Square unable to stop fraudulent test transactions

[jmsinternet]

Spent over an hour, four different departments and Square said they are unable to help stop these TONS of $1 test transactions hitting our website's donation form.

They said only thing to do is use their "Risk Manger" tool and it prohibits you from blocking just a dollar amount. They said block by IP, but every transaction is a new IP address. Block by outside the USA, but every IP is in the USA.

OK but you won't charge US for these transactions that we have to refund, right? Sorry, YOU are on the hook for all these transactions we approve, so it cost US money for every fraudulent test transaction that square approves.

Beyond frustrating, their only suggestion was to stop accepting payments!

[TheRealChipA]

@jmsinternet While it is true that Risk Manager rules don’t allow for an exact amount to be flagged/blocked, it does allow you to specify “more than,” “less than,” and “is between.”  As I recall from another post you made on this same subject, didn’t you say that your services/products are all more than a certain amount?  If so, couldn’t you set up a rule that says it will either block payment or trigger a risk alert for any payments less than, say, $10?  Or higher even if you want.

Definitely IP blocking is useless in this day and age since anyone can move around or mask their IP address.

[JK_Fiber_Art]

Hi Jmsinternet,

For years I've seen the same scenario going on with PayPal Customers and other Credit Card Processing Services and there was never a clear resolution with any of them either.  Unfortunately this one method not so honest people use to test stolen credit cards - they find a site that's under the radar and allows a blank amount donation.  If the transaction is successful, they know the card is good and they go shopping at some else's expense. Since the minimum amount one can accept or charge online with a credit card is $1 - it's a perfect test - the downside is the accepting charity or business suffers.  It's understandable that the credit card transaction processors really can't prevent this stuff from happening, else this post would be about a different topic.  There's basically only two options - raise your Donations to a series of choices ($5.00, $10.00, etc.) or stop accepting.  Even then, there's no guarantees that someone out there will take advantage of you.  These not so honest people are good at spoofing IPs too - same as the phone scammers spoof the numbers that come up on your phone.