Facebook Marketplace and Stripe Fraud Problem

PixelPusher101

Hello all.

I sold an item for £20 on Facebook Marketplace. Facebook suggested using their new Stripe integration to take payments and send items via Evri/Hermes. So I set it up, received the money and also had proof of delivery including a doorstep photo.

About a week or so later I had an email
from Stripe stating that the transaction was fraudulent as the card owner reported it as fraud. When I contacted Stripe, they were very dismissive, but found out that the buyer had used a US based credit card from a US bank with no bank address. I don’t understand how Stripe could allow a payment to be taken without a billing address. So clearly the buyer had used card details that were not their own. On indie film, I realised there were also several mysterious attempts to take money from me via Stripe, but all had luckily failed.

The dispute raised against me (and not the buyer for some reason) means Stripe has taken the £20 back from my bank account, and also charged £15 in fees! They also stated that if I appeal the dispute the likelihood of winning may be low. Despite providing evidence of Facebook marketplace and chat screenshots, order evidence, delivery evidence, buyer address and Facebook account, etc. I will need to wait many months until I get a response back.

I contacted local police who cannot help but advised to contact Action Fraud, however they also responded saying there’s ‘no line of enquiry to pursue’.

After a Google search, I found out that there are several others out there eve have had exactly the same or similar issue with Stripe. It seems like their platform is clearly vulnerable to fraud, and they are making a profit from fraud victims. I’m shocked that the service exists and is promoted by Facebook.

I am not sure what else I can do, I’m stuck. Can anyone please advise?

soolin

There was another thread as well as the one you found about this which I posted on as well. I am resisting any suggestion by PayPal that I use their payment system, I am perfectly happy managing it all myself using PayPal. As I said on the thread (which I can’t yet find) the Facebook system is being rolled out in the US and there are certainly problems out there, possibly still only a small percentage but very similar and no real solution has been suggested.

I know there is a move to make marketplace more profitable, all those sales don’t net facebook any money at all. There are suggestions that all postable items will eventually have to be paid for via the Marketplace system as in the US (and be warned they also take a charge as commission as well) but despite MSE itself giving a firm date of Feb 2022 there is no actual sign of this happening imminently. Personally I would suggest people stay away from managed sales on marketplace until forced into it.

Going back to your issue what sort of terms and conditions did Stripe offer when you signed up, is there anything in there about chargebacks and seller protection that you can use?