Suspicious Order with shopify email

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Multiple Shopify store owners are experiencing fraudulent $0 orders from fake accounts, most notably “Sushi Books” (sushishopify@gmail.com) and “Hudson Chin.” These bot-driven orders target free or $0-priced items like gift wrapping, PDF downloads, and hidden products.

Key patterns identified:

  • Orders use fictitious customer details (fake names, emails, phone numbers, addresses)
  • Target hidden/free products not visible in regular store listings
  • Same profiles reappear even after deletion or blocking
  • Activity intensified around mid-November 2024, with some stores receiving multiple daily attempts

Suspected motivations:

  • Testing credit card numbers for resale
  • Exploiting website glitches through paid subscription services (e.g., “Bandar’s Bounties”)
  • Brushing scams to validate active addresses
  • Attempting to obtain free physical products from larger retailers

Workarounds that have worked:

  • Change $0 items to $0.01 or actual prices with automatic discount codes
  • Require minimum 2-item orders for free products
  • Flag orders as fraudulent through Shopify’s “More actions” menu
  • Use apps like Cart Lock or Blocky Fraud Blocker (though effectiveness varies)

Ongoing frustration: Shopify support has been unable to permanently block these accounts. Merchants want pre-purchase blocking capabilities rather than post-order cancellation options. The issue remains unresolved despite widespread reporting.

Summarized with AI on October 25. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
21

I have some insight. I’ve had a few similar orders per week for the past 3-4 months. I did some research and here’s what I’ve found out: There are these groups where people can pay for a subscription that provide people with website glitches or errors as a backdoor to order things for free. For us it is similar to the OP where they are trying to order something that isn’t really a physical product, so we cancel the order. Also, we’re a small enough business that we’re going to recognize scam orders and not ship product for free. However, I’ve found facebook marketplace listings associated with some of these scammers where they are selling everything from cat food to electronics to power tools, “new in box”. I think that if they try this glitch order scam enough times somebody from best buy or wherever, who isn’t smart enough or doesn’t care enough, is just going to put the shipping label on the box and ship the order. I don’t think that the scammers are personally reviewing things enough to tell the difference between “gift wrapping” and an actual physical item of value. Google “Bandar’s Bounties” for more info, that’s one of these scam subscription groups. Except for a few dummies who use a variation of their real name or use their real email addresses all of these orders are completely fictitious customers, fake phone numbers, burner email addresses, and possibly fake shipping addresses such as a vacant house in the neighborhood.

I haven’t figured out the way to block them yet. I have an app, Blocky Fraud Blocker, where I’m supposed to be able to block VPNs, Bots, and specific IP addresses but none of that seems to work. For me its a little tricky because the thing they are trying to order has to stay on my site because it’s a customization option, despite not being an actual physical product. Another interesting thing is that despite the fact that the “product” page is not visible and even if I try to view it by using the URL it gives me an error, somehow the scammers are going directly to that page when they visit my site. Maybe there’s a more functional fraud blocker app.

1 Like
22

Yikes! Thanks for that insight, though!
I’ve managed to stop them finally with 2 methods. 1 - I changed the price of the 0.00 items to an actual price and then made an automatic discount code that marks the free item ‘free’ only when added to the cart. That way, it has a value and they aren’t trying to get it anymore.

The second method I used was that the item had to be in a minimum order of at least 2 items in order to be made free. Using these two methods, I’ve managed to finally stop these creeps in my store (for now…)

The apps can help, but we shouldn’t have to PAY extra to put a stop to what us clearly fraud already. It’s a shape Shopify doesn’t do more to stop this.

23

Hi,

Great solutions. But how do you make it so that there have to be 2 items to be made free? I can’t see any way to restrict a product in any way.

Thanks in advance!