How can I block orders from specific countries or cancel them in bulk?

[coolcity]

Hi, 

I have a problem with buyers from Morocco placing orders on the website, but getting around the International shipping fee by adding "UK" (the country where we're based) and a UK postcode to the delivery address. 

Of course I cancel all the orders, but it's a real pain - they can add as many as 50 orders a day sometimes and as far as I can see it's only possible to cancel them individually. 

Is there a way of blocking them based on their location, and if not, a way of cancelling or deleting the orders in bulk? I've had a look around the forum and can't quite find the resolution I need. 

Thanks. 

[Julie · Accepted solution]

Hi, @coolcity!

Julie here from Shopify Support. Thanks for reaching out. 

There's a high chance that these orders could be fraudulent, especially given the fact that these particular customers are using invalid shipping addresses. I'm glad to see that you're looking for ways to prevent these situations from occurring.

Luckily, there are some apps in the Shopify App Store that can help you block orders from customers in specific countries. Some popular options include: 

• Ordering Rules ‑ Fraud Blocker
• Easy Country Blocker
• Blockade

These apps are specifically designed to circumvent fake international orders and will automatically block visitors from specific countries. While these apps will definitely prevent those particular customers from placing orders, keep in mind that they will prevent Moroccan customers from accessing your website altogether.

If you still want those customers to access your website, then I recommend looking into Ordering Rules - Fraud Blocker. This app gives you the ability to prevent certain known customers from placing orders on your store. With this app, you can also create rules based on order details you suspect could be fraudulent, and choose whether you'd like the app to tag those orders for review, or automatically cancel them. 

Did you know that Shopify also offers built-in fraud analysis? Shopify's fraud analysis uses machine learning algorithms to detect and flag any orders that are deemed suspicious so you can review them before fulfilling them. While this won't automatically block or cancel orders from specific countries, it's a great tool that can help prevent fraud. We also have some general information on fraud prevention that I recommend checking out; there are some excellent tips on how to investigate suspicious orders. 

I hope you find these app suggestions useful and I'd love to hear what you think! Feel free to respond here and let me know.

[coolcity]

Thanks Julie,

Sorry for the late reply. No question that they're fraudulent. For one thing they're adding a UK postcode and selecting UK to try to fool us into thinking it's not an international order and therefore bypassing the international shipping fee. 

Fraud filter is currently helping prevent the current crop from continuing to place orders, the main problem being that they keep trying over and again, but it seems to have cured that for now at least. 

I do have one issue with it - it only blocks repeat orders is ALL the fields match exactly, so buyers only need to change one letter to beat it. Of course it's easy to set up a simple feature such as blocking their email address or IP address, but I think it should at least me made clearer to perhaps novice users who are not used to this sort of thing that simply setting up a block to include all fields is probably not the best idea. I do like the fact that you can apply it straight from the order page though. 

It would be a good idea to include this app as standard with Shopify. Had I not posted this I wouldn't have known about it. 

[Julie]

No problem! 

Those orders definitely sound suspicious and I'm glad to hear that Fraud Filter has been helping you combat them. 

When creating a Fraud Filter rule, you should be able to avoid requiring all fields by instead choosing contains as the operator. For example, you can use contains as the operator to block all orders associated with any email address from a specific domain. If the type of rule you're setting up doesn't allow you to choose contains as the operator, then blocking IP addresses may be a better solution. 

That being said, I'd love to pass your feedback along to our developers. What kind of Fraud Filter rule did you set up? 

[coolcity]

Sorry Julie, I missed this. 

I tend to use the postcode (zip code) for the fraud filter. OK, this will block the whole street but the likelihood of getting a genuine order from anybody else living on the same street is slim. But as it's an essential part of the delivery address, it means that they cannot try to beat the fraud filter by simply typing in a different name, or spelling their address or delivery town slightly differently. 

If I have a criticism I think it's more complex than it needs to be, there are too many fields. If a potential buyer changes one letter in any one of those fields I assume that the Filter will not pick up the order, so the user is probably reducing his chances of the Filter working significantly if he tries to match up too many fields, and most people are probably not aware of this. 

[Julie]

No problem, @coolcity! 

That makes complete sense and I totally have to agree with you here — using their postcode is an effective way to prevent this particular customer from placing orders on your online store, and the chances that someone will place a legitimate order using the same postcode is pretty slim. As mentioned above, you could also look into blocking their IP address.

I also appreciate your feedback about the Fraud Filter app and I'd love some clarification so I can share it with our developers. Do you mind elaborating on what you mean by "too many fields"? Are you referring to a particular rule that you've set up in the Fraud Filter app?

[dylanpierce]

Hi @coolcity welcome to the forums.

I'm the creator of the Blockade app that @Julie has mentioned in her post. Happy to answer any questions you might have about the app and blocking unwanted traffic to your store. Blocking traffic from opening your shop is the easiest way to block unfulfillable orders from happening in the first place.

Unfortunately I believe the official Shopify fraud filter app doesn't trigger till after checkout, so you still have to refund the customer manually. 

[coolcity]

Thanks Dylan, I'll take a look but for my purposes the basic app seems to do the job I need it to do. I can't give specific details here for obvious reasons.