Repeated fraudulent orders from same IP address

[apcsilver]

The last 5 fraudulent orders we have received (placed over several weeks)  have all been made from the same IP address.  Paypal must have known that this IP was used to place fraudulent orders for  several weeks but today we have received another suspicious order from that same IP address that is almost certainly fraud. So why is it that we with a team of 2 can spot his while Paypal cannot?  Also where can we report the details of the IP address to Paypal.?  We can try the "Contact Us" form but when doing so we usually get a computer generated answer that has got nothing to do with the question. Is there a fraud reporting address at Paypal?

[LucyD3]

PayPal does gave a contact number to call them direct. I reckon that would be your best option, use a different topic if it does not come up under what your putting in at the moment. I have their number in my phone address book but as I am in Australia it may be different to the one you may be given if your in another country from me. I did find it a little difficult to find the number initially but it sure was easy once I was able to get onto a human rather than trying to find the answer through their “help” pages

[PayPal_Michael]

Hello, @apcsilver. Thanks for taking the time to post your concern and provide your feedback here on the PayPal Community Forum.

I understand your concern with fraudulent orders coming from a particular IP address. However, while PayPal has many techniques and tools to address potential fraud, blocking an IP address wouldn't be a likely option since many other valid transactions would certainly be associated with that IP as well.

Also, while PayPal works very hard to prevent potential fraud, we also ask merchants to be vigilant in terms of spotting possible problem transactions and to take steps to protect themselves.

In terms of reporting an IP address, @LucyD3's suggestion to call Customer Service is one option, and submitting a ticket via PayPal's Merchant Technical Support website (https://www.paypal-techsupport.com) is another.

I hope this is helpful. Thanks for being a part of the PayPal Community.

Sincerely,

Michael

PayPal_Michael

[apcsilver]

Okay, so Paypal will not block an IP address from making payments to us even though we have now been notified of around 8 such fraudulent orders via Chargebacks from a fraudster using the same IP.

The fraudster (we are sure all fraud is coming from one "buyer")  is now using another IP address from where we are receiving yet more chargebacks.

Over the past 10 years our chargebacks due to Credit card fraud run at less than 2%. However over the past 2 months these types of chargebacks are running at over 8% so we need to do something to stop it as we are clearly being specifically targeted by one fraudster .

Apart from the IP issue this "Buyer" always uses a billing address in another State to that of the IP address.  So we are considering rejecting and refunding ALL such orders and asking such buyers to use an alternative payment method.   This will then certainly reduce chargebacks back to their normal levels. This seems a rather drastic solutions but I  cannot see any other solution particularly as I understand Paypal will kick merchants off their system if chargebacks run at a very high level over a certain time frame.

[apcsilver]

Just to partly answer my own question we found a service called https://www.ipqualityscore.com/free-ip-lookup-proxy-vpn-test 

We ran the IP addresses from all our recent fraudulent orders and they identified most as being likely fraud. In fact, it seems it would  have cut fraudulent orders by 90% as for these orders we would have refunded the payment and rejected the order shortly after receipt of the payment. But why does Paypal not recommend this tool or have a tool of its own that merchant can use?

I hope this is helpful to other merchants in the same position but I would still appreciate answers to the points I raised in my earlier question on October 5.