Most chargebacks aren't fraud. They're customers disputing a charge they actually made

The short version

When most merchants hear “chargeback,” they picture a stolen card. Increasingly, that’s not what’s actually happening. Chargebacks911’s 2026 Chargeback Field Report, based on data from over 250 merchants, found that friendly fraud, a cardholder disputing a charge for a purchase they actually made and received, now accounts for nearly 44% of chargebacks. More than 83% of large merchants and 77% of mid-size merchants said friendly fraud increased for them this year.

“Friendly” is a bad name for it. There’s nothing friendly about losing the sale, the product, and the processing fee, plus getting hit with a chargeback fee on top.

Why this keeps happening

A few things are driving it at once. Online and card-not-present purchases make it easy for a customer to forget a charge, not recognize a billing descriptor, or genuinely not realize a family member made the purchase, then dispute it with their bank instead of calling the business. Some customers have also learned that disputing a charge is faster than requesting a refund, and that banks often side with the cardholder by default. And a smaller but real slice is deliberate: someone buys something, uses it, and disputes the charge hoping to keep both the item and the money.

Whatever the motive, the dispute shows up on your end looking identical, a chargeback notice with a reason code and a deadline to respond.

What actually wins these disputes

The single biggest factor in winning a friendly fraud dispute is documentation, submitted before the deadline, that proves the charge was legitimate and the customer got what they paid for. What counts as strong evidence depends on the reason code, but in general:

• A signed receipt or signature capture at the point of sale, proving someone physically completed the transaction
• Delivery confirmation with a signature, for anything shipped
• Any prior communication with the customer, emails, texts, or call notes, especially if they contacted you with a question or complaint before filing the dispute (or never contacted you at all, which undercuts a “the business wouldn’t help me” claim)
• A clear match on AVS and CVV for card-not-present transactions
• Your stated refund and cancellation policy, and proof the customer agreed to it

Submit everything at least a couple of days before the deadline. A late response isn’t considered, no matter how strong the evidence is. Merchants who fight these disputes with real documentation win a meaningful share of the time, industry win rates on contested friendly fraud cases run around 44%, worth the effort when the sale is worth more than the time it takes to respond.

A worked example

Say a regular customer orders $85 of food for pickup, pays by card, picks it up, and three weeks later disputes the charge as “unauthorized.” You have a point-of-sale record showing the order was placed under their account, a timestamped pickup confirmation, and no prior complaint from the customer about the order. That’s a strong case: reason code aside, you’re showing the charge matches a real transaction the cardholder initiated and received, with no gap where a legitimate complaint should have been.

Now say the same dispute comes in but all you have is the batch total for that day, no itemized order record, no pickup log. You still might win, but you’re relying on the issuing bank to take your word for it instead of handing them documentation that settles the question. The difference between those two outcomes isn’t the strength of your argument, it’s whether you kept the paperwork before you needed it.

Checkout habits that cut down on these disputes before they happen

1. Make your billing descriptor recognizable. If your statement name doesn’t match your business name or location, customers won’t recognize the charge and will dispute it out of confusion, not malice.
2. Confirm orders and send receipts by email automatically, so there’s a paper trail the customer sees before any dispute.
3. Require a signature or PIN for in-person sales above a threshold you set, even on contactless and chip transactions where it’s optional.
4. For services or recurring billing, send a reminder a day or two before charging, so the charge isn’t a surprise.
5. Make your return and refund policy easy to find and easy to use. A customer who can get a real refund in two minutes has a lot less reason to call their bank instead.
6. Respond fast to customer complaints. A dispute filed after a business ignored a complaint is much harder to win, and often avoidable in the first place.

None of this eliminates friendly fraud. But a business with clean records, clear communication, and a fast refund process loses far fewer of these fights, and avoids a chunk of them from ever being filed.

If chargebacks are a recurring cost for your business and you want help reviewing your current checkout flow, get in touch and we’ll take a look at where the gaps are.

Sources: Chargebacks911 2026 Chargeback Field Report coverage, Digital Transactions, Chargebacks911, “Friendly Fraud Impacts 83% of Enterprise Merchants”, Chargebacks911, “How to Win a Chargeback”.