Blocking/Blacklisting Customers

BriBri
Visitor
1 0 10

I'm in the process of moving my online store to Shopify. After being in business online for 20+ years I have a list of blacklisted/banned customers. Mostly from fraud, chargebacks, jerks, etc that try to place orders every week.  How do I block their name, shipping/billing address, phone number, email etc. from placing orders? 

Replies 53 (53)

BrianAtWork
Shopify Partner
245 59 184

Hi @BriBri,

 

Welcome to the Shopify Community!

 

I understand that you've been in business for quite some time, and that you're in the process of moving your online store to Shopify. You'd like to utilize your list of banned customers, in order to prevent them from placing orders.

 

You can do this using Shopify's free app called Fraud Filterhttp://bit.ly/32bvKa5

 

The app allows you to set up rules to block customers using their name, address, phone number, email, etc.

 

screenshot.png

 

There are other apps available on the Shopify App Marketplace, but I'd start with Shopify's official app first.

 

Let me know if this answers your question or if you need further help!

Brian | Shopify Partner | Ecommerce Consultant
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Dani
Shopify Staff (Retired)
223 43 110

Hi @BriBri 

 

Dani here from Shopify.

 

First of all, welcome to Shopify! I hope you're finding the migration process smooth, we're here to help if you do have any questions at all!

 

As Brian suggested, the Fraud Filter app may work well for you! It's a free Shopify developed app that can either automatically cancel certain orders, or alert you that a possible fraud order has been made. You can set a variety of custom filters to add extra protection to your store. Take a look at our help doc for more information on this app.

 

There are many additional third party fraud apps you could consider as well! A few that I found which you may be interested in are:

 

 

For future orders, you may want to consider our Fraud Protect program. With Fraud Protect, all eligible orders are protected from chargeback risk based on a custom percentage for your store. If a chargeback does come in on a protected order, Shopify will cover the chargeback cost and fees!

 

That's really impressive that you have been online for 20+ years! I'm curious, what's been your favourite thing about Shopify so far? And what advice would you give to someone just starting out in their online business venture?

 

All the best,

 

Dani

To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Community Blog.

GaryT
Tourist
5 0 9

The issue/question is not about fraud. It's about blocking/banning difficult/problematic customers from placing an order or, if need be, block from entering the store entirely.

gary

Pripri
Explorer
47 0 15

To be honest, not sure how good that is. Have 3 customers who were doing fraudulous orders (did not block them) but they changed their e-mail adresses after I voided their orders when they came in, because I knew they they were frauds. One idiot even changed her name to Moon Water and Fraud Filter did not mention as a fraudulous name, when in fact she changed names 3 times with the same orders and adresses. I rely on myself to check who lives at a place (google the phone books) and check the location, because one was a post office :). And the joke is that they get agressive with us if we do not ship or accept the order. 

Told them I was to call the credit card company for them and help with the situation, to give me all the information over the phone and I would get back to them. They get silent and run off

But do not ship elsewhere that is not the billing adress (that you could check) IF these people are not customers who bought 10 times from you at least. Do not ship right away, let it sit for 2-3 weeks because the one that got its card hacked might take a week to notice the charge and contest it. Then if you get a chargeback, at least you do not loose the item and shipment values.

shopfy-2020
Shopify Partner
73 3 18

They all seem to use the same format; automate buyer interaction during the checkout process, which often give false fraud notifications. But that doesn't allow you to simply pick bad buyers from your order, email or buyer names and block them.

 

JGT
Tourist
8 0 14

The idea is to prevent the customer from placing the order before they can continue. Every time a fraud person gets to the checkout and Shopify processes the payment, that is a fee for the store owner. So the store owner needs to cancel the order but what happens to the processing fee? Shopify is not giving it back that I know.

Also, the app even put a different filter to block someone, sometimes the order still gets processed because the filter did not work or to be able to see it is way below and not at the top of the order.

In general, this app is not so good for the store owner, it is 50/50 and not 100.

2faroffroad
Tourist
7 0 4

@BrianAtWork wrote:

The app allows you to set up rules to block customers using their name, address, phone number, email, etc.

 


Hi @BrianAtWork 

Can you help me locate this exact function? 

I only see options to tend to an order AFTER it is placed. 

Looking for the BLOCK options as you mentioned?

Thanks. 

 

BrianAtWork
Shopify Partner
245 59 184

@2faroffroad The Fraud Filter can automatically cancel orders after they’ve been placed but not before. There are other apps that can help you block orders before they are placed, as suggested by Shopify Staff:

 

https://community.shopify.com/c/Shopify-Discussion/Blocking-Blacklisting-Customers/m-p/559842/highli... 

 

Hope this helps!

Brian | Shopify Partner | Ecommerce Consultant
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dans22
Visitor
1 0 0

I set up a rule using the shopify app, now how do i add email addresses and names to be canceled? 

alarmguy
Tourist
4 0 13

None of those linked will block an order from happening in the first place. As such, you lose cc fees everytime which becomes very expensive. Seems like it should be simple to block an email or address at the calc shipping level BEFORE the order is placed.

Rocky2020
Tourist
3 0 0
I’ll just be careful needless to say I won the disputed item cause was shipped and I had the tracking 😁
PIMBY
Visitor
1 0 9

We have had cases where the chargeback was disputed with screenshots of the orders, delivery made, shipping label attached, USPS tracking information and the bank still sided with the person making a false fraudulent claim at their bank. It's really nasty.

Pripri
Explorer
47 0 15

I am curious, if one does not accept the charges from the credit card, how can we be charged by shopify or the credit card ? Are you sure of this ?

I have to approve each transaction when they come in and capture payment if ok, if not, it does not get charged to the customer and we do not get the money. Or I do not capture the payment and cancel or void (forgot the one offfered) so, nothing is charged to their card. So, am learning something new that we would be charged by shopify for a voided transaction not happening

JGT
Tourist
8 0 14

That app doesn't make sense. Why block someone after making the purchase already. I as a seller will lose money because of the fees charge when that order generates.

dylanpierce
Shopify Partner
210 3 94

Since Shopify's app doesn't solve the main pain points of blocking a customer before they place an order and blocking orders without a customer account registration, I've created Blockade.

It's an app that allows you to block or allow traffic based on:


  • Visitor's country of origin
  • IP address
  • Associated website (block pexgle, adspy, dropsite and other abusive scraping websites)

With the app you can block the specific IP address of the known bad acting customer so they won't be able to make an order in the first place.

You can get it on the App Store here: https://apps.shopify.com/blockade

You don't need to update your theme with a custom script or other risky steps, just install the app and setup your rules.

Happy to answer any questions,
Dylan

Founder of Real ID - Verify your customer's real IDs easily & securely with modern A.I.

Want to see it in action? Check out our demo store.

Omnitype
Visitor
3 0 3

What keeps a person from just using a VPN and getting around it? Can your app also add customers addresses, emails, etc to have a more robust stack of info on them? As you know, fraudsters have many ways around this thing by using different names, different emails, VPN, etc. So we need all of this info to be able to keep adding to a fraudsters "File" everytime they use new info. 

sunkingdice
Visitor
1 0 1

Blocking an entire country is not only stupid (any kid can get around that with a VPN) it's also highly racist and xenophobic. 

NSEImports
Excursionist
33 0 10

I just found this thread after watching a large amount of dodgy checkout's occurring simultaneously all from Hyderabad just now, oddly they all for the same chap (Harry Jones if you ever get these same guys trying it on) who owned several properties around London 🤣

 

Luckily they could not checkout successfully but they were not planning on stopping after the first 15 failed, just to make sure I installed @dylanpierce Blockade app and had a good chuckle as it sat there blocking them, I'll give them points for being persistent, they kept trying for a while, would love to have seen their faces when a big 'denied' page popped up. 

 

To those saying 'don't block whole countries, it's not nice etc...' I have on and off been doing online sales for companies and myself since 2005ish, personally I see it as a sign that I'm getting popular when they try this kind of silliness. My old Opencart site was constantly attacked from Vietnamese and Thai IP's, after playing whack-a-mole with them for a while it became easier to block the whole lot, one of the reasons for moving to Shopify was to improve security as they were always trying to rummage around for my admin panel and it hammered my server performance.

 

I agree that blocking entire chunks of the planets population off is not nice, but unfortunately they have too many bad actors that spoil it, i'll unblock India in a week or two and see if the scammers try again, it's a shame as I've shipped stuff there a few times without issue so would like to continue.

 

If the scammers come back I'll likely look at upgrading to Blockade Pro and play whack-a-mole with IP's again to have fun with the scammers.

 

Doing many things all day everyday
EddyChung
Shopify Partner
65 1 28

Blockade is a great option! 

There are some other awesome apps that have similar functionality: 

  • Easy Country Blocker by ZendApps
  • FraudLabs Pro Fraud Prevention
  • Traffic Guard
  • Fraud Filter by Shopify (already mentioned)

Check out my full review and comparison of these apps here

 

friedmikey
Tourist
11 0 29

Surely you can't be serious with the Fraud Filter app.

  1. This app requires me to create completely new and separate rule for every individual customer I want to block. No support for a single list.
  2. As everyone else has stated, this app does not block the order from occurring. It just cancels it after the fact, leaving the merchant out of pocket for the transaction fee. 
budapest1616
Visitor
1 0 2

Look at the reviews for this app. All bad. 

shopfy-2020
Shopify Partner
73 3 18

Shopify doesn't know how to develop apps.... where do they send their development work? There's not a single app released by Shopify that works properly! The app has already managed to attract a 2-star review.

 

Boobeautybar
Visitor
2 0 0

Hi Brian/ community, I have downloaded this app and have applied many rules for a certain customer.

For some reason she is still able to purchase from my site without a cancellation or even warning.

Please advise me on what I can do to finally get rid of this fraudster.

Many thanks.

 

Tracey_Bowen1
Tourist
3 0 3

Hi - I installed and Fraud Fiilter, then set up a filter to stop my personal email address from ordering, but the order went through. I will attach screenshots. 

APT-507
Visitor
1 0 0

Hi @Tracey_Bowen1 

 

The issue here is that you added two email address, which means that the rule will never trigger since Shopify only allows 1 email per account. Delete one rule. 

 

If you read the description, it mentions that the filter will act on the order only if all the rules match. 

 

If you would like to add both emails, then you simply create a new filter with the 2nd email address. 

 

I hope this helps you. 

ISAAC_PRESS
Visitor
1 0 0

Hi, Brian  I´d like to know how this app works?, as well you know, any customer could buy using an account as client or invited. I want to know if this rules works eveen if the customer have not create any register as client

Thenicholecolle
Excursionist
12 0 1

Lifesaver! Thanks!

McSpin
Tourist
8 0 33

Like BriBri, I want to block certain people from ordering. The shopify fraud filter does not do this. It simply cancels the order and refunds the payment. However, this a poor solution.  I still end up losing fees charged when they place the order.  

Specifically, is there a way to blacklist a customer so they cannot place an order?  

 

 

MarianaZ
Tourist
6 0 19

@McSpin wrote:

Like BriBri, I want to block certain people from ordering. The shopify fraud filter does not do this. It simply cancels the order and refunds the payment. However, this a poor solution.  I still end up losing fees charged when they place the order.  

Specifically, is there a way to blacklist a customer so they cannot place an order?  

 

 


I have the same question...

fabrics
Excursionist
20 0 33

I have the same question??

ASeller
Excursionist
16 1 19

I would also like to know how to block someone from ever placing an order, especially digital downloads.

Matt_gilbert
Tourist
9 0 31
Shopify sucks!!!!!!!!
ASeller
Excursionist
16 1 19

I have discovered that the app SendOwl allows blocking users by email address, IP address or country. Plus, this app lets you place a mark at the bottom of every page in the PDF with the buyer’s name, etc, to discourage illegal copying. 

AllINSP
Shopify Partner
5 0 6

Did you ever find a solution for this?  We're looking at the same problem.  We'd like to stop a customer from purchasing digital downloads - and it's the same customer (we think, it's all in Chinese which non of us read).

ASeller
Excursionist
16 1 19

Yes!  I use the app SendOwl to fulfill digital download orders.  Inside SendOwl is the ability to block users by IP address and email address.  It blocks the user before the digital product is given to them.  I also love that SendOwl stamps each PDF with the buyers name, etc (you choose what it puts there) at the bottom of each page to help prevent it from being shared illegally.

AllINSP
Shopify Partner
5 0 6

I don't think that will help us (as we already have a digital download delivery system), but that's great info for people just setting up shop.

ASeller
Excursionist
16 1 19

That makes sense.  I switched to SendOwl because of the blocking feature and the PDF stamping.  Note that if you do change PDF delivery apps, DO NOT delete the old one as it holds all of the data from previous order fulfillment, and your customers need that.

MarianaZ
Tourist
6 0 19
If it's from a specific Country, you may be able to block payments and
users from specific countries, or a specific range of IPs, email addresses,
etc. Using either a Shopify App, like Fraud Filter or similar.
Additionally, some payment processors like Stripe also allow you to set
these kinds of rules. If you don't have business with specific countries it
may be best to block those countries all along, evaluate your personal
situation and decide what's best for you.

Regards,
GaryT
Tourist
5 0 9

Now that Shopify does not refund merchant fees to the seller, cancelling an order from a banned buyer is not a total solution. Canceling an order carries the expense of the non-refunded fee. We need to stop them at the door, not at the register. Sidebar: I deduct 3% from buyer's refund unless there has been an error on our part. It is published in our Terms & Conditions. Buyer must check box to have read T&C prior to making payment.

JGT
Tourist
8 0 14

True to that, I'm tired of paying the transaction fees when any person gets their order canceled, I end paying all for a refund, and that's a big loss to any business.

JGT
Tourist
8 0 14

We do the same. Every transaction has a fee, if they're a refund to make we do it minus the % that was charged for making that transaction. Unfortunately, we are not amazon or walmart for not caring about does fees.

Rainbowvapes
Tourist
4 0 1

Hi, I have had this problem, but sure its fixed now. Had a customer buying several orders or more every day, I just wanted to block him from making more orders, the last 3 days since adding easy country blocker https://apps.shopify.com/country-blocker-1?surface_detail=easy+country+blocker&surface_inter_positio... we have had no fraud orders from him, you can block the ip address of countries as well as individuals so that they can't access your site. 

This is the only solution I could find without customers having to have an account to checkout

gurisingh
Tourist
4 0 4

I am also looking for a viable solution. 

 

Ideally, I would like to maintain a list.  

 

I am amazed that Shopify does not support such a function. 

 

 

GaryT
Tourist
5 0 9
There's probably some legal reason. Consumer rights or such.

shopfy-2020
Shopify Partner
73 3 18

Shopify absolutely 100% needs a feature to block customers. And fraud has increased drastically since lockdowns.

 

HennyLoc
Tourist
3 0 4

yes this is really needed! It costs Shopify  site owners money when an order is cancelled. Ebay has this a a free service, you can block customers that are not a good fit, and save potential headache and lost time dealing with a difficult customer

retrogameboyz
Excursionist
28 1 20

and once again I am here looking for a solution to block problematic buyers and of course - NOTHING! Shopify why don't you listen to your customers. We just want to BLOCK / BLACKLIST someone that enters our site. Everyone has an IP or email - you should give us the ability to do so. YES I know people can change emails and IPs and use VPNs - but at least it is a deterrent. 

MiniScenesGB
Visitor
2 0 0

I've just had my first abusive, and possibly a scammer, Shopify has no  means to block and report  to save others from the same pain currently, unlike other platforms I sell on, so I feel your pain. I have asked  for that to be put in as a consideration for  future development as it has left me feeling  unsafe  selling on Shopify to be honest. I did get the fraud prevention thingy,  but really  all that does is block that buyer from me. It doesn't help to   prevent them doing this to other:( I hope Shopify will  include a process for this in future

JaviExpress
Shopify Partner
154 15 23

We wrote a code solution that may be of help in some cases, it prevents registered customers (with email address) to log in. To read more here

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