How to Win a Merchant Dispute or Fraudulent Chargeback Case

By Gini Graham Scott PhD

How to Win a Merchant Dispute or Fraudulent Chargeback Case features ways to deal with disputes from customers and clients about products and services and what to do about fraudulent credit card chargebacks.  It describes working things out with legitimate customers and clients if possible, so they withdraw the dispute.  If that isn't possible, the book discusses deciding whether to fight or walk away from a dispute because of the time and effort involved in fighting it.  Should you decide to fight back, the book discusses how to respond to common claims that the product wasn't received or wasn't accepted. It also discusses ways to avoid fraudulent chargeback claims and how to counter different types of fraud.  The book includes examples of my responses to different types of claims involving banks, payment processing services, and credit card companies.

GINI GRAHAM SCOTT, PhD, JD, is a nationally known writer, consultant, speaker, and seminar leader, specializing in business and work relationships, professional and personal development, social trends, popular culture, science, crime, and children's picture books. She has published over 50 books with major publishers. She is the founder of Changemakers Publishing, featuring 150+ books on work, business, psychology, self-help, and social trends. She has worked with dozens of clients on self-help, business books, memoirs, and film scripts. She has written and executive produced 18 feature films, documentaries, and TV/film series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Changemakers Publishing
• Release date: Sep 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215721728

Gini Graham Scott PhD

Gini Graham Scott is a screenplay writer, executive producer, and TV game show developer, plus a nonfiction writer who has published over 200 books, 50 for traditional publishers and 150 for her own company Changemakers Publishing. She also writes, reviews, and ghostwrites scripts and books for clients. She has written scripts for 20 feature films and has written and executive produced 11 film and TV projects. These include Me, My Dog, and I and Rescue Me, distributed by Random Media,  Driver, distributed by Gravitas Ventures, Deadly Infidelity, distributed by Green Apple,  Death’s Door, a TV series based on a co-written book. At Death’s Door, published by Rowman & Littlefield, The New Age of Aging, distributed by Factory Films, and Reversal distributed by Shami Media Group. Several other films have just been completed or are in production: Courage to Continue and Bad Relationships She has recently developed a TV series The Neanderthals Return, based on a series of books about the Neanderthals coming back into modern society. She has written and produced over 60 short films, including dramas, book and film trailers, TV show pilots, documentaries, and promotional videos.  Her IMDB resume is at http://imdb.me/ginigrahamscott. She is the author of four books on filming, including So You Want to Turn Your Book Into a Film?, The Basic Guide to Pitching, Producing, and Distributing Your Film, and The Basic Guide to Doing Your Own Film Distribution, Finding Funds for Your Film or TV Project.  and The Complete Guide to Distributing an Indie Film. She has been hired to write over two dozen scripts for clients, adapted from their novels, memoirs, or script ideas. She reviews books for their film potential and writes treatments and scripts for three major companies that publish books and promote them for authors. Her scripts include action/adventure scripts, suspense thrillers, psychological character films, and contemporary dramas.  Some recent scripts are the sci-fi suspense thrillers Brain Swap, Dead No More, Deadly Deposit, and Reverse Murder.  Other scripts include the crime action thrillers Rich and Dead and Deadly Affair; and the suspense thriller Bankrupt.

Book preview

HOW TO WIN A MERCHANT DISPUTE

OR FRAUDULENT CHARGEBACK CASE

by Gini Graham Scott, PhD, JD

HOW TO WIN A MERCHANT DISPUTE OR FRAUDULENT CHARGEBACK CASE

Copyright © 2022 by Gini Graham Scott

All rights reserved.  No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Deciding How to Handle a Dispute or Chargeback

How to Fight and Win

PART I: DEALING WITH A MERCHANT DISPUTE

CHAPTER 1: WORKING OUT A RESOLUTION

A Problem with an Unclear Customer

Deciding Whether to Fight or Not

The Different Reasons for a Dispute

CHAPTER 2: HOW TO RESPOND TO A CLAIM A PRODUCT WASN’T RECEIVED OR WASN’T ACCEPTABLE

The Policies of Different Companies

Review What the Payment Platform Wants as Evidence

Determine How Much Time You Have to Respond

Determine the File Formats for Presenting Your Evidence

What to Include in Your Response to a Dispute

Deciding on How to Respond

PART II: RESPONDING TO MY MERCHANT DISPUTES

CHAPTER 3: WINNING A PAYPAL CLAIM BY A CON ARTIST CUSTOMER

Discovering the Book-to-Film Scam

A First Report to PayPal

New Information on the Scam

Even More Victims to Report

Responding to the Disputes by the Scammers

CHAPTER 4: RESPONDING TO A DISPUTE ON STRIPE

How It All Began

Collecting and Organizing Evidence

Submitting Evidence

Responding to the Dispute on Stripe

PART III: DEALING WITH FRAUDULENT CHARGEBACKS

CHAPTER 5: HOW A DISPUTE CAN RESULT FROM A SCAM

Using the Chargeback as a Weapon

An Example of the Dangerous Chargeback Game

How to Respond to a Fraudulent Chargeback Claim

CHAPTER 6: PROTECTING YOURSELF FROM ONLINE FRAUD THAT CAN BECOME A DISPUTE

Why Merchants and Service Providers Can Often Become Victims of Fraud

Why It’s Easy for Fraudsters to Obtain Stolen Credit Cards

Why Merchants and Service Providers Have Become an Ideal Target for Online Scams

CHAPTER 7: DEALING WITH FRAUDULENT CHARGEBACKS

The Reasons for a Chargeback Dispute

Deciding What to Do about a Friendly Fraud Chargeback

When a Win Is More Likely Against a Scam Company

How to Deal with a Fraudulent Chargeback

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR

CONTACT INFORMATION

INTRODUCTION

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Everyday problems with customers and clients are generally an ordinary part of having an online or combination online and in-person business, just like any business dealing with physical products and in-person services. Such problems can usually be fixed without escalating into disputes involving payment platforms, credit card companies, or banks.

For example, some typical problems and their fixes might be:

-  A customer doesn’t receive an online or physical delivery or receives the wrong delivery, so you deliver it again.

-  A customer doesn’t like the product that arrived by a physical delivery, so you take it back and cancel the order. Or if it’s an online delivery, you cancel the person’s ability to use the product or subscription, such as by disabling a password.

-  A client isn’t satisfied with the advice you have given, so you don’t charge for that hour or two. Then, you either provide more relevant advice in the future or stop working with that client.

-  A client misunderstands some information you have provided and so wants to cancel the payment and any further work with you. But you explain how the client can use the information you have given, so you can continue working together.

-  A customer or client doesn’t recognize your name or the source of a charge or a withdrawal from their bank, so you have to explain that it’s your charge or clarify what the amount charged or withdrawn is for.

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In short, there are numerous ways to make customers or clients happy with your products or services and work out arrangements to fix the problem or negotiate a resolution. Such a resolution might include your reducing or canceling billing or providing other products or services that the customer or client will find useful.

Thus, your first line of defense to avoid merchant disputes or chargebacks is to communicate with a customer or client to resolve the problem. And sometimes if there is a dispute or chargeback, you can quickly resolve it by speaking to the customer or client who will readily withdraw any claim.

But at times you get an unreasonable customer or client who is wrongly disputing a charge – and in some cases, you may be a victim of fraud to get a product or service from you for free or for a much-reduced amount, or even get money from you. 

Deciding How to Handle a Dispute or Chargeback

If you face a dispute or chargeback, what should you do? Should you even take the time and effort to fight the dispute or fraudulent chargeback, if it is a small amount? Or should you fight anyway, because any lost dispute or chargeback may result in problems with your merchant account or payment processor. 

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For example, if you take a loss on a number of small claims that individually aren’t worth fighting, this can increase your merchant fees or cause a loss of other benefits from your merchant account or a payment platform, such as being able to immediately get access the funds after you put through a charge. Instead, you may find new restrictions on your account, because the high number of claims may lead to your company being considered a higher risk.  Sometimes you can even face a suspension or loss of an account because of losing too many disputes. Thus, though it may be a hassle, if you face multiple disputes or claims, you may find it is better to fight back and win.

How to Fight and Win

If you do decide to fight back, how can you increase your chances of winning the battle? That’s what How to Win a Merchant Dispute or Chargeback is all about.

The book is drawn from my experience in winning most of about a dozen fights. One of the most dramatic was when I discovered a publisher I worked for as a ghostwriter was defrauding its customers by creating imposter executives from real companies in order to get customers to pay them to write more and more and invest in marketing services that went nowhere.  Eventually, I not only won a dispute in which they sought a refund for work I had completed after I stopped working for them once I discovered the scam, but I alerted the payment processor, PayPal, about how the company had been cheating its clients. Ultimately, soon after I won, PayPal cancelled their account. 

I have also drawn on the guidelines I followed in preparing evidence to support my defense against a fraudulent dispute, as well as drawn on the stories of other merchants. While such guidelines and stories may relate to dealing with a dispute involving one particular credit card company, payment processor, or bank, the strategies can be applied in dealing with any type of dispute on any platform.

To this end, the book is divided into two sections – dealing with merchant disputes and dealing with fraudulent chargebacks.  Each section covers these main topics:

-  Working out a resolution with the customer or client if possible,

-  Deciding whether to fight or not,

-  Learning how to respond to a claim,

-  Gathering the evidence that you need to fight back,

-  Taking further steps to expose a difficult client or fraudster,

Besides describing the general guidelines for responding, I will use my dispute battles to illustrate how I responded to disputes launched by customers using two major payment platforms – PayPal and Stripe. 

PART I: DEALING WITH A MERCHANT DISPUTE

CHAPTER 1: WORKING OUT A RESOLUTION

Ideally, work out a resolution with a customer when a dispute erupts, and if the customer is reasonable, you can do that. For example, if you make a mistake and provide the customer with the wrong product or service, you replace it. If the customer mistakenly orders a product or service he or she doesn’t want, you change what you are delivering or cancel the order. If there is some confusion about what the client wants, you try to clarify it before providing the service, and if the client’s confusion or lack of clarity, results in your providing the wrong service, you still try to adjust what you provided, so the customer is happy in the end. 

However, if such mix-ups keep happening with the same customer or client, stop trying to rectify things, since such they have a problem with being clear or are trying to get products or services at no charge or a reduced charge, but otherwise, do what you can to make things right.

A Problem with an Unclear Customer

For example, I had that experience with one customer.  He originally placed an order to write a query letter and send a pitch for his novel to publishers and literary agents, but then said he hoped there might be interest in turning his novel into a film.  Thus, I ended up writing a pitch to sell film rights for a novel, a pitch which goes to film producers and film agents. My mistake is I didn’t look back at his original order and explain that a pitch for film rights doesn’t go to publishers and literary agents. As a result, once he approved my letter with the subject line announcing, film rights available for..., I sent it to film producers and agents, and soon afterward, he emailed me to