British shoppers top Europe in refund abuse as 37% admit to or plan return fraud
British shoppers are the most likely in Europe to engage in refund abuse, with 37% saying they have or plan to abuse return policies, according to new research by fraud prevention platform Ravelin that surveyed over 6,000 consumers across the UK, France and Germany. More than one in four consumers (27%) openly admit to abusing refund policies, and the research shows that 98% of those who attempt it succeed in getting away with the fraud. The study surveyed over 6,000 shoppers in the UK, France and Germany, and the British Retail Consortium’s finance advisor labelled refund abuse a serious problem requiring serious attention.
Occasional abusers, defined as those who commit refund fraud once per year, report an average gain of £390 per claim. Frequent abusers, who make four or more attempts annually, earn an average of £491 per claim. Nearly two-thirds (60%) of refund abusers say they are committing the fraud as often or more often than in previous years. Common forms of refund abuse include wardrobing, item swapping and false delivery claims, while fraudsters increasingly use AI tools to create fake images that falsify evidence of non‑delivery or damage.
“Our research shows refund abuse becoming more prevalent and normalised,” Martin Sweeney, CEO of Ravelin said.
What we know
Their research, which surveyed over 6,000 consumers across the UK, France and Germany, found that over a third (37%) of British consumers have engaged in, or plan to engage in, refund abuse – higher than both France (33%) and Germany (25%).
More than one in four consumers (27%) openly admit to abusing refund policies – and a staggering 98% of those who attempt it get away with it.
Ravelin’s research found that occasional abusers (once per year) report earning an average of €/£390 per claim, but the most frequent abusers (4+ attempts per year) gain an average of €/£491 per claim.
Nearly two-thirds (60%) of refund abusers say they are doing it as often, or more often, than in previous years.
AI is accelerating the problem as fraudsters use AI tools to generate fake images to falsify evidence.