Victim of fraud, but I have to pay the fee!

nevadaparadise17

Hey guys, first post here and I think I got it in the right section. If not, please move for me.

Long story short, I have a very small shop online where I sell digital goods. All card payments are done through Stripe.com. Recently, a transaction was reported as fraudulent, but I had no possible way of knowing that at the time. A chargeback has now started.

Now, Stripe.com wants to take the money back from me plus an extortionately high fee. Surely I can't be held responsible for their system not flagging the transaction up as fraud? And surely I'm not liable to pay this fee?


The bottom line is that I am the victim here. Whoever has bought from me has charged back their payment, but it's the fee that the "bank" wants to take which I have issue with. I should not be liable or responsible to pay any fee incurred, as I'm the victim at this point.

To me, this situation is the same as a poor old woman being mugged, and then thrown in jail for being mugged, and then charged for the night she spent in jail.

Can anybody offer any advice?

thanks

StopIt

You're a little bit off here I'm afraid.


The person who suffered fraud (And I'm assuming that this is a legitimate claim) is the victim here and thus they have done a chargeback, as is their right. Yes, there is a chargeback fee, and that is charged to the retailer. In this case, you.


Yes, you are held liable, no it's not particularly fair for small retailers but it's standard fare. If the chargeback claim is illegitimate, you would have to file a counterclaim to stop the chargeback and the fraudulent claimant will be charged the fee.


What was the chargeback for and what was sold?

Marktheshark

It is a tax loss, hand it over to your accountant end of year.

nevadaparadise17

Wow that's really daft.

So what is happening is that the person whose card it is has been defrauded. Then I've been defrauded because it has been charged back with a fee attached. So surely I could file something back because I'm the victim of fraud.

Is this fee actually justified?

If this is indeed fraud, then I have no problem handing the money back - it was only £4 anyway, and it cost me virtually nothing to manufacture, so it's only a small loss.

It's just that I object to the fee they are trying to impose.

StopIt

nevadaparadise17 wrote: »

Wow that's really daft.

So what is happening is that the person whose card it is has been defrauded. Then I've been defrauded because it has been charged back with a fee attached. So surely I could file something back because I'm the victim of fraud.

Is this fee actually justified?

If this is indeed fraud, then I have no problem handing the money back - it was only £4 anyway, and it cost me virtually nothing to manufacture, so it's only a small loss.

It's just that I object to the fee they are trying to impose.

Then take up the fee with the company who processed your payments if you feel it is disproportionate. Remember they take no liability for the transaction, they just handle the payment infrastructure.


You're not a victim of fraud here, you're a retailer and the person who presumably had their card details stolen in order to buy something from you is the victim.

Marktheshark

Here is some advice, ask your card paying customers for some ID with a picture on if paying by card.
Or just pass the charges on to your accountant to deal with.

nevadaparadise17

Okay, so tell me how I'm not the victim of fraud. I've had products taken from me fraudulently.

Whilst I appreciate the advice, I don't think you're entirely correct with the responses. One way or another, I have been defrauded.

Mark - I don't have an accountant, I only started this tax year and do everything through self assessment. Also, as it is all online, i have no real way of accepting photo ID

Kayalana99

StopIt wrote: »

Then take up the fee with the company who processed your payments if you feel it is disproportionate. Remember they take no liability for the transaction, they just handle the payment infrastructure.


You're not a victim of fraud here, you're a retailer and the person who presumably had their card details stolen in order to buy something from you is the victim.

There is a victim of fraud here, but then why does the business have to up the cost? The person who is at fault is whoever committed the fraud ant transaction. The OP has still been stolen from though, as he/she has sent an item off and that person now has that for free.

Maybe OP does have to foot this cost legally, but it is by no means fair that someone has essentially committed fraud and the bill is going to someone else (who ever that may be!)

Another view, the person who commited fraud has done this because of the lack of secuity from banks not protecting the money properly...so how does the bank get away with then charging the retailer?

Marktheshark

nevadaparadise17 wrote: »

Okay, so tell me how I'm not the victim of fraud. I've had products taken from me fraudulently.

Whilst I appreciate the advice, I don't think you're entirely correct with the responses. One way or another, I have been defrauded.

Mark - I don't have an accountant, I only started this tax year and do everything through self assessment. Also, as it is all online, i have no real way of accepting photo ID

I would get one quickly, you need to know how to claim loss against tax, thieves come thick and fast in retailing.

nevadaparadise17

It's not really worth bothering with an accountant now. I've shut down that store, and won't bother with it again.

I'm a YouTuber who gets 90% of profit that way, and the store was another means of earning, but I'm not prepared to take on the hassle of fraud.

meer53

I think you need to read up on "Online trading" everything will be explained there. Plus if you're taking card payments your payment processor should have explained these risks to you.