Operations — Fraud orders

Handling Shopify orders flagged with fraud risk.

Source: Coda KB p55.

When this kicks in

Shopify automatically scores incoming orders for fraud risk. Orders show a colored marker:

• 🟢 Green (low risk) — process normally.
• 🟡 Yellow / Medium risk — review before fulfilling. See below.
• 🔴 Red / High risk — do NOT fulfill. Escalate to Alex.

Medium-risk order procedure

When an order has a medium fraud marker:

1. Pause fulfillment. Do NOT mark as paid / send to ShipStation yet.
2. Check the fraud signals in Shopify:
   • Billing address vs. shipping address — do they match? If not, is there a reasonable explanation?
   • IP location vs. shipping country.
   • CVV / AVS verification status.
   • Order pattern — multiple orders to the same address in a short window?
3. Cross-reference customer in Shopify. If they have prior successful orders without issues, that’s a positive signal.
4. Contact the customer to verify (email or phone). Use the verification language below.
5. If verified by the customer: mark the fraud risk as cleared (Shopify lets you override), fulfill normally.
6. If verification fails (no response, suspicious responses, or the customer says they didn’t place the order): cancel + refund the order. Notify Alex via Slack.

Customer verification language

Soft, non-accusatory. Most flagged orders are real customers — we don’t want to insult them.

Hi {customer_first_name},

Thanks for your order with Lucyd! Before we ship, we want to verify a couple of details:

1. Could you confirm the shipping address: {shipping_address}?
2. Could you confirm this was placed by you? (Our payment processor flagged some details that we want to double-check — fully normal.)

Just reply with a "yes" or any corrections and we'll ship right out.

Thanks!
{agent_name}
Lucyd Customer Support

High-risk order procedure

If Shopify marks the order red / high risk:

1. Do NOT fulfill.
2. Escalate to Alex immediately in #cs-escalations.
3. Alex will make the call: hold for investigation, cancel + refund, or contact the customer.

Common high-risk patterns:

• Card-tested orders (small charge testing a stolen card).
• Multiple orders to the same address in minutes.
• Mismatched billing / shipping with international IP.
• Known fraud patterns flagged by our card processor.

After the fact

If a fraud order goes through and we ship it:

• Customer’s bank may chargeback. We respond to the dispute with shipping evidence + order confirmation.
• Alex tracks chargebacks separately and reviews monthly.

Common pitfalls

• Auto-fulfilling a yellow-risk order without review — happens when the agent is moving fast. Always stop and verify.
• Refusing to ship a yellow-risk order without first contacting the customer — most yellow flags are real customers with edge-case shipping situations. Verify first; only refund as last resort.
• Sharing fraud-signal details with the customer — don’t say “your card was flagged for fraud.” Use the soft language above.

See also: Edit customer info · Escalation