Facing an $8,200 return scam from a US customer. They returned cookies instead of product. What are my options?

★★★ signal-strong r/ecommerce · ↑ 185 · 💬 113 · 2026-03-12 · kw: buy box price · open on reddit ↗

Tool

none

Issue

Cross-border e-commerce seller based in Singapore lost $8,232 to return fraud scam from US customer who shipped back cookies and empty boxes instead of high-value batteries, with no effective recourse through payment processors or law enforcement.

Cost

$8,232

Recommendation

File police report, FBI mail fraud report, threaten/pursue legal action (disputed effectiveness); implement website security controls: IP rate limiting, geographic filtering, fraud detection filters (consensus from commenters, but noted as ineffective post-incident)

Date context

2026-03-12

extracted with

anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5 · 2026-05-08

Body

I’m running an e-commerce operation based in Singapore, and we just got hit with a sophisticated "zero-dollar-buy" scam by a customer in the US. Total potential loss is around $8,232. The situation is wild: The customer kept claiming "lost items" and "shipment errors" without a shred of evidence. We finally pushed for a return of the items they claimed were "wrong." Out of the 5 packages they sent back: 1 box was literally filled with cookies the other 4 boxes have carrier-recorded weights of less than 1kg (the actual products should be heavy, high-value batteries). It’s clear mail fraud. We have the weight discrepancies as proof, but being based in SG makes it feel like we have no leverage. How do you guys handle this? Edit: this is a direct sale

Top comments (5)

[score=84] lucerndia

File a police report in their district, file a report for mail fraud with post master general, the FBI for fraud, threaten to sue, actually sue, etc.

[score=29] jmoneymain

I’ve had something similar done to my company except the fraud was closer to $150,000. Filed a police report and filled out all these forms for the FBI and what not. Neither could do anything and never saw the light of day. What they did was use stolen credit cards and ship it to the stolen credit cards house, then intercept the package. Couldn’t tell it was fraud until out of nowhere we have 100 disputes. We couldn’t get a dime back. Everything we tried from the police to insurance to the payment processor said nope. So what we did is have the dev team up the security on the website. Limit ip addresses. Only 1 order from an ip address per day, only us ip addresses allowed on the site, only 5 orders within a certain time period, more fraud filters etc etc

[score=13] CricktyDickty

The cookies are an interesting FU gesture. It’s above and beyond a regular scam. I’m interested to know more about the whole ordering process.

[score=8] AmeriC0N

Was this a direct sale? Or through a third-party platform such as eBay? It makes a big difference knowing where the sale occurred.

[score=5] shaghaiex

My legal advice would be: do not throw good money after bad money. Do the free stuff, report to police in their district, do NOT involve a layer. Even if you win, it doesn't mean you get your money back - and you still have the layers fee.