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Countering 'Fraudulent' disputes

Preparing evidence to submit to the banks for review

Erik Dreyer avatar
Written by Erik Dreyer
Updated over 2 months ago

IMPORTANT:

Goodshuffle does not decide who wins or loses a dispute. We work with you to compile evidence and submit it to the proper financial partners and card issuers.


Reason for Dispute

This is the most common reason for a dispute and happens when a cardholder claims that they didn’t authorize the payment. This can happen if the card was lost or stolen and used to make a fraudulent purchase. It can also happen if the cardholder doesn’t recognize the payment as it appears on the billing statement from their card issuer.

How to respond

Contact your customer first. Sometimes customers forget about payments they make or don’t recognize the way they appear on their card statement. If this is the case, ask them to contact their card issuer and let them know they no longer dispute the transaction. Even if your customer agrees to withdraw the dispute, you must still submit appropriate evidence. Simply saying that your customer is going to withdraw the dispute isn’t sufficient evidence.

It might be more efficient—and provide a better customer experience—to accept an accidental dispute and charge the customer again, if appropriate. Even when a dispute is withdrawn, it usually takes approximately 75 days to be finalized. Remember, it doesn’t matter to the card networks whether you win or lose a dispute; what matters is how many disputes a business receives, regardless of how many disputes are won.

If you believe the payment was actually made using a stolen credit card, you must accept the dispute. The credit card networks place liability for accepting fraudulent payments with you, the business. However, if you believe the dispute is invalid, you can attempt to prove this by submitting the appropriate evidence.

Required to overturn dispute

Provide adequate payment and order details so that a legitimate customer recognizes it, or proves to the card issuer that their cardholder authorized the transaction.

In addition to the following evidence, your submission should include correspondence with the cardholder saying they would withdraw the dispute, and a written statement from their card issuer confirming that the dispute has been withdrawn.

Submitting Evidence

You can submit evidence by locating the dispute record on the billing tab of the project and clicking the "Counter Dispute" button. This will take you to a dedicated page where you will fill out the available form fields and attach any files you have based on the types of evidence below. Review our Formatting Files article for best practices.

Types of Evidence

  • Customer Communication: Evidence (for example, photographs or emails) to prove a link between the person receiving products and the cardholder, or proving that the cardholder disputing the transaction is using the service.

  • Customer Signature: Evidence that the person who signed for the products was authorized to sign for—or is known by—the cardholder.

  • Service Date / Documentation: Documentation showing proof that a service was provided to the cardholder, including the date that the cardholder received or began receiving the purchased service in a clear human-readable format. This could include a copy of a signed contract, Receipt of Goods and Services, or other form of written agreement.

Other Types of Evidence

  • A signed order form for products purchased by mail or phone order

  • Evidence that the transaction was completed by a member of the cardholder’s family or household

  • Evidence of one or more non-disputed payments for the same products

  • For recurring payments, evidence of a legally binding contract held between your business and the cardholder, that the cardholder is using the products, and of any previous payments not disputed

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