Sky News — Two crises, one price: refund fraud crippling small businesses while strikes escalate across the region

Why this matters now: Small businesses and everyday civilians are both on the front lines — economically in the UK and physically across the Middle East. A Money feature highlighted a spike in refund scams that business owners call an "epidemic", while separate coverage of cross-border strikes documents deaths, damage and official escalations. The overlap is grim: local shops and restaurants face solvency threats just as regional instability deepens, and sky news has flagged both as urgent stress points.

Sky News — Immediate impact: who is squeezed first and how

Here’s the part that matters: shopkeepers and restaurateurs are seeing direct, immediate losses from a surge in fraudulent chargebacks, while civilians in multiple countries are experiencing the physical consequences of strikes and retaliations. Small independent businesses face sums that can threaten survival, and families and communities in the region are dealing with casualties, damage and the knock-on disruption to transport and security.

How the refund con works and the scale of the problem

A so-called "friendly fraud" con involves paying for goods or services — for example, a restaurant meal — then telling the bank the payment was taken illegitimately and using the chargeback mechanism to reverse the transaction. Chargeback exists to protect consumers when fraud occurs or when sellers do not rectify undelivered or faulty goods. Forecasts by researchers Datos Insights project chargeback will be used 281 million times globally this year, with up to 70% judged fraudulent.

Industry figures warn the effect is severe for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Monica Eaton, chief executive of the world's biggest chargeback dispute management company, says the problem has "really become an epidemic" and is particularly damaging to smaller operators. Brad Young, writing a Money feature, spoke with business owners and restaurateurs who have fallen victim.

One restaurateur, Nima Safaei of 40 Dean Street in London's Soho, says he lost £2, 000 to fraudsters last Autumn. Safaei describes the hit as "very disappointing and disheartening" and warns that repeated losses at that scale over a year would threaten survival for a small independent business. The pattern of abuse ranges from customers failing to recognise transactions or claiming child purchases to more organised schemes: some social media influencers and forums encourage using chargeback as a shortcut when customers are unhappy, and at the extreme people both request refunds and initiate chargebacks while keeping goods.

Examples of internal facilitation have surfaced: one dispute handled by Chargebacks911 involved office staff at a major airline encouraging relatives to submit chargebacks for flight tickets while ensuring the company would not contest those claims internally. Adam Scarrott, director of issuing and acceptance at the trade association UK Finance, says the protection designed for consumers appears to be widely abused.

Regional strikes: who was hit and the official responses

Separately, major combat operations have been confirmed by the US President, who said the US and Israel have attacked Iran and called for regime change. The office of Iran's supreme leader, the presidential office in Tehran and military sites across the country were reportedly targeted. Iranian state media said at least 53 people were killed at a girls' school. Iran has launched retaliatory strikes on Israel, and damage thought to be caused by Iranian attacks has been seen across the region, including in Qatar and Kuwait, with smoke reported near The Palm in Dubai.

In Bahrain — where the US has a major naval base — a moment of an apparent Iranian missile attack was filmed from a car. The US President urged Iranians to "take over" the government, a call framed as potentially historic for the population. Ordinary Iranians showed mixed reactions on the streets: panic for some, a sense of relief for others. Officials in the US and Israel consider the Iranian regime vulnerable and view the moment as an opportunity not to be squandered.

In Kuwait, a drone targeted Kuwait International Airport, causing minor injuries and limited material damage to one terminal; spokesperson Abdullah Al-Rajhi said authorities immediately implemented emergency procedures, secured the site and emphasised that the situation was under control and passenger and employee safety remained the top priority. Authorities did not attribute the source of the attack, while coverage noted Iran has been striking targets across the region in response to joint strikes earlier in the day.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a new wave of missile attacks on US bases in the Middle East. An Israeli military official said several senior figures from the Iran regime have been "eliminated" following the strikes, adding that three sites where members of the Iranian government were gathered were hit simultaneously and that the Israel Defence Forces worked closely with the US Army to compile an extensive list of targets. Editorial credits on the coverage list Jenna Moon, Rorey Bosotti and Jamie Whitehead as editors, with Hugo Bachega in Jerusalem, Barbara Plett Usher in Doha and Bernd Debusmann Jr in Florida, plus reporting from a Persian-language service.

Short Q&A to clarify immediate consequences

• Who is at immediate economic risk? Independent shopkeepers and restaurateurs: examples include the restaurant 40 Dean Street in Soho and the £2, 000 loss its owner described.
• How widespread is the refund fraud? Chargeback use is forecast at 281 million transactions globally this year, with forecasts suggesting up to 70% may be fraudulent.
• Will regional actors respond further? Iran's deputy minister of foreign affairs condemned the US-Israeli strikes, said they came during nuclear negotiations and cast doubt on Washington's commitment to peace, and stated Iran reserves the right to self-defence and will respond to what it calls aggression.

It's easy to overlook, but the combination of economic strain on small businesses and heightened regional military tensions raises a dual pressure on communities: financial shocks at home and disrupted security abroad.

The real question now is how policymakers and businesses will move to limit immediate harm: small traders need protections that do not erase consumer safeguards, and regional leaders face decisions that could either de-escalate or widen the conflict.

Editor’s aside: long-term business viability is fragile — the longstanding warning from an affected restaurateur that repeated losses over a year could be fatal to his business is a tangible measure of the risk facing many small operators.