Ravelin flags the rise of the refundjacker as dishonesty becomes normalised among shoppers
Refundjacking - where shoppers gain from a company’s refund policies - is becoming one of e-commerce’s biggest challenges. New research from fraud prevention platform Ravelin revealed 27% of people openly admit to abusing refund policies.
The research is based on a survey of 6,282 consumers, drawn from the UK (2,115), Germany (2,095), and France (2,072) who have shopped online in the last six months.
98% of attempts to take advantage of these systems are successful. 37% of UK consumers have engaged in, or plan to engage in, refund abuse, according to the major European markets surveyed, making the UK the highest rate of refundjacking - higher than France (33%) and Germany (25%).
Behaviours include gaming refund and return polices, falsely claiming goods never arrived, returning items after using them or sending back empty boxes or dummy returns while keeping the original product. Research shows that occasional abusers are earning an average of €/£390 per claim, where shoppers who abuse the policies more than four times a year can an average of €/£491 per claim.
The British Retail Consortium’s Policy Advisor for Finance, Chris Owen, comments “The growth of refund abuse is putting unnecessary financial drain on retailers at a time when margins are already under intense pressure. The result is lost revenue and higher costs, meaning everyone ends up paying more. It’s a serious problem which requires serious attention. The BRC is working with our members and others to tackle this growing problem.”
“This is no longer a fringe behaviour,” says Martin Sweeney, CEO at Ravelin. “Our research shows refund abuse becoming more prevalent and normalised. People aren’t sneaking around the edges of policy anymore - they’re openly breaking the rules, sharing tips on how to cheat the system, and justifying it as fair game. Merchants face a challenge to balance great experiences for good customers, while discouraging or blocking abusive behaviours.”
AI is enabling refund abusers and making them harder to detect by automating letters to customer service or generating fake images to falsify evidence. Despite the scale of the issue, many e-commerce brands continue to rely on blanket responses. By tightening policies across the board, merchants risk making shopping harder for all customers and undermining brand loyalty, Ravelin argues.
75% of shoppers polled in its study agree that those who abuse refund policies make online shopping less pleasant or less convenient for honest customers. Making the right judgment call on refund abuse can be difficult. The research suggests many refund abusers would desist if merchants were tougher with them.
Sweeney says: “The most efficient response involves using your own data to your advantage. The better a merchant understands the different cohorts of refund abusers, the more they can tailor their approaches to the problem. Blanket rules treat every customer as a risk - and that simply doesn’t work anymore. Retailers need to focus on behaviour, intent and patterns over time. When you target abuse more intelligently, you protect revenue without undermining the shopping experience for everyone else – and that’s the balance the industry now has to strike.”
2026 RTIH Innovation Awards
E-commerce will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.
The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.
Check out our 2025 winners here.
Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.
In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”
“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”
He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”
Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.
