Fraudulent payments are a leading cause of disputes and can quickly damage your store’s standing with the card networks. Pandabase is equipped to handle even sophisticated fraud — card testing, stolen cards, and account takeover — so most of it never reaches you.
Four-layer defense
When a customer reaches checkout, we analyze their device and assign a device ID and a risk score. A fingerprint tied to a previous dispute starts with a higher score, so repeat offenders are flagged before they pay.
When a card payment begins, we apply 3D Secure dynamically based on the card’s risk score. Higher-risk cards face a full authentication challenge; trusted ones pass through frictionlessly.
We combine signals from the underlying payment processor with our own fraud-detection toolkit — hundreds of custom rules backed by human review. When a rule is triggered, the payment is routed to manual review, where we accept or refund it.
Through partner integrations with processors and the card networks, we receive early fraud warnings (EFWs) on payments likely to be disputed. Because most flagged payments end in a chargeback, we refund them automatically.
Dispute prevention
Beyond detection, our integrations with Verifi (Visa) and Ethoca (Mastercard) intercept disputes before they become formal chargebacks. This is highly effective but carries a per-event fee. See Disputes → Prevention for the full breakdown of fees and outcomes.
What you can do
No system catches everything, so layer your own defenses on top of ours:
- Use a clear store name and product descriptions — most “fraudulent” disputes are customers not recognizing the charge.
- Send fulfillment confirmations, with receipt and access details in the same email.
With these in place, most of our merchants keep dispute rates well under 0.05%.