Friendly fraud, also known as chargeback fraud, occurs when a consumer makes a purchase with their own credit card, receives the purchased goods or services, and then requests a chargeback from the card-issuing bank rather than seeking a legitimate refund from the merchant. Once the bank approves the chargeback, the transaction is reversed and the consumer receives their money back while typically keeping what they bought; depending on the payment method used, the merchant, rather than the consumer, can be left accountable for the loss.
Facts
Elements of OffenseConsumer buys with their own credit card, then requests a chargeback from the issuing bank after receiving the goods or services 1 Jurisdiction VariationEurope: a variant involving bank transfers (SEPA recalls) rather than credit card payments has been documented 1 Classification
Offense GradeMinor or Summary Offense 1 Connections
Has Offense Grade
Entity-backed identity for the offense-grade enum value this offense already carries, resolved to a crime concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The offense-grade fact itself stays on the offense unchanged.
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Europe, found in there.
Sources
1. Friendly fraud (Wikipedia)
Lead paragraph, first sentence
occurs when a consumer makes a purchase with their own credit card, and then requests a chargeback from the issuing bank after receiving the purchased goods or services
History
a new variant of friendly fraud, involving bank transfers as opposed to credit card payments, has been documented in Europe
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