When bank refunds you for a dodgy transaction...

[WhyNotToday]

Does anyone know what happens when a bank refunds you for a fraudulent payment? We were scammed by a company and spoke to our bank about it (after the company in question refused to respond to us). The bank said they could refund us the amount the company took from us. This was a couple of months ago, but today I got a call from the company out of the blue, asking me how dare I authorise a reverse with my bank..?!!!

Now aside from the issue that this company are clearly a bunch of cheeky fuckers of the highest order, does anyone know how they knew? I presume that our bank has somehow contacted this company? I had assumed that banks just pay customers back out of insurance or something, but do they have the capacity to take the money back off the company?

They refund you and then go after the company to get the funds back

A payment reversal would've meant either the transaction was cancelled or they were able to get the money back out of the scammers account.
So either way the company lost the money back to the bank who paid it back to you.
The bank didn't pay you the money.

Similar happened with us. A company sent an item that was very poorly made and not at all like the item was advertised. We paid by debit card. We provided the bank the Email exchange, between us and the company which suggested we keep the item and they would offer a 5% refund or a full refund but we had to return item to their China warehouse, (not their UK warehouse) by recorded delivery and they quoted that post would be about £80 (item was bought for about £50 I think). So a scam basically.

The bank organised for a reverse.

I am pleased it was a reverse as, I had, unsuccessfully, tried to bargain up to at least a 50% refund which they had refused. So, ultimately, they ended up paying 100% back.