Fraud Protection
What is fraud protection?
FluxStore tracks every chargeback that any store on the platform receives. When the same player tries to buy from your store, fraud protection looks up their chargeback history across all of FluxStore and scores the risk. If the score crosses your chosen threshold, the order is blocked before any payment is taken.
This is a shared blocklist by player identity, not a generic risk engine. The benefit: someone who has burned a different FluxStore-powered store can be stopped from doing the same to yours. The trade-off: brand-new fraudsters with no prior chargebacks anywhere look clean to the system. Use it alongside Stripe Radar / PayPal’s built-in protections, not instead of them.
Enabling fraud protection
Go to Dashboard > Store Settings > Checkout and turn on Enable Fraud Protection. Pick a level and (optionally) a custom message shown to blocked customers.
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Enable Fraud Protection | Off | Turn on the chargeback-history check |
| Protection Level | Medium | How much chargeback history is enough to block |
| Fraud Message | Generic | What the customer sees when their order is blocked |
Protection levels
Each level is a threshold on the player’s risk score. Lower threshold = blocks more people.
| Level | Threshold | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| None | Never blocks | Fraud protection is effectively off |
| Low | 500 | Only blocks repeat offenders — usually 2+ recent chargebacks |
| Medium | 250 | A single recent high-value chargeback is enough. Recommended default |
| High | 100 | A single chargeback of any age or amount is enough |
How the score is calculated
Every prior chargeback against the same player (matched by Minecraft UUID or username, across all FluxStore stores) contributes points:
- Base: 100 points per chargeback.
- Recency multiplier. Last 30 days = ×3, last 90 days = ×2, last 180 days = ×1.5, last year = ×1, older than a year = ×0.5.
- Amount multiplier. Chargeback over $100 = ×1.5, over $50 = ×1.2, otherwise no bonus.
- Cross-store multiplier. If the chargebacks span multiple stores, the total is multiplied by
1 + 0.3 × number_of_stores. A player who has hit two different stores carries 1.6× the risk of one who hit just one.
A single $80 chargeback 2 weeks ago = 100 × 3 = 300 points. That blocks at Medium and High. Two chargebacks 6 months apart on different stores at $20 each = (100 × 1) + (100 × 1.5), then × 1.6 cross-store = 400 points — blocks at Medium and High.
Tips
- Start at Medium. It catches one-strike repeat fraudsters without being trigger-happy on small old chargebacks.
- Set a clear fraud message. “Your order could not be processed. Please contact support if you believe this is an error.” gives legitimate customers caught in a false positive a way to reach you.
- Combine with chargeback auto-ban. Fraud protection blocks players who already have a track record. Chargeback auto-ban handles the ones who chargeback you for the first time, so they can’t return.
- Trust your gut on level. If you’ve never had fraud, Low or even None is fine — you don’t need to filter customers you don’t have. Bump it up if chargebacks start arriving.
What it doesn’t check
To set expectations: fraud protection deliberately does not look at:
- IP addresses, VPNs, or geolocation
- Payment method risk (BIN ranges, prepaid cards, etc.)
- Order velocity or basket contents
- Device fingerprinting
So VPNs, shared networks, school/library wifi, etc. never cause false positives — the system simply doesn’t see any of that. False positives come from one place only: a player who shares a Minecraft username or UUID with someone who has charged back elsewhere on the platform. This is rare in practice; most players use unique usernames.
If you want fingerprint-style fraud detection, enable Stripe Radar (Stripe stores) or use PayPal’s Seller Protection. FluxStore’s check runs alongside those, not instead.
FAQ
Will fraud protection slow down checkout? No. It’s a single database query against the chargeback log — runs in milliseconds.
Can I see what got blocked? Blocks are logged to your server logs (visible to FluxStore support on request). Blocked orders are not created in your dashboard because the customer was stopped before payment. The block creates an automatic ban record on the player so you can see it in Customers > Bans.
Does this replace Stripe Radar or PayPal’s fraud tools? No. Run them together. Stripe/PayPal block based on the payment method (cards from risky BINs, mismatched billing, etc); FluxStore blocks based on the player’s chargeback history across the platform. They catch different things.
A legitimate customer is being blocked — what do I do? The block reason includes the chargeback count. If you trust the customer, manually clear the auto-ban from Customers > Bans. If you keep seeing legitimate players blocked, lower the level (or turn fraud protection off; not every store needs it).
What if I’m a new store with zero fraud history? You can leave fraud protection off until you start seeing chargebacks. There’s no benefit to turning it on pre-emptively.