So you have an order marked as High Risk.
You might be wondering, what does this mean, and what do I do now?
Keep watching to find out everything you need to know about handling high risk orders.
Hey everyone, it’s Aly with Shopify.
Today I’m going to show you how to handle orders that are marked as high risk.
So what exactly is a high risk order?
An order is marked as high risk when Shopify suspects that it might be fraudulent.
Shopify uses machine learning algorithms to determine the risk of an order.
This system is continually improving to always better identify fraudulent orders.
For example, the algorithm knows that different billing and shipping addresses are more likely
to be fraudulent.
For this reason these orders are most likely to be flagged as high risk.
Fraudulent orders usually happen when someone uses another person’s credit card to make
a purchase without the cardholder’s permission.
If you fulfill a high risk order, there is a chance it can lead to a chargeback.
Chargebacks happen when the credit card holder disputes the credit card charge.
The bank that issued your customer’s credit card can take the purchase amount from you
and refund it to the credit card holder.
When the chargeback is requested for a fraud-related reason, this is called a chargeback due to
fraud or a fraudulent chargeback.
The decision to reverse funds is made by the bank that issued the credit card, and not
by Shopify, and Shopify is not able to cover reversals from banks that are issued.
Too many chargebacks on your store can cause Shopify to disable your payment processing,
and remove Shopify Payments from your store altogether.
Chargebacks due to fraud can cause you to lose both money and product.
That's why it's very important to take extra precautions when an order is marked as high
risk.
Ultimately it’s up to you to decide if you’re comfortable fulfilling an order that’s marked
as high risk.
To make an informed decision, you should gather as much information about the order as you
can.
Take some of the following steps before you fulfill a high risk order.
Number one.
Consult the order’s Fraud analysis.
On the order details page, scroll down to the “fraud analysis” card, and click “View
Full Analysis”.
Here, you see a rating of either “low, medium or high” risk, and find “Indicators”
with more information.
If you’re on the basic plan and are not using Shopify Payments, then you don’t see
the risk rating, but you still have Indicators.
Green indicators are details that are usually seen on legitimate orders.
Red indicators are details that are usually seen on fraudulent orders.
Grey indicators give you additional information about the order that could be useful.
This list of indicators doesn’t cover everything that Shopify uses to assess the risk of an
order.
So, an order marked as medium or high might not always have red indicators.
Number two.
Verify the IP address associated with the order.
Under “Additional information”, you can see the IP address.
An IP address is a set of numbers that identifies each device that uses the internet or network.
Think of it like a house address, but for computers or other devices on the internet.
An IP address can help you learn more about where an order came from.
You can use the online tools I’ve listed below to look up the geographical location,
internet service provider, or other details about a specific IP address.
Here’re some things you should look for:
Is the customer's IP address located in a different general area from where they claim
to be?
Is the IP address for a web hosting company?
Is the IP address a proxy service IP address?
If the answer is yes to any of those questions, then you should contact the customer to verify
the authenticity of the order.
Number three.
Call the number on the order.
Calling your customer is a good way to check if an order is fraudulent.
Fraudulent customers often use invalid phone numbers.
If your customer answers the phone, then ask them some simple questions about their order
and see how they answer.
See if they know the addresses, phone number, email, and name used on the order.
Notice if they’re struggling to give you simple pieces of information?
If so, this could be an indicator that this is a fraudulent order.
You can also use a service like 411.com to look up the phone number and check that it’s
located in the same area code as the billing address.
Number four: Search for the email address.
You can search for the email address on Google or another search engine to check if the email
address was used in documented fraud attempts.
Number five.
Verify that the shipping and billing addresses match.
People who commit fraud often give a shipping address that is different from the billing
address.
You can use Google Maps to map out addresses and visualize the distance between them.
If the distance between two addresses is significant, like if they are in different countries or
continents, then that could be an indicator that the order is fraudulent.
Keep in mind that legitimate shoppers sending a gift or buying on behalf of someone else
might use different addresses.
Number six.
Check to see if there are multiple orders with the same shipping address, but with different
billing addresses, and different customers names.
This is usually a sign of fraudulent orders.
After you’re done investigating an order, it's up to you whether or not you want to
cancel or fulfill the order.
It’s important to remember that if you do decide to fulfill a high risk order Shopify
does not return money lost due to fraudulent charges.
If you decide that an order is legitimate, then fulfill it like you normally would.
But if you decide that an order is too high risk and you’d like to cancel it, follow
these steps.
From the shopify admin, click “Orders”.
Then, click the order that you want to cancel.
Click “More actions”, and then “Cancel order”.
From the pop-up window, select “Refund”.
Under “Reason for Cancellation”, select “Fraudulent”, then select whether or not
you want the customer to be notified of the cancellation.
The notification the customer receives will include the reason for cancellation.
To finish, click “Cancel Order”.
Now you know what a high risk order is, and some steps you can take to help protect your
business.
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And for more information, visit help.shopify.com.