I want to bring to your attention a serious issue affecting sellers that we have identified and thoroughly investigated over the past several months. This ongoing fraud is resulting in massive financial losses, and it is happening across multiple sellers. After escalating this issue to Amazon, we are yet to see meaningful action, so I am posting here to raise awareness and hear from others who might be facing the same problem.
The Refund Abuse: How It Works
This fraud primarily affects non-returnable items and follows a clear pattern that allows buyers to exploit Amazon’s refund system while keeping the product. Here’s what we have observed:
A fraudulent buyer places an order for a non-returnable item on Amazon, often through Amazon Prime.
The order is successfully delivered, with tracking confirmation, GPS proof, and a delivery image.
The buyer then requests a refund, citing a random reason (e.g., “wrong item,” “damaged,” etc.).
Since the product is non-returnable, Amazon processes the refund immediately, without requiring the buyer to return the item.
The buyer keeps both the item and the refund, while we as sellers lose both inventory and revenue.
Key Red Flags We Have Identified
Orders are always for non-returnable ASINs (suggesting deliberate targeting).
Amazon grants refund automatically, without verifying claims or requiring returns as it is a non-returnable product.
These buyers do not contact us directly—we only find out after the refund is processed, but there is still no contact from the buyer.
No A-to-Z claims are filed, no returns are requested, and no seller dispute process is followed.
Expansion of the Fraud: External Marketplaces Involved
We recently discovered that this refund fraud is from sellers from other marketplaces such as eBay and OnBuy. Here’s what we found:
A third-party seller lists a product on eBay or OnBuy at a lower price than on Amazon.
A customer places an order on that external marketplace.
Instead of fulfilling the order themselves, the external seller places an order on Amazon (using Prime) with the buyer address who placed the order on that external marketplace, and that Amazon seller (we) ship directly to the buyers address, which is actually the address of the order of that external platform.
The order gets delivered successfully as a Prime order.
After delivery, the external seller fraudulently claims a refund on Amazon, knowing that the product is non-returnable.
Amazon refunds them immediately, allowing them to keep both their profit and the product, while we take a complete loss. Even a Safe-T claim will not be passed as it is a non-returnable product.
Proof of This Exploit – A Test We Conducted
To verify this, we placed an order on OnBuy for £18 and shortly after, the same order appeared in our Amazon store for £35. THis is aproduct only we offer so it of course came to us. This confirmed that OnBuy sellers are simply placing orders on Amazon for higher prices and later exploiting Amazon’s refund system to get their money back.
It can be OnBuy, eBay or any external channel for that matter.
The phone number on the Amazon order was slightly modified (e.g., changing the last two digits), preventing us from contacting the actual customer. This suggests a deliberate effort to block verification and avoid being caught. And of course, we cannot verify customers by calling them an every order basis.
Our Attempts to Resolve This with Amazon
We have submitted SAFE-T claims for such orders.
These orders have successful delivery proof, yet refunds are granted automatically.
Amazon Seller Support and the Safe-T claims team, keeps responding with a generic response saying the item is non-returnable and the refund was "seller responsibility."
Despite providing clear evidence of fraud, Amazon has not taken any meaningful action to stop this.
The Financial Impact on Sellers
This loophole is being exploited daily, and Amazon’s refund policies are making it easy for fraudulent buyers and resellers to take advantage of sellers.
Raise awareness—if this has happened to you, share your experiences below or check your refunds for such a pattern.
Check your refunded orders for a pattern of non-returnable items being refunded.
Look out for orders that are identical to external marketplace sales—you may find that another seller is using Amazon to fulfill their orders and then fraudulently claiming refunds.
Escalate cases beyond standard Seller Support—we have contacted the Amazon UK Managing Director’s Office, Executive Escalations Team, and CEO Office to push for change.
Pressure Amazon to investigate and change its refund policy on non-returnable items—refunds should require at least some verification instead of being granted automatically.
Amazon needs to reimburse sellers affected by this, as this is a clear fraudulent pattern and genuine sellers are penalised for this.
We believe the following actions should be taken:
Reimburse affected sellers for wrongly denied SAFE-T claims. How these can be verified is the issue, but at least the sellers who have ben affected have evidence of a successful delivery.
Stop issuing automatic refunds for non-returnable items without verification or a process to prevent the fraudulent pattern.
Investigate and take action against buyer accounts showing a pattern of refund abuse.
If you have faced similar issues, please comment below!
Let’s work together to make Amazon aware of this issue and push for changes that protect sellers from this growing fraud.
I hope the moderators are looking in to this as well.
@Seller_mIRnuhdx7l5sN@Seller_Huz6FT08OxHAR@Seller_DNQGSsdC7DccM
