Fake receipts typically target retailers that sell technology products, and they are often available for fewer than $10 USD per receipt. These actors are capable of producing counterfeit receipts in a variety of formats, including physical store receipts, packing slips, and digital receipts. After finding a reliable refund vendor, forum members will often become repeat customers, requesting refunds from a variety of companies the vendor targets.įlashpoint analysts have also observed numerous vendors advertising fraudulent receipts for sale on the DDW. Indeed, satisfied customers have been known to leave positive reviews accompanied by screenshots of emails sent by impacted stores issuing refunds. Successful refund vendors have gained loyal followings within their cybercriminal communities. The email indicates that the client received a $512 refund after using the vendor’s social engineering services to convince the retailer that they had purchased a package that was never delivered.
Image 1: A screenshot shared by a client of a DDW refund fraud vendor showing an email reply from the customer service team of a high-end clothing retailer. Since accomplishing a successful refund depends more on a vendor’s social engineering skills than on bypassing any particular type of anti-fraud measure, many vendors offer refunds for a variety of companies. These vendors offer their service in securing fraudulent refunds on behalf of clients. Refund fraud is openly discussed on the underground forums of the Deep & Dark Web (DDW), where illicit vendors offering fraudulent refund services are commonplace. Thus, the fraudster receives their chosen product at no cost. For example, fraudsters may claim they never received the item, received an empty box, items were missing from their shipments, they received the wrong item, or the item arrived in a damaged state. After delivery, the actor falsely claims that there was an issue in the delivery of the product, prompting the company to issue a refund. Refund fraud is a pervasive form of merchant abuse in which a threat actor purchases a product from an online store and has it shipped to their home or a drop site. Unfortunately, these policies can be susceptible to various forms of merchant abuse.
#Making fake receipts driver#
Recognizing customer satisfaction as a key driver of retention, many retailers have implemented generous refund or replacement policies.
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