8 Fraud Prevention & Protection Measures in Google Checkout

I received a message informing me I won £850,000 in a google new years promotion. How do I check this out without getting scammed by a spammer?

The only fraud protection Google Checkout provides is for the Seller. Go ahead do a search for “fraud” in the Google Checkout pages and it will give you a ton of stuff on how the seller is protected from fraud. You cannot find anything on how consumers are protected because Google does nothing. I recently made a purchase from a website called TechSunny. I had some confidence in doing so because the company used Google Checkout. It turns out that (along with hundreds of other people were duped by this company). The website is now gone and if you do a search on resellerratings for TechSunny you can find all the horror stories.

Anyway, having used Paypal in the past, I went searching for the option in GoogleCheckout to file a claim or dispute. It took me over 20 minutes to find a link. Google hides it. Go ahead and try to search it yourself. When I got a response from GoogleCheckout they pretty much confirmed the company was a fraud and stated that “We no longer allow this vendor to use GoogleCheckout.” Well d’uh!!! There website and company dissappeared!! Here’s the kicker, instead of providing a full refund as Paypal would have done if they found the claim in your favor, all Google does is tell me to contact my credit card company initiate a chargeback! WTF?!? I could have done that myself before. Google provides no fraud protection to consumers because they not only don’t screen their vendors, but they don’t do anything for the consumer even if find the claim in your favor!!!

Google Checkout is purely marketed for sellers. Buyers have no protection using Google Checkout!

I see that people here are badly informed.
a) Google DOES not charge anybody without a merchant action to do so.
b) Probably your card and personal information was caught elsewhere and so, by being true information, Google has the 1st step to approve it because it thinks it’s you. Still that is not enought to approve a purchase on Google checkout.
c) So do not put the blame on Google.

I did not have anything to do Google Checkout, didnt use it at all, even havent heard about it ever. Suddenly I get a mail saying ” Your order has been processed and you will find a debit of $10 in your credit card statement”. It says that I ordered for extension of my domain name registration for a website called protector4you.com on a domain called Godaddy.com. I have simply no idea what this is and am quite worried that I am a victim of ID Theft by a culprit through Google Checkout.Can anyone guide how to fight this out ?

What a shifty service!
God!
I tried to purchase from it for the first time, and my payment is on “in progress” for 30 hours now!!!
No reply from google regarding what is wrong.

Stay away!

You guys are funny, paypal is just as bad and does everything you just said.

Did you know if someone steals your credit card, they probably stole your name, the CVC, your address and anything else they need to make it seem like its you over the net. Google cant’ do anything if they look exactly like you.

Paypal only refunds your credit card if the merchant authorizes it. In fact goto https://www.paypalsucks.com and see how bad their service really is.

My advice, don’t be such as idiot as to get your information stolen. I mean, how dumb can you be?

Google Checkout is a million times better then paypal. Whats better then Google checkout is when merchants use a real merchant account.

I am very sorry to hear that. It appears others too had bad experiences with Google Checkout. It looks like yet another flop from Google like Orkut.

Just had to cancel a credit card because it had few hundred dollars charge with the reference GOOGLE*neff. I talked to the credit card company and they told me it was an online purchase via Google, nothing else was available. Luckily, the charge was refunded the next day, after the charge was made. Apparently, all the ’safeguards’ did not stop one thief from charging lots of stuff on my card number. He/she must have canceled the order!

I’m in agreement with most of the others, Google Checkout is definitely a ripoff, do not order at any cost! They provide no protection against sellers who take money and ship nothing, as was my experience.

Google checkout is a big fraud. The first time they charged me twice for my order and I called my bank and asked them to reverse the order.

The second time, my total bill was approx $70, but they charged me $50 more (god only knows for what) and my emails to them are unanswered.

If you’re a little less careless and don’t watch your account closely, i’m pretty sure Google will not hesitate to take your money — as they say, the more money you have the more greedy you become

Look this article is all wrong. First off Google (as well as amazon and all others who store your cc#) do not use CCV2 checks except sometime when you first input your card. They cannot because storeing or keeping CVV2 info for subsequent checkouts is verboten. Most of them just ask fo it to make you feel better but do not use it.

Google Checkout charges your credit before your order ships. You might be ringing up a credit card bill and get nothing in return if the merchant does not ship your order.

I ordered an in stock item from buy.com on Dec. 6th. Google Checkout charged my credit card immediately. Buy.com never sent my order because it turns out the item is not in stock, it is on indefinite backorder. It took more than a week of contacting buy.com and Google Checkout to find out why my order never shipped.

There is a conflict in the Google Checkout Program policy and what buy.com says Google Checkout policy is.

Google Checkout Program policy:

“As a Google Checkout merchant, you’re required to adhere to the Google Checkout policies at all times.

2. Order Management

b. Ship orders before charging the buyer’s credit card. You may not attempt to charge the buyer’s credit card until you have
shipped the order.”

https://checkout.google.com/seller/policies.html

What buy.com says Google Checkout policy is:

“Please note that you are billed though your item has not yet shipped. This is one of the unique policies when purchasing through GoogleCheckout.

For more questions on GoogleCheckout policies, please visit our Buy.com help site. Under Pricing and Billing click on “What are my payment choices?”. Then, choose Google check out or you can simply copy paste the following link in your address box:

https://www.buy.com/corp/support/billing/google.asp”

Buy.com policy for customers not using Google Checkout:

“When will my credit card be charged? Since we don’t think you should pay for your order until it is actually on its way, Buy.com will not bill you until your products, including backordered or preordered items, are actually shipped. In
the case of Music Downloads we will bill you at the time of purchase.”

https://www.buy.com/corp/support/billing/creditcards.asp?what=whencharged

Google Checkout support knows that I (and many others - this is a growing problem, and not just with buy.com) have been charged for merchandise that has not been shipped and that the merchant can’t even give an estimate on when the item will be available - if ever.

They have done nothing about it. The charge is on my credit card statement. I have nothing to show for it.

If Google Checkout can’t be trusted to require merchants to “adhere to the Google Checkout policies at all times,” why should consumers trust Google Checkout with sensitive financial and personal information at all?

They shouldn’t. Period.

Don’t use Google Checkout.

I see the overall response to Google checkout is pretty negative. I have modified the post accordingly.

Do NOT use Google checkout under any circumstances. I used it twice for the $10 bonus, but what I got in return at that up. Google charged my first order fine. Three days later, I placed another order, only to be charged twice for the same order. I contacted Google and they claim I was only charged once, but the second charge was a “pending authorization”. Authorization for what? They already have my money. My bank confirmed Google did charge twice for one order. I sent confirmation along with a copy of the double charges to Google and they still deny charging twice. As at is now, I’m out over $30 because of Google Checkout. Steer clear!

I agree that Google has no checks. Just disputed a transaction for something I did not buy and like the other poster had never used AdWords or signed up for Checkout. The lady at the credit card company said someone may have mistyped a number - if that’s the case, then shouldn’t the CVV # check have caught that??? Very frustrated that I’ve had to spend an hour today fixing something that could have been avoided with a bit of digilence on Google’s part.

I am very interested to know the details of your case. Please write it in comments or send me an email.

Did they reimburse you?

> You even use the same words as Google in their replies to me.

That is very strange. I am in no way affiliated with Google. I do however use AdSense on my sites but that doesn’t enter me into any obligation wrt. Google. Your implication is totally unfounded. Neither this post nor any posts in any of my blogs are funded / sponsored by any company or individual.

I find your glowing appraisal of Google Checkout’s fraud protection interesting. You even use the same words as Google in their replies to me when I questioned why, within 10 days of the Checkout launch, my credit card info was stolen and thousands of dollars of charges were racked up in my name. I don’t use Adwords and have never used Checkout. Yet someone got through all of these fabulous fraud protection features? Google did NO verification of the credit card info. I think eBay was right in banning the use of Checkout. Google clearly has poor fraud protection, despite their constantly saying that they do.