Fraud Prevention

This document covers how you can protect your application against any fraudulent payments.

Collecting Customer Information

Some disputes are lost due to insufficient information being collected from the customer. Without enough information, it becomes hard for Chapa to successfully verify whether or not the customer is legitimate.

For instance, postal code may not seem as important for processing card payment, however, it will be of use to verify the card issuer. If the verification fails, consider rejecting the payment as it may be a warning of a possible fraud.

Use Chapa's Checkout

Use Chapa's Checkout to ensure that your integration provides the correct payment information such as:

• Customer's Full name
• Customer's Phone
• Customer's Email address
• Full Card details including billing address and postal code

Avoiding Fraudulent Payments

When the cardholder did not authorize a payment, it is deemed fraudulent. The majority of fraudulent transactions are performed with stolen cards or card information. When a cardholder receives notification of a payment or reviews their card statement, they contact their card issuer to file a dispute.

Best Practices

• Collect Complete Information: Always collect full billing address and postal code
• Verify Transactions: Use address verification and CVV checks when available
• Monitor Patterns: Watch for unusual transaction patterns or amounts
• Use Radar: Enable Chapa's Radar for real-time fraud protection
• Verify Large Transactions: Manually review high-value transactions before fulfillment

Notifying You of Suspected Fraud

Chapa keeps track of all payments made by our users in real time. In rare circumstances, Chapa may notify you after a payment has been processed, that it is suspected of being fraudulent.

This can happen if:

• We notice more activity on the card that shows it's being used fraudulently
• The card network sends us a warning

What to Do When Notified

If you receive a fraud notification:

1. Review the Transaction: Carefully review the transaction details
2. Contact the Customer: Reach out to verify the transaction legitimacy
3. Place Order on Hold: Consider placing the order on hold until verified
4. Consider Refunding: If you have reservations about the payment after evaluating it, we recommend that you reimburse it as soon as possible

Fraud Prevention Strategies

Address Verification

• Always collect and verify billing addresses
• Use Address Verification System (AVS) when available
• Compare shipping and billing addresses for discrepancies

Card Verification

• Require CVV for all card transactions
• Verify card details match customer information
• Check for suspicious card patterns

Transaction Monitoring

• Monitor for unusual transaction amounts
• Watch for rapid-fire transactions from the same card
• Track transaction patterns and flag anomalies
• Review transactions from new customers carefully

Customer Verification

• Verify customer email addresses
• Confirm phone numbers when possible
• Check customer history for suspicious patterns

Next Steps

• Responding to Disputes - Learn how to respond to disputes
• Radar - Set up real-time fraud protection
• Security Guide - Learn about security best practices
• Webhooks - Set up fraud notifications