A business owner has blasted a shameless ‘influencer‘ customer for exploiting a loophole to score a free item – leaving her $360 out of pocket.

Amy Bradley, the co-founder behind Sydney jewellery brand Luna Rae, said she found out the customer had told her bank she never received her diamond necklace.

The woman had purchased a unique 9-karat gold necklace featuring 12 diamonds set in a circle. But just a few weeks after receiving the order, she quietly filed a chargeback on her credit card to secure a refund.

It’s a process where a credit or debit card issuer reverses a transaction and returns the funds to the cardholder, typically when a customer disputes a purchase. Chargeback fraud is one of the latest scams affecting small businesses across Australia – and the worst part is, sneaky customers are getting away with it.

Confused about the unexpected refund, the business owner decided to do some digging after the customer never raised any issues with her about the order.

Amy uncovered details that the customer was actually a well-known influencer who was once on a reality TV show. To add salt to the wound, the customer was spotted showing off her new necklace all over social media.

Upon closer inspection of the order details, the jewellery designer noticed the influencer had used a company credit card under a different name to make the purchase – and the delivery address matched the one linked to the chargeback.

After multiple failed attempts to contact the shopper, Amy said she had no choice but to reach out to the company directly. She has since been informed the company is now investigating the suspicious credit card activity internally.

Amy said she has chosen not to ‘name and shame’ the customer publicly, as she’s hoping to resolve the issue privately.

The dilemma all started when Amy was informed the shopper had received a full refund on the necklace after claiming her jewellery was never delivered.

‘To be honest, this one slipped under the radar a bit,’ Amy told Daily Mail.

‘We were notified that a chargeback had occurred, and we responded that the item was delivered – but after that, the credit card company refunded the customer automatically. Unfortunately, that’s extremely common.

‘In situations like this, it’s almost always “the customer is right,” and some people do take advantage of that. The biggest issue here is really how easily these chargebacks can happen.’

Amy said she tried to dispute the chargeback claim – but the bank sided with the sneaky customer.

She couldn’t wrap her head around how the customer managed to get a full refund – despite the tracking number from Australia Post confirming the order was delivered to the address listed on the order.

Taking matters into her own hands, Amy started sleuthing on social media using the order information the customer had provided at the time of purchase.

‘Because our jewellery is fine solid gold, customers often wear it constantly – and sure enough, there it was, the necklace on her neck,’ she explained.

‘We recognised it immediately; we designed it. It just makes you so angry. It’s bad enough to do this to any brand, but doing it to a small business is especially disappointing.’

Amy has urged banks to step up their efforts and better protect business owners from fraudulent refunds.

‘There will always be people who do the wrong thing, but banks need to take chargebacks more seriously and conduct proper investigations,’ she said.

‘Small businesses can’t keep taking financial hits because of a system that favours convenience over fairness.’

She was so frustrated with the situation she decided to share her experience on social media to raise awareness about the dodgy scam that’s affecting small businesses.

‘We just had an influencer steal from us,’ Amy said in a video.

‘A customer purchased a necklace. All went well… Several weeks later, our Shopify account came to us and said a customer has done a chargeback on this because she never got it.

‘This is news to us. The customer has never reached out, she never called and said, ‘Where’s my order?’ So we went back and said, ‘Here’s the tracking, she got it two days later’.

‘Somehow, I’m not sure how she did it, she ‘proved’ to them that she never got the product and they favoured with her.’

Amy was devastated that not only did her business lose money, but the customer got away with a free necklace.

As she wanted to get to the bottom of the issue, she looked into the shopper

‘We found the customer on TikTok and guess what she’s got all over her neck? Our $360 uniquely designed necklace. We know it’s our necklace and she’s wearing it in all of her TikTok videos,’ she said.

‘Who does that? There was no gifting, she just bought it as a regular customer, got it, claimed it back, got the money back, took the necklace and is wearing it on her socials. Seriously.’

Despite the influencer’s identity not being revealed, a few content creators have been dragged into the drama – including Abbie Chatfieldwho has responded to accusations from online trolls claiming she stole jewellery from a small business.