How do refund scams work and which payment methods do they use?

Refund scams exploit the delay between when a payment appears in your account and when it is verified as legitimate. The fraudster sends you an 'overpayment' — by fake cashier's check, counterfeit money order, or occasionally a real transaction quickly reversed after the fact — and then contacts you claiming a mistake was made and asking for the difference back via gift card, wire transfer, cryptocurrency, or a peer-to-peer app.

You return the 'excess' using a real, irreversible payment method. Days later, the original payment bounces, is reversed, or is revealed as fraudulent. You have now paid real money out, and the fake payment you received is reversed by your bank. The net result: you have lost the amount you sent back.

Tech-support refund scams follow a slightly different script: a caller claims your account was overcharged for a service and they need to process a refund. They remotely access your computer, 'show' you a fake bank balance that appears inflated, and then tell you the refund was too large. They insist you return the excess by gift card or wire — exploiting the fact that you can see what looks like real money in your account.

The protection: never send money back via a different method from how you received the payment. A legitimate refund comes back to your original payment method through the same process. Any request to 'return excess funds' via gift card, wire, Zelle, or crypto should be treated as fraud.