Ya these are annoying, it’s not Shopify’s fault though, the credit card companies are wayyyyy too 1-sided with the customer, if that customer is a scammer that steals from you.
Unfortunately because laws aren’t good enough to punish these scammers, it’s a part of doing business for every online store owner.
With that in mind, the burden is up to you and your team. In my tests, I found that around 20 - 30% of orders marked high risk by Shopify were fraudulent, and a tiny percent of medium risk orders were fraudulent. I ran this test with Shopify store owners (I run an app called Order Automator that automatically notifies staff and optionally cancels risky orders).
With that data in mind, if you want to be super conservative you can cancel high risk orders (and of course email the customer that it tripped your security system).
My preferred system:
-
When a high risk order comes in, have a notification sent to support to investigate
-
Support contacts any fulfillment attached to prevent the fulfillment until they verify it
-
Support emails the customer asking about the order, requesting a picture of their driver’s license to match with the name, and has the customer agree in writing that they want to purchase this item, waives their right to a return, and confirms this is a legit order and they will not file for a chargeback.
With step 3, it can be abrasive to legit customers, so just explain that there are dishonest people out there that steal from you, hurting the business, and this is just a procedure to prevent that. And if they still do file a charge back, you have that evidence to provide to the bank that they agreed in writing to.
Sorry you have to deal with this, it’s frustrating, I hope any of the tips I shared that have worked for my business and clients can help you.