Refundjacking: Why Retailers Are Losing the War on Policy Abuse

The scale of the problem is significant, with 98% of abuse attempts resulting in a successful payout for the shopper. Among the markets surveyed, the UK leads with 37% of consumers engaging in or planning to engage in policy abuse, outpacing France at 33% and Germany at 25%. These activities range from returning used items or empty boxes to falsely claiming goods never arrived. Financial incentives drive this behavior; occasional offenders net an average of €390 per claim, while serial abusers—those hitting the system more than four times annually—extract an average of €491 per incident.

Retailers are struggling to maintain margins while navigating this spike in fraud. Chris Owen, policy advisor for finance at the British Retail Consortium, notes that this financial drain ultimately forces costs higher for all consumers. The challenge for merchants lies in distinguishing between genuine customer service needs and malicious intent. Martin Sweeney, CEO of Ravelin, warns that AI tools are now further complicating detection by automating fake customer service requests and generating fraudulent evidence. Because blanket policies often penalize honest shoppers, experts suggest that retailers must pivot toward data-driven behavioral analysis to identify and block specific cohorts of abusers rather than applying broad, restrictive rules.