Digital Library: Helping Consumers Harmed by Payment Fraud

By: Lauren Saunders, Carla Sanchez-Adams

February 6, 2025 — Article

Criminals plot seductive fraud schemes and carefully utilize forms of payment that best enable them to receive money quickly, without a consumer being able to stop or reverse the payment. This article explains practical steps and legal rights that may allow consumers to get their money back, depending on the payment method used by the consumer. 

This article also summarizes key information for consumers harmed by payment fraud, and more detail is found in NCLC’s Consumer Banking and Payments Law.  Rights to recover on credit card payments are discussed in NCLC’s Truth in Lending. In addition, ongoing updates to this article will be found in NCLC’s Consumer Banking and Payments Law § 1.5, free to the public.  NCLC makes the first chapter of each of NCLC’s 20 treatises in the Consumer Law Practice Series free to the public.

This article’s first section summarizes several payment methods that are frequently used by criminals as part of a fraud scheme. The second section summarizes three types of payments that could point to the possibility of a fraud scheme.  The article then turns to a discussion of practical steps and legal rights to get money back for consumers based on each of the common payment techniques fraudsters use to receive the consumer’s payment.