.

5

Hi @Moeed ,

Thank you for the quick reply. I was unaware there was a seperate form for fraud. I tried to use this one, Fraud - Shopify , but I seem to need a paid Shopify-account to use this. I don’t need or want a paid account since I have no intention of opening a shop. Any ideas how to get around this?

Thanks again!

6

I don’t think you need any paid  Shopify account to report a merchant. Yes you do need an account but not a paid one. You can either create a Shopify partners account or even a normal Shopify account would work too. Both are free to sign up.

After that, you’ll be redirected to this form where you can enter all the details and submit.

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Best,
Moeed

7

@Moeed Thank you again, this really helps!

When I want to open an account I get the message the first 3 days are free, after that I pay €1/month for the first 3 months. Three days is of course enough to fill in this form, so I will try that.