Payment Fraud

Prevent payment fraud, reduce chargebacks, and improve approval rates.

Payment fraud costs businesses billions annually. This guide shows how to use VerifyStack at the checkout step to catch fraudulent transactions while keeping false positives low.

Integration Flow

Payment flowtext

User clicks "Pay Now"
  → vs.decide({ action: 'checkout', userId, amount, currency })
  → decision: allow → process payment
  → decision: challenge → 3DS / additional verification
  → decision: deny → block transaction

Server-Side Validation

Payment endpointjavascript

// Server-side: validate before processing payment
const response = await fetch('https://verifystack.io/api/v1/decide', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'X-API-Key': process.env.VERIFYSTACK_SECRET_KEY,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    userId: user.id,
    action: 'checkout',
    email: user.email,
    amount: cart.total,
    currency: 'USD',
    metadata: {
      itemCount: cart.items.length,
      shippingCountry: address.country
    }
  })
}).then(r => r.json());

const decision = response.data;

if (decision.decision === 'deny') {
  return res.status(403).json({ error: 'Transaction blocked' });
}

if (decision.decision === 'challenge') {
  return res.json({ require3DS: true, requestId: decision.requestId });
}

// Proceed with payment processing
const payment = await stripe.charges.create({ ... });

Chargeback Feedback Loop

When you receive a chargeback, submit it as feedback to improve future detection:

Submit chargeback feedbackbash

curl -X POST https://verifystack.io/api/v1/feedback \
  -H "X-API-Key: sk_live_xxxxxxxxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "decisionId": "dec_original_decision_id",
    "actualOutcome": "chargeback",
    "confidence": 1.0,
    "notes": "Chargeback received from payment processor, amount $299.99"
  }'

Key Signals for Payments

Shipping/billing address mismatch
High-value orders from new accounts
Velocity: multiple orders in short time windows
Device previously associated with chargebacks
VPN/proxy usage during checkout

Docs Index

User clicks "Pay Now" → vs.decide({ action: 'checkout', userId, amount, currency }) → decision: allow → process payment → decision: challenge → 3DS / additional verification → decision: deny → block transaction

Server-Side Validation

Payment endpointjavascript

// Server-side: validate before processing payment
const response = await fetch('https://verifystack.io/api/v1/decide', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'X-API-Key': process.env.VERIFYSTACK_SECRET_KEY,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    userId: user.id,
    action: 'checkout',
    email: user.email,
    amount: cart.total,
    currency: 'USD',
    metadata: {
      itemCount: cart.items.length,
      shippingCountry: address.country
    }
  })
}).then(r => r.json());

const decision = response.data;

if (decision.decision === 'deny') {
  return res.status(403).json({ error: 'Transaction blocked' });
}

if (decision.decision === 'challenge') {
  return res.json({ require3DS: true, requestId: decision.requestId });
}

// Proceed with payment processing
const payment = await stripe.charges.create({ ... });

Chargeback Feedback Loop

When you receive a chargeback, submit it as feedback to improve future detection:

Submit chargeback feedbackbash

curl -X POST https://verifystack.io/api/v1/feedback \
  -H "X-API-Key: sk_live_xxxxxxxxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "decisionId": "dec_original_decision_id",
    "actualOutcome": "chargeback",
    "confidence": 1.0,
    "notes": "Chargeback received from payment processor, amount $299.99"
  }'