Suspicious Order with shopify email

[Apmmem]

Has anyone received orders for just purchasing "Gift Wrapping" $00 which we don't even offer in our store. Below is the contact information and none of it exist including the email and phone.  I deleted it the first time but we just received another phantom order.  My concern this is someone trying to brake in to our store or is it something else.  I would appreciate any help or advise.  The Shopify help center just said to check all information and delete it.  Thank you!

Customer

Sushi Books

1 order

Contact information

sushishopify@gmail.com

Shipping address

Sushi Books
9211 Sorrento Court
Humble TX 77396
United States
+1 360-441-1199

[Laza_Binaery]

Hi @Apmmem 

Well Shopify help center gives good advice " check all information and delete it".  Because you do have a product called  "Gift Wrapping" $00

https://pickard-china-1.myshopify.com/products/gift-wrap So check it out in your products. Should be there. Maybe some app add that one?

And I tested you can add it to the cart. While you have a popup on the cart page with minimum order when clicking on the checkout button, a person still could go to checkout by typing it in the address bar manually. Then finish the order.

But not sure of a reason why though. Note Shopify is very secure, so maybe just for testing or maybe spam. There are also different scams that some "experts" find a non-existing issue and then offer to fix for some amount of money. Just be cautious and think about how and to who you give access to admin.

And it will be fine.

[Apmmem]

Thank you for your help.  I removed the Gift Wrap so this should resolve the issue. 

[Bundler-Manuel]

Hey there @Apmmem  I believe it’s best you follow that advice and ensure to never give access to your store admin to anyone else and everything would be fine.

[HaynesHouse · Accepted solution]

I received two orders from this same "person" with the same mailing address. They also ordered my free mat board sample. Based on your post, I think I'm going to assume that it's a scam of some sort. 

[RRDesigns]

Shopify, we need your help on this. 
This is could be a serious issue, I just got the same order from sushi books this morning as well. Its frustrating to know that someone can get such access from a secure platform like shopify. Can we please get answers on this, and get to the bottom of sushi books and others like them. 

[Anastasia_Books]

Let's report this thread/buyer to Shopify support. It may be the only way to get their attention. (I didn't think they personally monitor all of these).

There also NEEDS to be a way to block certain emails from making purchases BEFORE, not after they do so.

[fern22]

yes I got a order from this same person for $0 - also had one the other day for $0 , definitelyy a scam of some sort.

[DG-CTS]

Recommend flagging this to help identify it as fraud: when on the page for that order, hit the "More actions" button at the top right, then select "Cancel order" then select the option "Fraudulent order" - you can UNcheck the "send a notification to the customer" box if you want. If enough people do this for this "customer" it will help identify them as problematic.  

[RockofIsrael]

We have a few items on our Shopify store that are "free pdf's" for $.00 and we are getting orders from this mysterious person "Hudson Chin" and several others.  They come in at strange hours like 2:25AM.  There are several fictitious people this person is using to order free items. (Note: We have had this for years and many real people have requested the pdf's, but 99.99% sure this is not one of those orders.)

We changed the price to .01 and put a note to email us if they want the free pdf.  Then those orders stopped.  But we hate to do that.  We liked when people ordered for a cost of $.00.  So we put it back to .00 cost and low and behold - the same "Hudson Chin" orders again and a few other false accounts.  It almost seems like a bot is set up to automatically do the  ordering.

So sad this person has nothing to do in life but to annoy real vendors.

[MRichmond]

I have this same thing happening with "Hudson Chin" == did you ever resolve this? Thank you!

[Anastasia_Books]

Been having the same issue! 2 orders in a row (different times) from 2 different profiles - one of which is SUSHI BOOKS. I canceled both. Both were free ebooks hidden from my store listings and only available via a direct link. VERY frustrating! They didn't download either one, luckily, but I do feel someone needs to get to the bottom of this.

Good to know the 0.01 works, but It's not something I can do just yet as it hasn't been tested and may cause the bonus *free* items to not look as appetizing in the cart. 

Shopify NEEDS to offer the ability to block buyers before they make transactions, not just to cancel after.

[Anastasia_Books]

UPDATE: chatting with support now. They said they are trying to block the Sushi Books profile, but not sure about others .... Please be sure to REPORT THESE ORDERS TO SUPPORT.

[Anastasia_Books]

UPDATE 2: Got another order from SUSHI BOOKS and another fraudulent account, even after support said they would ban them. I am following up with support again. I wish we could stop this from happening. 

[PrestonH]

This 'hudson chin' alias is clearly a bot that appeared in our Abandoned Checkout list starting in mid Dec 2024 - and several per day. Same MO: hidden product with zero price. In our case some shipping is added bringing the total to $6.00. From fake Texas address. 

'hudson' just appeared again as a new profile this afternoon with a fake Florida address - but no order attempt, yet.  So, I suspect, if you delete the fake customers, they will reappear with new profile details. 

A deluge of of fake accounts and abandoned carts beset us starting around mid November 2024 (over 560 abandoned carts to date from fake accounts) and are not related to contact forms. The pattern I see is, they attack for a few days and then generate a new profile. There can be several profiles attacking on a given day. 'hudson chin' seems to be a favorite right now. 

With the countless threads on this issue, it's clear Shopify support can't or won't help in a meaningful way.

[DG-CTS]

Does anyone know WHY these bot orders are being created? What does it accomplish? Does creating a fake $0 order help them gain information to do something else malicious? Do we need to protect our accounts/shops in some way? Thanks.

[Anastasia_Books]

This has been happening far too long. https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-discussions/how-to-stop-bot-from-placing-fake-orders/m-p/247...

This app can help: https://apps.shopify.com/cart-lock

I've tried to research this and can't find an exact answer, but from my own personal understanding/research, I think they are just scammers trying to get free items and/or brushing scams to find active addresses for other purposes. (The addresses they use in the order). 

By placing an order, there's no way they can get inside our stores to do much else, however, I've seen the emails being used over and over often have words like "Freebie" "orders" etc. that indicate they are trying to use them for only these. I have also noticed that they often open the abandon cart emails they get - indicating there IS a real person on the other end.

This is truly infuriating - and while there are some apps that can block high-risk proxies and countries (for a price), Shopify has yet to give us a workable solution. I've had to heavily change how my "free" items are done just to stop these bots. I was getting hit multiple times per day - often by the SAME offenders. Orders cancelled on my end, and their emails were removed from my email lists. Still, it's so frustrating. 

[PrestonH]

I our case I believe scammers are testing credit card numbers. If they get one that works, they can resell it. We've not had one go through but it results in an abandoned cart.

They're not visiting your site - but coming through back doors. Trying to stop it is like playing whack-a-mole. Until it negatively hurts Shopify (the company), I suspect little more will be done. 

[Anastasia_Books]

I know credit card testing orders definitely occur but in this instance, that’s not the case for my store.

Every single order is for a hidden free AddOn in my store. Something with a price of 0.00 and no shipping (digital). So no payment methods are needed or required.

[PrestonH]

Interesting! Our cases share things in common. Perhaps all the reasons these malcontents engage in such behavior, beyond that they can and will get away with it, may never be known. 

In the mean time I'm keeping my eyes open for a near bulletproof method to catch them at the customer creation stage (where most first appear for us and can confirm fake) and nuke 'em - without having to pay for an app - which we shouldn't have to do. Have experimented with Shopify Flow.