Ongoing Refund Scam Causing £74,000+ Loss
We are currently facing a severe and ongoing issue on Amazon where multiple fraudulent buyers are abusing the platform’s refund policy to conduct illegal dropshipping scams. These individuals are purchasing our products, obtaining automatic refunds from Amazon (without returning the goods), and selling the items on marketplaces such as eBay.
We have concrete proof of this activity. We ourselves placed an order via eBay and confirmed that the product was delivered by our own carrier partner, clearly indicating that the fraudulent sellers are sourcing the products through Amazon, using our listings. This is blatant abuse and financial fraud.
To date, we have incurred a financial loss exceeding £74,000 due to these scams. Despite providing Amazon with detailed evidence—including delivery confirmations and links between eBay sellers and fraudulent Amazon buyer accounts—we have only been told that certain buyer accounts have been blocked. Unfortunately, this has not resolved the issue, as the perpetrators simply create new buyer accounts and repeat the same tactics.
Amazon’s current system appears to be enabling these bad actors:
Automatic refunds are issued without proper verification.
Non-returnable product policies are exploited repeatedly.
SAFET claims are consistently denied, despite our substantial proof.
No access to the identity or information of these fraudulent buyers is provided to us, limiting our ability to pursue independent legal action.
We believe that Amazon has both the capacity and the responsibility to flag and stop buyers who request multiple refunds in a short period, yet this loophole continues to be ignored. As a result, we—the legitimate brand owner and seller—are left absorbing the losses, while Amazon and the fraudulent parties profit from our products and work.
Immediate escalation to a senior account or fraud specialist.
A full investigation with outcomes shared transparently.
Reimbursement or support in recovering our losses.
Policy review and stronger safeguards against recurring refund fraud.
We are more than willing to provide all supporting documentation again to aid in this process.
Ongoing Refund Scam Causing £74,000+ Loss
We are currently facing a severe and ongoing issue on Amazon where multiple fraudulent buyers are abusing the platform’s refund policy to conduct illegal dropshipping scams. These individuals are purchasing our products, obtaining automatic refunds from Amazon (without returning the goods), and selling the items on marketplaces such as eBay.
We have concrete proof of this activity. We ourselves placed an order via eBay and confirmed that the product was delivered by our own carrier partner, clearly indicating that the fraudulent sellers are sourcing the products through Amazon, using our listings. This is blatant abuse and financial fraud.
To date, we have incurred a financial loss exceeding £74,000 due to these scams. Despite providing Amazon with detailed evidence—including delivery confirmations and links between eBay sellers and fraudulent Amazon buyer accounts—we have only been told that certain buyer accounts have been blocked. Unfortunately, this has not resolved the issue, as the perpetrators simply create new buyer accounts and repeat the same tactics.
Amazon’s current system appears to be enabling these bad actors:
Automatic refunds are issued without proper verification.
Non-returnable product policies are exploited repeatedly.
SAFET claims are consistently denied, despite our substantial proof.
No access to the identity or information of these fraudulent buyers is provided to us, limiting our ability to pursue independent legal action.
We believe that Amazon has both the capacity and the responsibility to flag and stop buyers who request multiple refunds in a short period, yet this loophole continues to be ignored. As a result, we—the legitimate brand owner and seller—are left absorbing the losses, while Amazon and the fraudulent parties profit from our products and work.
Immediate escalation to a senior account or fraud specialist.
A full investigation with outcomes shared transparently.
Reimbursement or support in recovering our losses.
Policy review and stronger safeguards against recurring refund fraud.
We are more than willing to provide all supporting documentation again to aid in this process.
0 replies
Seller_ZVAz3d5lZuGid
Personally I would go straight to the Small Claims Court, without any hesitation, with all the evidence you have. As you say, the perpetrators simply go and open new buyer accounts. Amazon will do nothing unless you contact their own fraud department, and even then..... ?
Seller_K8edOfPu9HEmN
Maybe you might consider reporting each and every fraudulent transaction to action fraud. They maybe not very good with the odd sporadic report, but frauds in great numbers, especially if the come from the same source will certainly get their attention. Might take some time and trouble but it could well be worth it
Seller_Pg5P8pWm4qNue
Many sellers on Amazon UK have noticed a worrying increase in buyer fraud—where customers place orders and then file false claims to receive refunds without returning the item. In most cases, Amazon immediately sides with the buyer, refunding the full amount and leaving the seller with the loss.
This growing trend shows a clear bias in favor of buyers, while the sellers—who are the backbone of the platform—are left vulnerable and unsupported.
It’s time we, as sellers, come together and form a Sellers' Union for Amazon UK. A unified voice can push for fairer policies, demand protection from fraudulent activity, and ensure Amazon listens to the concerns of those who power their marketplace.
This is not just about individual losses—it's about protecting our businesses and creating a future where sellers are treated with fairness and respect.
If you're an Amazon seller based in the UK and have experienced similar issues, let’s connect and work towards building a strong collective presence.
Seller_znTeHti2qvorY
I feel your pain; it's horrible to learn of this.
Seller_Px9RVYO2OTm1z
Not financial or legal advice, please get in touch with a professional legal advisor before taking any action on anything said here. That being said, here's what we'd do If we were in a similar situation:
When it comes to fraudulent activity like this, we've had similar, and it's much easier to get in touch with eBay's fraud prevention, or copyright and trademark team to try and get these listings taken down for good as that is the site the items are being sold. With the evidence, it's actually quite likely to get the fraudsters permanently banned from selling on eBay, and inable to create any new accounts from the same device, or any IP Address they've previously logged into eBay from. It's possible to speak to "eBay for Business UK" on Facebook, you'll get a human who can actually put all your documents through to a back office fraud prevention team that isn't accessible through eBay's live chat or phone. Thats to get it to stop - Best of luck! Please Update us if your able to get the fraudsters gone soon!
To recoup some of the losses, small Claims Court wouldn't be feasable right now for 2 reasons:
1) You have none of the fraudsters information to open the claim. You can open a police report and provide the police report to "eBay for Business UK" on Facebook. eBay can give the required purpetrators information to the police, who may then provide it to you to later pursue in court. (Make sure to stress this point to the police in the police report that this information is required to recoup your losses)
2) The fraud amout is already over the limit of £10000 (Unless you have multiple people you want to claim against, and all are under £10000 - but you'd need all of their personal information like address and full name ect which i doubt either Amazon or eBay will provide to you), else you'll have to go to high court for anything over £10k (which also has a fast-track system), and it's up to you whether the cost of chasing them up is worth it. These kind of fraudsters usually don't have a dime to their name, but if it were me, I'd do everything I can to chase them for every cent they have so the word spreads around all their friends doing the same thing that it's a bad choice to make. Unless totally crushed, these bad actors usually keep devising new loophols and methods to keep the fraud going as it's likely their income instead of honest work.
Focus on getting it to stop first, then recouping later. Again, best of luck!
Seller_Qn51mL3EVwgia
simple, take amazon to court nothing makes a company do something about it faster than when it costs them money
Seller_BLKFrxPM3nn3Y
Hello, I suggest going straight to Small claims court with Amazon. It's Amazon responsibility when they allow fraudulent activity. This is based in personal experience advice.
As the amount is substantial get ready to fight it in court.
I would not hesitate, if you go through Amazon channels it's a waste of time.
Seller_aXns7UBBbYP9Z
Report the buyer(s) in the first instance via the Performance Dashboard on Seller Central. It's not immediately obvious but at the top of the Account health page is a link for 'Report abuse of Amazon policies'.
File at least one report per fraudulent buyer, and group the order IDs too.
I've reported several abusive buyers in this way, one would order 20 units of inventory (500 quid) and cancel when it was being delivered for a full refund. Another had a pattern of 30 orders in a year and always 2 or 3 refunded items in each order.
Strangely, we were able to get one buyer account banned but on one Amazon wouldn't take action 'due to the grandfathered status of the account' (ie it's a very old account so we are not banning it).
