[Fastera]

Interesting points. I don't think there will be a time without SE. Perhaps less with easy refunds such as empty box or wrong item. The art of social engineering will evolve with the measures put in place by the companies.

Easy is relative, I find it easy-ish to do Amazon but outside of that I feel like everything is too big or too hard for me. Of course that pushes me to explore even further and learn even more. Perhaps for the experienced SEer there will always be an easy SE to do, for the apprentices everything might seem hard.

I cannot tell what methods might become the norm in the future. I would say again it would depend on the measures put in place by the companies. It is likely new methods will come around and older ones will be disregarded but time will tell. As mothered likes to say "it depends on the nature of the item"

It would take a long time for private businesses to try and push laws that would give them legal right to cancel your claim if they suspect it is unlawful. That is even without considering that you are innocent until proven guilty or the fact that it could very well be a real claim, human error is inevitable. However they may be able to have T&C that give them flexibility if they suspect such behaviour, give them more time to analyse the situation and documentation they have or even send the inquiry to another team with more experienced customer service agents. As for protecting against specific methods that is completely possible. I am aware that Argos UK have CCTV that monitors what is put in each shipping box therefore wrong item method simply does not work. If other companies do the same then this method will disappear quickly.