🎯 In 30 seconds: Pay online with a credit card or a phone wallet, not a debit card, gift card or payment-app transfer to a stranger. Check a shop before you buy. If something goes wrong, try the seller first, then dispute with your card issuer in writing within 60 days of the statement.
How you pay decides how protected you are
| Payment | If the card is stolen | If the goods never come |
|---|---|---|
| Credit card | Federal law caps your share at $50. | Fair Credit Billing Act dispute; you don’t pay the disputed amount while it is investigated. |
| Debit card | Regulation E caps, but the money leaves your checking account while the bank investigates. | No billing-error law for this; card network and bank policies decide. |
| Phone wallet (Apple Pay, Google Pay) | The shop gets a stand-in number, not your card number. | The underlying card’s rules apply. |
| PayPal Goods & Services | Report unauthorized use to PayPal. | Open a dispute within 180 days of payment. |
| Gift card, wire, crypto, friends-and-family app payment | Little or nothing. | Usually gone. The FTC says never buy from a seller that only takes these. |
Virtual card numbers
Several card issuers can create a virtual number that works only with one merchant, or only once, and that you can delete without replacing your real card. Use one for subscriptions and for any shop you are unsure about. If that shop leaks its data, you delete one number and your other autopays keep working.
Spotting a fake store
- Prices far below everyone else on brand-name goods, which the FTC flags as a sign of counterfeit or stolen items.
- A web address that is close to a real brand’s but not exact, or a store you only found through a social media ad.
- No physical address or phone number, and a return policy that is vague or missing.
- Pressure to pay by gift card, wire, crypto or payment app.
The FTC’s quick check: search the store’s name with “complaint” or “scam”, and don’t trust star ratings alone. A padlock in the address bar proves only that the connection is encrypted.
Marketplace scams
- Buying: meet in a public place, inspect before paying, and don’t pay a deposit to hold an item you haven’t seen.
- Selling: refuse overpayments and “I’ll send a courier” stories. Never read a verification code to a buyer; it is used to take over your accounts. Check your real balance, not a payment email.
A worked example: the order that never arrived
You pay $240 by credit card for a jacket on March 3. No shipping date was given. Under the FTC’s mail order rule, a seller with no stated time needs a reasonable basis to ship within 30 days. By April 5 nothing has arrived and the seller stops answering.
- The charge appears on the statement sent March 20.
- Your written dispute must reach the issuer’s billing-inquiries address within 60 days of that statement, so by about May 19. Most issuers also take disputes online; get a confirmation.
- The issuer must acknowledge within 30 days and resolve it within two billing cycles, no more than 90 days. You don’t have to pay the $240 while it is open.
Had you paid with a payment app as a personal transfer, there would be no dispute right at all. Problems with a card you can’t resolve go to the CFPB complaint portal; more on rights and clocks is on the Money Theft & Forensics page.