Payment and Booking Scams

How Payment Scams Work

Almost every payment scam relies on the same move: getting you to pay somewhere the platform cannot protect you. Once money leaves the official checkout, it is extremely difficult to trace or recover. Scammers know this, so their entire effort goes into inventing a plausible reason for you to pay by bank transfer, gift card, cryptocurrency, or a peer-to-peer app instead of the way the service is designed to take payment.

The good news is that this makes scams easy to recognise once you know exactly how a legitimate charge looks. On KF.Social, that picture is simple, and anything that deviates from it is a warning sign.

How You Actually Pay on KF.Social

There is only one charge KF.Social takes from you, and it is always handled the same way:

• The Matching Fee: a small, flat fee you pay in the app to book your seat at a dinner. It is processed securely through Stripe using Apple Pay or your card.
• Your own food and drinks: these are not paid to KF.Social at all. You settle your own bill (typically around twenty to thirty pounds) directly with the restaurant on the night, just as you would on any meal out.

That is the whole picture. The Matching Fee goes through the app via Stripe; the restaurant bill goes to the restaurant. There is no third payment, no deposit to an organiser, and no separate "table fee."

Things KF.Social Will Never Ask You To Do

Because our payment flow is so simple, any request that falls outside it is not coming from us. KF.Social staff will never:

• Ask you to pay a cash "table fee" to anyone before, during, or after a dinner.
• Ask you to pay another guest, a "host," or an "organiser" outside the app.
• Request a bank transfer, gift cards, or cryptocurrency.
• Ask for your full card number, PIN, or one-time passcodes by message, email, or phone.
• Tell you the in-app payment is "temporarily down" and ask you to pay another way instead.

If you ever receive a message like this, even if it appears to come from KF, treat it as a scam. Do not pay, and report it through the app.

Off-Platform Payment Requests

The single most reliable rule is this: never move a payment off the platform, no matter how reasonable the excuse sounds. Scammers are skilled at making off-platform payment feel like a favour or a shortcut. Common lines include:

• "The app fee is high, so let's settle this directly and save money."
• "Send a deposit by bank transfer to hold your seat."
• "Pay me back for the table and I'll sort it with the restaurant."
• "Use a friends-and-family payment so there are no charges."

When you pay this way, there is no protection and no way to get your money back. The only payment KF.Social ever asks for is the Matching Fee, taken in the app through Stripe at the moment you book.

Fake Confirmations and Fake Support

Some scammers forge payment confirmations, booking receipts, or "support" messages that copy a brand's look and wording closely. A convincing email or screenshot is not proof of anything. To check whether a payment or booking is genuine, open the KF.Social app yourself and look at your own booking and payment history. Do not rely on a link, a screenshot, or a phone number that arrived in a message. If something does not appear in the app, it did not happen.

How Stripe Protects Your Matching Fee

The in-app Matching Fee is processed by Stripe, a regulated payment provider, which gives you real safeguards:

• Your card stays private: card details are handled by Stripe and are never stored on KF.Social's servers.
• Fraud screening: transactions are checked in real time to block suspicious activity.
• Apple Pay support: paying with Apple Pay means the merchant never even sees your card number.
• Industry-standard security: Stripe meets the highest standards for handling payment data.

These protections only apply when you pay the way the app intends. That is another reason to keep every payment inside the official flow.

If You Think You Have Been Targeted

If you receive a suspicious payment request or believe you have been scammed:

1. Do not pay, and do not share card details or passcodes.
2. Use the in-app one-tap report to flag the person or message, and block them if needed.
3. Keep the messages as evidence rather than deleting them.
4. Contact KF.Social support with what happened.
5. If you have lost money, report it to Action Fraud.

Keep every payment inside the app and remember the simple rule, the Matching Fee through Stripe and the restaurant bill to the restaurant, and there is very little room for a scammer to operate.