Retail has spent the last decade perfecting frictionless commerce through one-click checkouts, instant refunds and no-questions-asked returns. But the same systems designed to remove doubt and delay from the customer journey have inadvertently shifted the risk down to the merchants. The policies that now form the baseline of customer expectations of convenience exist in a grey area between fair use and exploitation – sometimes intentional, sometimes not, rarely perceived as criminal, but always costly.
When it comes to friendly fraud, the real challenge is no longer choosing between security and experience, but restoring the authenticity of transactions, ensuring genuine customers are protected without leaving genuine merchants to absorb every failure of trust.
Friendly Fraud and the Motivations Behind it
Odd as it seems to pair “friendly” with “fraud”, friendly fraud describes situations where customers later dispute credit card transactions they actually authorized, whether out of confusion, forgetfulness or an attempt to avoid the cost.
Unfortunately, customers filing false fraud claims despite being satisfied with their purchases are not rare occurrences. According to a recent report, friendly fraud rose globally from 15% in 2023 to 36% in 2024, making it the most reported fraud category, with predictions that this trend is likely to continue through 2026.
The line between ethical and unethical customer behavior is becoming increasingly blurred, revealing an imbalance of power that makes it easier for some shoppers to use chargebacks as leverage rather than as a fraud safeguard, whether over slow deliveries, perceived unfair practices or simply because they know their bank will likely side with them.
Financial stress is a commonly cited motivator that drives some consumers to engage in unethical behavior, such as disputing purchases and abusing return policies, to save money. What’s more shocking is that there is an entire Fraud-as-a-Service ecosystem thriving online, evidently keen on democratizing fraud. Ranging from refund “hacks” and tutorials to sketchy “FaaS” tools, it has become easier than ever for a layman to take advantage of the system.
A survey by Sift found that 22% of customers have come across online fraud tutorials, most commonly on platforms like TikTok (34%) and Facebook (29%). While around 10% admit they have tried similar approaches, such as returning items after use, 20% say they might consider it during times of financial distress.
Merchants Feel the Impact on Multiple Fronts
Now, what usually happens to the retailer when a customer raises a dispute with their bank, claiming a legitimate transaction was unauthorized? Firstly, the retailer loses the product or service, then the revenue from the sale, followed by the operational cost of fulfillment and support, and the chargeback itself, often with added fees, penalties, and VAT. In the U.S, merchants lose approximately $4.61 for every $1 in chargebacks.
It doesn’t stop there. A high volume of disputes or chargebacks triggers monitoring and raises risk scores, which can lead to stricter authorization thresholds and lower approval rates for a retailer’s future transactions. Besides, customer support, operations and finance teams often divert significant time to gathering documentation, handling disputes and processing refunds – resources that could otherwise be spent on improving the customer experience or driving growth. Over time, this strain can make payment performance harder to predict, damage brand perception and eat into profit margins.
Where Legacy Fraud Systems are Falling Behind Modern Attack Patterns
Card-scheme monitoring frameworks are designed to manage fraud and dispute ratios at scale. Still, many of these models were built around older definitions of risk that do not fully distinguish between true fraud and disputes initiated by the cardholder, including friendly fraud. As a result, the metrics that combine fraud reports and chargebacks into a single performance ratio can disproportionately place pressure on acquirers and merchants when dispute volumes rise, regardless of the underlying cause.
Because these programs typically measure risk as a percentage of total transaction volume, their impact can vary depending on scale. This makes it trickier for merchants because larger acquirers with substantial transaction volumes may have more flexibility within threshold limits, while smaller acquirers can reach monitoring triggers more quickly, potentially facing additional fees, closer scrutiny or operational constraints.
In effect, legacy approaches to fraud assessment may not always align with the nuanced realities of modern dispute patterns, placing greater financial strain, compliance pressure and risk exposure on retailers.
How Retailers can Reduce Chargebacks and Protect Margins
What makes friendly fraud so challenging is that it involves real customers disputing legitimate transactions, making it seem inexplicable without the right behavioral and payment data. Since the transaction itself is valid, traditional fraud signals often fail to flag the issue, leaving retailers to deal with the consequences only after a dispute is filed.
Reducing friendly fraud requires a coordinated strategy that protects revenue without affecting genuine customers. It starts with clarity – setting transparent refund policies and applying verification thoughtfully in higher-risk situations to discourage misuse without creating unnecessary friction. But policies alone are not enough; they also require visibility.
It’s important to recognize patterns across customers, regions and products. Payment data can reveal repeated refund behavior, unusual timing, inconsistent delivery claims or spikes in product returns – signals that are nearly impossible to collate manually at scale. However, identifying these trends becomes much easier when payment activity is consolidated through a single layer.
That’s where payment orchestration comes in. Centralizing data from every provider gives merchants a unified view of transactions, declines, refunds and chargebacks. This broader visibility allows retailers to spot warning signs early, assess risk more accurately and intervene before issues escalate. Supported by real-time decisioning and intelligent routing, merchants can also stabilize authorization performance and reduce unnecessary reversals.
Visibility aside, orchestration reframes how payments are managed day to day. A centralized control layer reduces instability caused by avoidable declines, addresses temporary failures before they turn into customer frustration and strengthens dispute responses through consistent, consolidated transaction records. Risk signals can be applied dynamically as patterns surface, rather than reactively after losses have already occurred, while securely managing stored credentials to reduce avoidable disputes.
Beyond Infrastructure
Communication is just as important as infrastructure when dealing with friendly fraud. Proactively communicating with customers can help reduce preventable disputes to an extent. Regular updates, clear billing descriptors and responsive support can resolve confusion early, particularly in cases where consumers dispute a charge out of misunderstanding rather than intent.
That said, customers who intentionally exploit dispute processes are unlikely to be deterred by communication alone. Disputing a charge can seem like a quick, inconsequential shortcut. However, customers should understand that filing illegitimate disputes can carry real consequences, including legal action, account suspension or termination, blacklisting from services, and negative records that may affect future transactions. Here, customer education becomes essential.
While these measures and capabilities cannot eliminate friendly fraud, they significantly improve a retailer’s ability to detect issues early, manage exposure proactively and contain disputes before they disrupt payment performance or destabilize revenue flows.
John Lunn is the Founder and CEO of Gr4vy, a cloud-native payment orchestration platform designed to simplify and scale digital payments for merchants.
