Thread: Strange situation

Someone just told me they placed an online order and then after checking around discovered the company was a scam. When they tried to report the transaction to their credit card company, and try for a chargeback, they were told that the payment hadn't been officially requested. Why would that be the case?

I don't know how that works - those scammers have it all figured out - but you can count on one thing: that transaction will be processed at some point.

Maybe they got caught and ran or were closed down before they could collect? That would be wonderful, but it's probably not the case. maybe they are incompetent thieves?

Thanks for the replies. As I type it seems there has still been no effort to claim the money, so I would hope it means they have been run off. The frustrating thing is that a chargeback can't be instigated until they do request it. I think they have a few months to do that, so it would be easy to forget to monitor the situation.

Originally Posted by JimStewart

Someone just told me they placed an online order and then after checking around discovered the company was a scam. When they tried to report the transaction to their credit card company, and try for a chargeback, they were told that the payment hadn't been officially requested. Why would that be the case?

It's not as complex as people make it out to be. If the transaction just happened, it will show up as "pending" until the merchant closes their batch and the transaction settles. Until then, nothing you can do about a chargeback. Some banks like Chase will remove it from your account if they spot it as fraud but the transaction is "technically" still there, you just aren't bothered by it.