As order volume skyrocketed, so did payment fraud — here’s how this e-commerce giant regained control without losing conversions.
July 24, 2025
5 minutes
Yuqi Chen
For a global fast fashion e-commerce platform known for ultra-fast shipping, social media virality, and rock-bottom prices, hypergrowth was the goal, and they were winning.
Within months, this international e-commerce brand had expanded across dozens of markets, processing millions of online payments daily. But as order volumes soared, so did a silent threat: a surge in chargebacks. A growing number of users reported unauthorized card usage, rocketing up chargebacks and refund requests. 3DS (3-D Secure) transaction rate rose to 9%, which was high for a fast-fashion vendor with a typically lower-risk basket.
Excessive 3DS authentication costs were also piling up, and chargeback ratios began to flirt dangerously with card network thresholds. The business risked not only operational disruption but also fines from card scheme programs.
What made things more complex was the platform’s user base: the mobile-first Gen Zs audience that are fast to abandon any checkout flow that felt too clunky or invasive. Any added friction meant lost conversions. Yet the existing fraud controls weren’t enough. Manual review couldn’t keep pace with volume. And the lack of smart authentication meant the system either let too much through, or blocked genuine buyers.
This is when they turned to TrustDecision for help.
To get fraud under control, the team had to first understand what was really going wrong. What looked like a payment issue was actually a mix of deeper fraud challenges. Here's where the trouble started.
Unlike in-store purchases where a physical card and identity can be verified, online payments rely entirely on digital signals — like card number, IP address, or device ID — to determine whether a transaction is legitimate. That’s what makes Card-Not-Present (CNP) fraud so dangerous.
Fraudsters don’t need the card itself. With a stolen card number and a shipping address it’s often enough to complete a purchase. These credentials are easy to buy on the dark web, especially after data breaches. Once used, the real cardholder disputes the charge — and the merchant loses both the product and the revenue.
For high-volume e-commerce platforms, especially during sales events, it’s easy for this type of fraud to blend in with legitimate activity.
Friendly chargebacks happen when customers dispute legitimate transactions but citing non-receipt or unauthorized use. This inflates operational costs, increases chargeback ratios, and risks penalties from card networks.
Altogether, if a merchant’s chargeback rate exceeds the card network’s risk threshold, the merchant may face penalties such as fines, mandatory enrollment in dispute monitoring programs, and potential suspension from accepting card payments.
To stop the growing fraud losses without adding friction for genuine users, the platform turned to TrustDecision’s AI-powered fraud management framework — built to scale with high-velocity e-commerce.
Instead of applying 3DS authentication across the board, TrustDecision enabled dynamic routing based on real-time risk. Low-risk users moved through checkout seamlessly, while high-risk transactions triggered step-up verification. This helped reduce 3DS costs, prevent chargebacks, and protect the user experience.
Three core models worked together to stop fraud and improve decision accuracy:
Together, they created a closed-loop system that adapted to new fraud patterns as they emerged.
By connecting signals across IPs, devices, emails, and shipping addresses, TrustDecision helped the platform detect fraud rings and repeat offenders — even across markets — before they could scale their attacks.
After a year of working with TrustDecision, the e-commerce platform transformed its payment fraud strategy — achieving measurable improvements in both security and performance.
Fraud may never disappear, but how a business responds to it makes all the difference. For this global e-commerce platform, the real turning point happens when they adopted a smarter, more proactive approach to risk, powered by decision intelligence, safeguarding growth without sacrificing customer experience.
As digital commerce continues to expand and fraud tactics evolve, one thing remains clear: staying ahead requires technology that not only detects threats, but understands them. This is the future TrustDecision is enabling, through intelligence, adaptability, and action.
Let’s chat!
Let us get to know your business needs, and answer any questions you may have about us. Then, we’ll help you find a solution that suits you
TrustDecision empowers businesses with AI-driven decision engine designed for fraud prevention, credit risk decisioning and ensure regulatory compliance. It leverages on machine learning models and big data capabilities to deliver real-time risk insights with accuracy and automate decision-making process to deliver maximum operation efficiency.
Contact us: +60 18-2002-123 (WhatsApp)
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