Fraud with card payment (what to do and how to catch the fraudster)

There are 3 possibilities why food-clients initiate a chargeback for an order which was previously paid by card:

1. The customer simply forgot about the order.
2. The credit card was stolen and the real cardholder initiated the chargeback.
3. The customer is acting fraudulently

In order to determine which is true, we suggest you call/email the client and ask them. In case it was a mistake then you need to tell the client not to do this at their next order.

In ANY case, you need to dispute the chargeback and provide to the payment gateway all evidence you have. This includes the order confirmation, official invoice/receipt from the POS system. Ideally, the signed delivery slips that the driver kept as evidence that the delivery was completed.

In case the chargeback is won, then you get to keep the money so you are ok.

In case the chargeback is lost then it gets a bit more complicated since you are dealing with a real credit card fraudster and it will require more work to resolve and may not be worth your effort.

File a report with the police. This report MUST contain at the very minimum:
– All order details, you can get them from here: https://prntscr.com/j2bolt
– Date & time as well as the IP address from where the order was placed. See here: https://prntscr.com/j2bp1t
– If it was a delivery order include the delivery slip that the driver kept as evidence that the delivery was completed
– If it was a pickup order then include footage of the CCTV that shows the fraudster
– When you file your case with the police ask for the reference ID of your case

If you are having recurring issues with fraud, then here are some additional steps you take to avoid the problem.

1. Instruct all delivery drivers that they MUST hand over the delivery at the door, not in front of the door, not on the street. The reason for this is that the fraudsters often use a random address. Then they wait in front of the house on the street. This way they don’t give up their real address yet they still get their delivery. If the restaurant implements this policy then they can’t get their food.

2. Instruct all delivery drivers to have customers sign the delivery slip when the delivery is handed over. This will also make a stronger case for the police. Furthermore, you can also ask the drivers ask for identification and have them note down the real name.

3. Usually, there is only one fraudster responsible for more fraud orders. Unfortunately, the fraudster won’t stop until he is caught or stopped. Therefore you must file a new case for every fraud order AND you should follow up with the police on previous cases so they know that you don’t give up on this.

We have two reports, one from UK and another one from Ireland where the police helped catch the fraudster like this:

The restaurant noticed that fraud orders came all from one neighbourhood, actually the same street. The name, phone number and email was different with every order but the delivery address was always very similar.

The restaurant went to the police for each other and then he asked them to help catch the fraudster the next time at the moment the order is delivered. The police agreed and was waiting for the call from the restaurant.

The restaurant instructed his staff to verify each order from that particular neighbourhood via phone call right away in order to filter our legitimate orders.

When the fraudster ordered again he called the police. The police met the delivery guy at the restaurant and then they delivered the order together. In both cases, the fraudster was giving the delivery address of neighbours and met the delivery guy on the street for the handover.  In the moment he handed over the food the police caught him and he was charged.