New Scam

1. Customer checks out with credit card
2. Customer contacts merchant to cancel the order
3. Customer claims the card was temporary and asks that a different card or checking account be refunded

Merchants processing correctly are protected as they can only refund the card which was used. However, merchants using a POS can be hoodwinkled in to refunding the new card/checking account.

Rule of thumb is to report these to your acquirer and NEVER refund any other card that the card used for the purchase. You shouldn't be manually processing anyways, but I know many still do.

~Melanie

Ugh what a headache. Well, thanks for warning the community.

VISA and MasterCard merchant guidelines state for just this reason that you should only ever process a refund to the card with which it was made. However, some merchants do offer such returns in store credit and may get burned.

This is basically a scam preying on people not versed in fraud prevention techniques.

Thanks for your alert Melanie!

Cheers / Frank