Key takeaway: Self-reported success rates near 98%, paired with admission rates well past the small minority framing merchants may still assume, suggest refund abuse will keep growing as a share of first-party fraud loss. Refund and returns teams should weigh targeted, data-driven detection of repeat offenders over blunt policy changes. Broad crackdowns risk alienating legitimate customers.
More than a quarter of online shoppers across the UK, Germany, and France openly admit to abusing merchants’ refund policies, according to new self-reported survey research from fraud prevention platform Ravelin. Among those who tried it, 98% say their attempt succeeded.
The findings come from Ravelin’s State of Refund Abuse Report, covered by Retail Technology Innovation Hub. Ravelin surveyed 6,282 consumers who had shopped online in the past six months: 2,115 in the UK, 2,095 in Germany, and 2,072 in France. It’s worth stressing these are self-reported admissions collected via survey, not verified transaction-level loss data pulled from merchant systems.
Overall, 27% admitted to abusing refund policies. The UK led at 37%, ahead of France at 33% and Germany at 25%. Named behaviors include falsely claiming goods never arrived, returning used items, and sending back empty or dummy boxes while keeping the original product.
Reported gains scale with frequency. Occasional abusers said they earned an average of €/£390 per claim. Shoppers who abuse refund policies more than four times a year reported averaging €/£491 per claim. Both figures are self-reported per-claim averages; they’re a separate metric from Ravelin’s own marketing claim, cited elsewhere in its materials, that frequent UK abusers cost merchants almost £1,000 a year.
Martin Sweeney, CEO at Ravelin, said the behavior is no longer fringe. He described shoppers openly breaking the rules, swapping tips on how to cheat the system, and treating it as fair game. Chris Owen, Policy Advisor for Finance at the British Retail Consortium, said the growth in refund abuse is draining retailer margins at a time when they’re already under pressure. He added that the cost gets pushed onto everyone else.
Why it matters: Refund abuse sits in the same first-party/friendly-fraud category already straining dispute and chargeback teams. This research suggests it’s becoming normalized rather than staying a fringe behavior. Ravelin’s research also flags AI as a factor making abuse harder to catch. It can automate complaint letters and generate fabricated evidence images.
Even so, 75% of surveyed shoppers say abusive customers make online shopping worse for everyone else. Ravelin cautions against blanket policy tightening in response. That risks punishing honest customers and undermining loyalty. It argues instead for behavior- and pattern-based detection targeting repeat abusers specifically.
Sources: Refund Abuse Report 2026; Retail Technology Innovation Hub