In October, the owner of the small company of Halifax, Laura Macnutt, made some large sales in her electronic commerce store, totaling thousands of dollars of merchandise.
Customers collected the items in person in Kingspier Vintage, their luxury vintage clothing store. It was not until weeks later that he discovered that the transactions were fraudulent.
He received an email from Shopify, the host of his online store, saying that return returns for the items through the credit cards used in purchases. He was required to present evidence.
“I had never heard of a return return,” Macnutt said in a recent interview.
Macnutt was not told the reason for the return returns, a consumer protection tool similar to a refund, only that the owners of the cards used to pay the items were disputing the transactions.
Shopify dealt with the banks and gathered the evidence of Macnutt, including the screenshots of the images of the customer security camera that collect the items.
But Macnutt still lost the items and income. Shopify maintained his processing rates and charged a fraud rate of $ 15 per transaction.
She estimates that she has lost $ 7,400 in total.
“It’s a monumental amount of money in my world,” Macnutt said. “I just can’t absorb that kind of loss. It’s devastating.”
‘A common fraud’
According to RCMP, fraud in Nueva Scotia is growing. Between January and September 2024, there were 601 fraud reports in the province, for a total of more than $ 6.4 million.
CPL. Mitch Thompson, a investigator of the New Scotland RCMP Commercial Crimes section, said what Macnutt is called card fraud not present.
“This specific type of fraud is a common fraud that we will see, especially with stolen credit cards,” said Thompson. “We see it aimed at smaller merchants.”
Thompson said there are legitimate reasons to make returns, such as damaged properties, services not provided or if his card was stolen.
Macnutt is not sure of what happened with his store, but he has been picking up the pieces.
“I find it difficult to believe that it is so easy for someone to steal small businesses,” he said. “And the corporations that are allowing them to happen are being applauded for their commercial insight.”
Macnutt said that he informed the Regional Police of Halifax, but has not reached a resolution through the application of the law or shopify.

A Shopify spokesman did not respond to a CBC News interview request.
The Shopify website says that it offers a service called Shopify Protect, which provides “free and incorporated contraditance return protection.”
It also has a “prevent fraud” page, which advises the owners of stores to do things how to verify the IP address from which an order was made, call the phone number in the order, verify that the billing and shipping addresses They coincide and install fraud prevention. Applications
Macnutt said the transactions were not marked as potentially fraudulent by Shopify, so he had no warning.
Companies are ‘doubly victims’
Vanessa Iafolla, a fraud victimization consultant with Halifax headquarters, said this is not just a Shopify problem.
She said that the use of an intermediary, such as the owner of a business that pays to use an electronic commerce site, can leave them worse if there is a fraudulent position.

“They are going to pay the Shopify processing rate or any other third,” said Ifolla.
“Then, the person who is in the business to earn money, ends up being doubly victim, right? They are out of money, they are out of the article. And then to add insult to the injuries, they are also out of these extra fees.”
Iafolla said she is aware of entrepreneurs who have lost tens of thousands of dollars for returns, taking them out of business.
“I think it is one of those cases in which the public only thinks about this as a crime without victims,” he said. “That money actually comes from a victim and the victim in that case is the retailer.”
Asking for change
Iafolla said that this type of fraud is often difficult to try and avoid. She said retailers could continue with brick and mortar stores to evade risk, but that could restrict sales.
He is asking for a strict government supervision and that electronic commerce sites offer more protection to their clients.
“Each point of the system is letting happen, right? Shopify is letting happen, credit card companies are letting happen, banks allow it to happen, politically we let it happen.”
Macnutt also expects a change.
“I think Shopify can be a really valuable resource, provided that people who provide the merchandise are respected and considered,” he said. “I’m not asking much.”