The basis of this is that a customer or non-customer claims you have sent them a package and it has been damaged in transit and they want a refund from you.

There are variations on this:-

1. A genuine customer who normally pays but this time doesn’t want to pay the bill so falsely claims the package was damaged.
2. Someone who regularly tries to get free items from many companies by buying expensive items then making the claim of damage in transit and demanding a full refund and to keep the items of course.
3. Emails that very general in nature sent out randomly to spam email lists in the hope that someone will reply with money or a discount offer or a voucher without checking whether anything was ever purchased
4. Scammers using the excuse of a supposedly damaged package to phish for email addresses and contact details.

If the message is from a genuine customer with a good track record of paying then you need further information and perhaps for someone to talk with the customer and ascertain the exact details.

If you receive this sort of email message and checks show the person is not a customer then simply delete the message and any follow-up messages.  Do not reply as this will get your email address added to their suckers list for sale to other scammers.

If you have a genuine customer but that always tries to get items for free by claiming problems – then your best bet may be to bar them from being a customer.

If the message is lacking any details of the product or date purchased, order number etc. then it’s a scam – just delete the message.

If you have any experienced this scam, do let me know, by email.