A small business owner was hit with a $757 fee after canceling a $25,000 fraudulent order within 30 minutes. The order was likely placed using a stolen credit card.
The core issue: Shopify charges full processing fees even when orders are immediately canceled and refunded, as long as payment was already captured.
Suggested solution: Enable manual payment capture in Shopify settings to review orders before processing. This allows suspicious orders to be voided before capture—avoiding processing fees entirely.
One commenter recommended using fraud detection tools that automatically hold payments on risky orders until manual approval, preventing fees on canceled fraudulent transactions. The business owner expressed concern about potential banking issues from the negative balance.
Short version, someone placed a $25,000 fraudulent order on our website, we deemed it fraud from the start, cancelled the order 30 minutes later and are now being whacked with a $-757 fee because it was cancelled and refunded, most likely they used a stolen credit card number.
Shopify, this one really hurt as we are small business and this will most likely cause us some issues at our bank.
That’s painful—and I’ve been in the same situation. Shopify charges the full processing fee even if you cancel right away, as long as the payment was captured.
Manual capture is absolutely essential in a case like this. You can enable this in the settings. It gives you full control to review the order first. If it looks suspicious, you can void it before the money is ever processed—no fees, no damage.
That’s exactly why I built FraudGuard. it flags risky orders and automatically holds the payment (so nothing gets captured) until you approve. If you decide to cancel, it’s a clean void—no processing fee, no damage.
If you want to try it, we’re offering 30 days free + 50% off for early adopters:
https://fraudguard.carrd.co/