"Only refund" service has become a "standard configuration" for major e-commerce platforms. However, the pursuit of undue benefits in a way that "shears wool" has caused both economic and reputational losses to merchants, sparking widespread attention and controversy.

In January 2024, the Second People's Court of Zhongshan City heard a case of e-commerce "only refund", which aroused widespread attention. In this case, buyer Li purchased a blouse priced at 20 yuan from a certain platform store, but applied for an "only refund" citing quality issues. The merchant Yang did not agree to the request and asked Li to withdraw the application or choose to return the goods for a refund. The court ruled that Li's behavior exceeded the normal limit of rights protection, used platform rules to forcibly refund, and obtained undue benefits. In the end, the court ordered Li to return the purchase price of 20 yuan to the merchant and compensate for the investigation and evidence collection costs of 500 yuan.

Behind the trial of this case, it sparked attention and discussion on the refund rules of e-commerce platforms. Some merchants complained that customers abused the "only refund" rule to obtain refunds with untrue reasons, causing losses to the merchants. It was disclosed by some merchants that a certain customer, after purchasing four products, refused to accept one, but successfully applied for a full refund, with a total amount exceeding 1800 yuan. It is said that this customer had taken similar actions many times before, and the merchant's appeal to the platform was unsuccessful. The matter has been reported to the police for handling.

On the one hand, the current application rules of "only refund" service are not clear enough, providing loopholes for consumers to exploit. On the other hand, merchants lack the right to speak in the process of rights protection, and the cost of rights protection is extremely high, putting them in a passive position. In this situation, the trilateral relationship between e-commerce platforms, consumers, and merchants is difficult to balance, causing the intensification and deepening of conflicts.

Unlawful Elements Profit from New Means: After Online Shopping, Only Refund

The "only refund" clause has been exploited by unlawful elements and evolved into a criminal chain of interests. Major e-commerce platforms are frequently disturbed by the "wool-shearing" industry chain, and both merchants and consumers are in trouble.

According to investigations, many professional "wool-shearing" organizations have organized so-called "compensation projects," which are promoted through social media and groups. These projects guide participants in how to use loopholes and fraudulent means to obtain undue compensation in the form of tutorials. They often attract participants with small fees or commissions, promising high returns.

Specifically, these criminal gangs will engage in evasive operations against the return and refund policies of e-commerce platforms, such as creating quality issues or questioning the authenticity of goods, in order to obtain refunds and earn compensation. For merchants, such behavior not only leads to huge economic losses but also damages their reputation and credibility. Consumers are also affected because such behavior leads to price increases and decreases in service quality.

Illegal Profit-making Methods: Unlawful elements profit by quickly applying for "only refunds" after purchasing goods, or questioning the authenticity of goods sold by merchants, among other methods, to earn compensation. They also exploit platform vulnerabilities, such as delayed shipments, to engage in return and refund operations.

Social Media Fuels the Fire: There is a plethora of tutorials and dissemination of information on "only refund" strategies and "compensation projects" on major social media platforms. These pieces of information induce more people to join the ranks of illegal profit-making, forming a vast industry chain.

Severe Damage to E-commerce Merchants: Many e-commerce merchants have suffered huge economic losses due to the impact of the "wool-shearing" industry chain. Some new stores and new links have become the focus of attention for unlawful elements, leading to operational difficulties for merchants.

Recently, the Shanghai police arrested multiple suspects. Investigations revealed that these criminals were not only active on one e-commerce platform but also scattered across multiple provinces and cities to commit crimes, with involved amounts reaching millions of yuan.

E-commerce Platforms' "Only Refund" Terms Are Ambiguous

Major e-commerce platforms have introduced "only refund" services, but there are certain differences in their specific application and rule execution.

In 2021, Pinduoduo took the lead in introducing the "only refund" model, stipulating that users can initiate refund requests within 15 days of confirming receipt of the goods. However, regarding the specific application of refund requests, customer service responses stated that it needs to be based on the actual situation, creating some ambiguity.

E-commerce platforms such as Taobao, JD.com, Douyin, and Kuaishou have also released related "only refund" rules. Among them, Taobao and Douyin's new regulations focus on protecting consumer rights, determining refund applicability based on platform data capabilities and multiple dimensions of merchant operations. JD.com stipulates that if merchants have serious quality issues or discrepancies in goods, the platform will consider it as merchants refusing to fulfill their obligations and support "only refund" or return and refund.

Merchants: How to Prevent Fraud in "Only Refund"

Unlawful elements exploit e-commerce platforms' "only refund" policies, registering multiple accounts or using software/scripts for automated operations to gain more benefits, causing significant economic losses to platforms and merchants. Merchants not only need to establish more comprehensive business control systems but also integrate risk prevention into every aspect of daily operations.

Firstly, identify and alert risky IP addresses. Access IP risk libraries to match the associated IP addresses of suspicious "only refund" users for risk identification, recognizing risks such as proxies and high-speed dial-up IPs, and intercepting malicious IP addresses.

Secondly, identify and alert risky devices. Verify whether the Device Fingerprinting of suspicious "only refund" users' client is legitimate and detect risks such as injection, hooking, and emulators. Recognize risks such as device rooting, jailbreaking, and hijacking. Identify abnormal behaviors such as multiple activations of the same device, abnormal concentration of the same IP in a short time, abnormal proportion of old device models, and abnormal proportion of old operating systems in the same channel.

Furthermore, identify and intercept risky accounts.

Detect abnormal account behaviors of suspicious "only refund" users and deploy strategies based on user behavior, controlling accounts that switch between devices frequently to initiate orders. Identify abnormal verification environment information and tokens during verification completion to promptly detect abnormal and risky operations.

Lastly, analyze and predict future changes in risky behaviors.

Establish a dynamic operation and maintenance mechanism for local blacklists based on registration, login, and activation data. Model registration, login, ordering, and purchasing behaviors based on accumulated risk control and business data. Model outputs can be directly used in risk control strategies.

Fraud in "only refund" schemes constantly evolves with rapidly changing methods. New attack methods adjust existing preventive measures or even become immune to them. Traditional measures may not promptly identify and warn against new risks. Moreover, many e-commerce platform security processes are prone to contradictions or conflicts, which can directly impact order transactions and store operations in case of misjudgment. Therefore, merchants need to actively comply with regulations, cooperate with refunds, and actively safeguard their legitimate interests when encountering issues.