Royal Mail: Customers Requesting Data Deletion to Obfuscate Fraudulent Returns Claims

For sellers shipping from the UK to the USA, we have observed a concerning and emerging trend where customers request Royal Mail to erase their personal or tracking data. This is not an isolated incident; we have seen multiple occurrences, and each instance has subsequently been followed by a fraudulent refund claim - usually an Amazon A-to-Z claim or something similar.

Royal Mail explicitly states that "The customer data for this order has been erased at the request of the user," clearly indicating an attempt by customers to obscure or delay verification of delivery status to support fraudulent return claims.

This issue raises several critical questions:

• Is this becoming a common practice experienced by other sellers?
• How are you currently handling or preventing these situations?
• What effective strategies or preventative measures can we collectively adopt to safeguard our businesses against such claims?

Does anyone know what proactive steps Amazon is taking (if any) to prevent this type of customer fraud?

I would greatly appreciate any insights or recommendations from others who've experienced similar issues or have successfully managed to mitigate these risks.