Online Shopping Scam Recovery: Letter of Demand (Australia)

You ordered from a slick-looking online store, the order confirmation arrived, the goods didn’t, and now the website is either down or the support email bounces. Recovery is far from impossible if the operator has any Australian footprint.

The legal context

If the store has an ABN, an Australian registered company, or a director resident in Australia, the Australian Consumer Law applies in full. Statutory guarantees of acceptable quality, fitness for purpose, and supply within a reasonable time give you a clean refund right under the ACL. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the ACCC both publish warnings about specific operators — search before assuming the website is real.

Realistic outcomes

If the “store” is a Shopify front pointing to a Chinese dropshipper with no Australian entity, your only realistic recovery channels are your bank’s chargeback rights and the platform itself. A Letter of Demand to a faceless Hong Kong shell rarely produces results.

If, however, the store is run by an Australian (often exposed by the ABN lookup, ASIC search, or domain WHOIS), a Letter of Demand to them is worth sending.

The document approach

The written demand goes to your own bank, not the store. It attaches the order confirmation and payment evidence, says when you reported the scam, and asks the bank to reimburse you within 30 days, citing its scam obligations. If the bank refuses or does not respond in time, the next step is a complaint to AFCA.

What Claim Done delivers

For a flat fee, Claim Done drafts a written demand to your own bank to reimburse you, citing its scam obligations (the ePayments Code, the Banking Code of Practice and, where it applies, the Scams Prevention Framework), plus an AFCA complaint if the bank refuses. If the store operator is an identifiable Australian, a Letter of Demand to them is a separate option.

What to expect after

Lodge a chargeback with your card issuer immediately — credit cards in particular have strong dispute rights. Report the store to the ACCC’s Scamwatch, your state Fair Trading agency, and ReportCyber. Send the demand to your bank; if it refuses or does not respond within 30 days, lodge the AFCA complaint.