How to review a medium-risk Shopify order
- Open the fraud analysisRead the indicators together, not one at a time.
- Check the address and historyEarlier orders, billing against shipping, and whether the address takes parcels for several unrelated buyers.
- Contact the customerConfirm the order from the billing email or phone number.
- Decide and note whyFulfill, hold, or cancel and refund, and record the reason.
- Keep the recordIf a fraud chargeback still comes, the checks you ran are part of the evidence.
What Shopify shows
- A low, medium or high risk of a chargeback due to fraud, with the indicators behind it: AVS and CVV results, whether the customer's location matches the payment method, unusual device or network activity, and whether the customer tried more than one card.
- Guidance such as "You can fulfill this order", "Confirm with the customer before fulfilling" or "Consider canceling this order".
- Indicators are on the Basic plan and up; recommendations need the Grow plan or higher, or Shopify Payments.
Example: a $260 first order
A first-time customer orders $260 of skincare with express shipping. Shopify rates it medium: the CVV matched, but the IP location is in another state from the billing address. The store emails the customer to confirm, gets a quick reply from the billing email address and ships. Had the customer not replied and the address been one that receives parcels for many buyers, holding or cancelling would have been the safer call.
Where Verdikx fits
Verdikx uses Shopify's rating as one signal among its own, such as IP intelligence, velocity, blocklists, chargeback history and the opt-in Verdikx Network, and gives each new order a 0 to 100 score with plain-English reasons after it is placed and before it ships. The score comes from signals and rules; for orders in Review or High risk, AI writes a short explanation checked against those signals. On Growth and up it holds high-risk orders for your review; it never cancels on its own. See Shopify fraud detection.
Reason codes this answer covers
- Visa 10.4: Other Fraud: Card-Absent Environment: sometimes winnable
- Mastercard 4837: No Cardholder Authorization: sometimes winnable
More questions
Why did a good customer's order show medium risk?
Indicators such as a VPN, travel or shipping to a different address can move a legitimate order up. Shopify's guidance follows the order's overall recommendation rather than one indicator, so read the indicators together and confirm with the customer when one looks off.
Does Shopify cover chargebacks on medium-risk orders?
Shopify's fraud analysis doesn't cover chargebacks. Separately, Shopify Protect covers eligible Shop Pay orders against fraudulent and unrecognized chargebacks; other orders follow the normal Shopify Payments chargeback process, where you answer with evidence.
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Sources
- Shopify Help Center: Fraud analysis (checked October 5, 2026)
- Shopify Help Center: Shopify Protect (checked October 5, 2026)
Last reviewed by Verdikx Research.