How can I set up fraud alert emails for problematic orders?

[Beela]

We use external software to import orders from Shopify and ship them. That software does not pull the fraudulent orders tag from orders so we don't see them unless we look in the list of orders on Shopify. This past long weekend we were hit with 6 fraudulent orders and shipped them without reviewing. We had to do package intercepts with USPS and FedEx.

Shopify does not have an email trigger to send off fraud alert emails to the shop owner (but they should).

What we've done is to have Shopify send emails of all orders and to change the subject when a possible fraudulent order is made. We've set up an email filter to delete all emails for normal orders and to let the fraudulent order emails pass into the inbox.

1. Enable "New Order" emails to be sent out. This can be found at the bottom of the list of emails under Settings > Notifications

2. Set the subject of these emails so that they display one subject if it is fraudulent and another if it isn't:

{% if has_high_risks? %} Order FRAUD ALERT{% else %} Delete this notification{% endif %}

"Order FRAUD ALERT" is the subject of the email if it is a high risk order and "Delete this notification" if it is a regular order.

3. Set up your email software to automatically delete emails with "Delete this notification" 

[Tira]

Hey, @Beela. 

Tira here to help.

Thank you for reaching out and for taking the time to research and implement a solution of your own. I’m sorry to hear about the fraudulent orders.

Fraudulent orders can happen and we do have tools in place to help merchants avoid these as much as possible. Our Fraud Analysis tool helps to identify any fraudulent orders and reviews high-risk orders to avoid potential chargebacks. This tool is available for orders that are paid with Shopify Payments, our in-house payment provider. When you use Fraud Analysis, Shopify will send you order notifications (if you are subscribed to them) to let you know when a fra....

These order notifications are available for stores using the Shopify plan or higher. Which payment method are you using to take payments? What plan are you using on your store?

[Beela]

We are on the Shopify Plan and do get Fraud Analysis on our orders. Because of the volume of orders we handle we previously opted not to get order notifications. We have changed to receiving only notifications for high risk orders per the above workaround.

[JoesIdeas]

Hi @Beela it sounds like you found a workaround but posted the question to find another solution for fraud alert emails, I'll contribute my workflow (I'm a store owner + an app developer) to give you another idea.

1. We use Order Automator (a Shopify automation helper app my team developed) to automatically identify medium and high risk orders + tag the order + send an email to customer support.

2. Customer support investigates the order + contacts the customer to let them know it was picked up by our fraud system.

3. Support estimates the fraud by the interaction with the customer, if it seems legit they ask the customer confirm the order is legit and that they will not file for a chargeback.

4. If the order continues and they do end up filing for a chargeback, you have evidence in the email chain to submit in your case that the order was indeed legit, as verified by the customer.

[Tira]

Thanks for letting me and the Shopify Community know, @Beela. It sounds like @JoesIdeas has a great workaround for you if you would like to automate this process through using an app from our App Store. As that app is developed by a third-party developer, should you have any questions about the app, you can find the contact information and documentation under the "Support" section of the app's page.

I know that it can be frustrating to have to sort through lots of emails and fulfill orders you don't need to fulfill, so I would be happy to take your post and suggestion for the account owner of the shop to receive notifications for fraudulent orders to our developer team. 

Before I do that, you mentioned earlier that you're using a software to import orders and ship them. What is that software? I would also love to know what kinds of products you're selling. I can take this context to our developer team so that they are aware of how we can improve our platform for you and all of our merchants.

Talk soon,