Liar buyer

A customer who buys something with their own card, keeps it, and then falsely tells their bank it was never delivered or unauthorized, to get a refund.

The purchase was real and the person got what they paid for, but they later claim otherwise so they can have the item and the money.

A form of friendly fraud, meaning the cardholder committing it is the genuine account holder, not an outside attacker. They complete a legitimate purchase and later file a false chargeback claiming non-delivery or lack of authorization, keeping both the merchandise and the refund.

A liar buyer scheme typically unfolds like this:

1. The customer places a normal order with their own card.
2. The merchant ships the goods, and the customer receives them.
3. The customer contacts their bank and claims the order never arrived or was not authorized.
4. The bank issues a chargeback, and the merchant loses the money and the goods.

The usual claims fall into two groups:

• Item not received, where the customer says the package never arrived.
• Unauthorized transaction, where the customer says they did not make the purchase.

Liar buyers sit next to terms that are easy to mix up:

• Friendly fraud is the broader category, which also includes honest mistakes such as not recognizing a charge on a statement.
• First-party fraud is any fraud by a genuine account holder, and a liar buyer is one example.
• Chargeback is the dispute process that the liar buyer abuses.