Triangulation Fraud

Triangulation fraud occurs when a customer makes a genuine purchase on a third-party marketplace however the seller fraudulently purchases the product from another merchant. The name comes from the trilateral relationship between three involved parties: an unsuspecting customer, a legitimate merchant, and a fraudster middleman. For example, a cardholder makes a purchase, a fraudster then turns around and buys the goods specified from a legitimate seller using stolen credit card information, and sets the shipping address to match that of the customer. The merchant subsequently ships the product to the buyer.