Fraud Prevention tools

Check for high-risk IP addresses

This rule applies to all payment types.

A shopper IP block list helps protect your business from known sources of fraud, abuse, and automated attacks. Fraudsters often reuse the same IP addresses or networks when testing cards, attempting account takeovers, or placing fraudulent payments. When you identify a suspicious IP address, simply add it to your block list and configure the rule to automatically block transactions from those IP addresses or hold for review.

Review your IP block list regularly, and immediately after any fraud spike or attack. Fraud tactics change quickly, and IP addresses that were previously risky may later belong to legitimate shoppers.

As a good baseline:

• Remove temporary or low‑confidence blocks regularly to avoid unnecessary false declines
• Keep permanent blocks only for repeat, high‑confidence fraud sources
• Monitor blocked IP activity, and reinstate blocks if suspicious behaviour returns

Regular review helps ensure your IP block list continues to reduce fraud without accidentally blocking genuine customers or harming conversion.

Set maximum transaction amount

This rule applies to all payment types.

Setting a maximum transaction amount helps protect your business from large, high‑impact fraud losses. Fraudulent payments are often for unusually high values, and a single successful transaction can result in significant financial loss, chargebacks, and fees.

By activating this rule, you:

• Limit your exposure if a card or account is compromised
• Reduce chargeback risk, as high‑value transactions have a bigger impact on dispute ratios
• Spot abnormal behaviour early, when a payment amount doesn’t match your typical order size
• Protect your account stability, helping to avoid payment reviews, fund holds, or restrictions

You can set the rule to automatically decline transactions above your maximum amount. Setting the rule to ‘Hold for review’ will allow you to look at a transaction and a shopper in greater detail to ascertain whether they are genuine. This rule ensures that unusually large payments receive the right level of scrutiny before being processed.

Enforce 3-D Secure authentication

This rule applies only to card payments.

Enforcing 3-D Secure (3-DS) adds an extra layer of authentication during checkout, helping confirm that the shopper is the genuine cardholder. This significantly reduces the risk of unauthorised card use and protects your business from fraud related losses.

By enabling this rule, you:

• Reduce fraud and chargebacks, especially for CNP payments
• Benefit from liability shift on eligible transactions, where issuers take responsibility for fraud
• Apply stronger checks to high-risk scenarios, such as high value purchases or new shoppers
• Meet regulatory and scheme expectations, particularly under Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements in the UK and EU

Modern 3-DS is risk based, meaning most low risk transactions remain friction free, while higher risk payments are challenged. Enforcing this rule helps balance payment security with a smooth customer experience.

When this rule is active you can choose whether to decline all transactions that do not successfully pass 3-DS authentication or to hold them for manual review.

Elavon always recommends that 3-DS is used for all ecommerce transaction where the shopper is in session. We also recommend that, where possible, you take payments using the pay by link feature so that cardholders can authenticate using 3-DS.

Card verification checks

These rules apply only to card payments.

The Address Verification Service (AVS) and Card Verification Code (CVC) checks look at your shopper’s information to verify the card details used for the transaction. It was introduced by the banking industry to help verify details of CNP transactions (Cardholder Not Present) which enable transactions where the cardholder is not present. AVS and CVC checks can be carried out on all transactions that are placed through your EPG account when you provide this information. The aim of these checks is to provide you with additional information on each transaction that will help you reduce the risk of fraudulent transactions. It helps determine whether the person making the payment is likely to be the genuine cardholder.

For all three rules you can choose whether to automatically decline transactions for a data mismatch or whether to hold them for manual review.

Check for AVS postal code mismatch

Specify how payments should be handled when the postal code entered does not match the postal code on record with the card issuer.
 

Check for AVS street mismatch

Define how transactions are processed if the billing street address provided does not match the billing street address held on file by the issuer.

Check for card security code mismatch

Determine how transactions are processed when the card security code entered does not match the code associated with the card by the issuer.

Shopper address checks

You should activate rules that check shopper billing and card issuing countries to reduce fraud by spotting higher‑risk or unexpected cross‑border payments and ensuring transactions align with where you genuinely sell and serve customers.

Billing country refers to the country in the billing address entered by the shopper at checkout.

Issuing country refers to the country where the payment card was issued by the bank and is determined from the card number.

By maintaining these country block lists, you:

• Reduce exposure to known high‑risk regions, where fraud and chargeback rates may be higher
• Prevent misuse of stolen card details, which are often tested across multiple countries
• Align payments with your business model, especially if you only sell or ship to specific regions

Reviewing these lists regularly ensures your country block list reduces fraud without unnecessarily limiting genuine sales or future growth.

Check for high-risk billing country

This rule applies only to card payments.

A billing country block list helps protect your business from fraud by preventing payments from countries that present higher risk or are outside your target market. Fraud rates can vary significantly by region, and payments from unexpected countries are a common signal of unauthorised card use.

You can set the rule to automatically decline transactions from countries you have added to your block list or hold them for manual review.

Check for high-risk issuing country

This rule applies only to card payments.

An issuing country block list restricts payments based on the country where the card was issued, rather than where the shopper is located. It helps reduce fraud by blocking cards from regions that present higher risk or are outside your intended market.

This rule is especially effective for online payments, where fraudsters frequently use cards issued in one country to transact in another. 

You can set the rule to automatically decline transactions from countries you have added to your block list or hold them for manual review.

Check for high-risk card numbers

This rule applies only to card payments.

A card number block list allows you to prevent payments from specific cards that have previously been linked to fraud, chargebacks, or abuse. Fraudsters often reuse the same compromised card details across multiple attempts or over time.

By maintaining a card number block list, you:

• Stop repeat fraud quickly, by blocking cards already confirmed as risky
• Reduce chargebacks and operational effort, by preventing known bad payments from reaching settlement
• Protect your checkout from repeated attacks, such as card testing or retry attempts
• Strengthen your overall fraud controls, using past incidents to inform future prevention

Permanently block a card when it has been confirmed as fraudulent, for example a completed fraud chargeback or repeated fraud attempts.

You can temporarily block a card when behaviour is suspicious but not yet confirmed (such as multiple failed attempts or mismatched details) and then remove it from the block list if legitimate customer contact or additional checks resolve the risk.

You can set the rule to automatically decline transactions using a card you have added to your block list or hold them for manual review.

Limit card use frequency

This rule applies only to card payments, not including tokenised cards.

Limiting how often a single card can be used helps protect your business from card testing, stolen card reuse, and repeat fraud attempts. Fraudsters commonly try the same card multiple times, either in quick succession or across different accounts, to find a transaction that succeeds. This rule allows you to restrict how many times a single card can be used within a set time period to detect and block suspicious repeat attempts while allowing normal customer behaviour.

By activating this rule, you:

• Detect and stop card testing, where fraudsters send multiple small or repeated transactions to check if a card is valid
• Prevent repeat fraud, by blocking cards that are being reused unusually often
• Reduce chargeback risk, as high‑frequency card usage is a strong indicator of compromised card details
• Protect your checkout from abuse, keeping payment performance and approval rates healthy

You can set the rule to automatically decline transactions that exceed the frequency you set or hold them for manual review.