The Refund Fraud Economy: Exploiting Major Retailers and Payment Platforms

## Executive summary Flare's analysis of thousands of posts in fraud-focused communities reveals a growing underground economy where procedural refund-fraud techniques are packaged and sold as tutorials and services, enabling low-skilled actors to exploit retailer return workflows and payment dispute systems at scale, targeting major platforms such as Amazon, PayPal, Apple, eBay, Walmart, and Best Buy.