Fraud Prevention
Fraud prevention protects you from accepting payments that are later reversed — through a stolen card, an unauthorized transaction or a chargeback. In an omnichannel setup, the risk exists both online and in store, so PostFinance Checkout combines several mechanisms rather than a single switch.
This page brings those mechanisms together. Each is documented in detail on its own page; use this page to understand how they fit into one line of defence.
The layers of protection
| Layer | Protects against | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| 3-D Secure | Unauthorized use of a card in online payments; shifts chargeback liability to the card issuer. | Online cards |
| Manual Tasks | Suspicious transactions that need a human decision before you deliver. | Online and in store |
Delivery indications and the Decline state | Delivering goods for a payment that carries a high chargeback risk. | Online and in store |
How the layers work together
Before the payment — 3-D Secure. For online card payments, 3-D Secure authenticates the cardholder with the card issuer. A successful authentication shifts the liability for a fraudulent chargeback from you to the issuer. You configure it per payment method, and you can make it conditional on properties such as the transaction amount or the country.
During processing — a decision when something looks wrong. When a transaction is flagged as suspicious, the platform does not silently accept or reject it: it creates a manual task so a person decides how to proceed. Each manual task has an expiry, and if you do not respond in time a default decision is applied based on who carries the risk.
Before fulfillment — the delivery decision. A transaction only reaches the Fulfill state once it is safe to deliver. If the risk of a chargeback is too high, it moves to the Decline state instead, and you must not fulfill the order. See Transaction States and Delivery indications.
These layers reinforce each other. 3-D Secure reduces how often a payment becomes suspicious in the first place; manual tasks catch the cases that still need judgment; the delivery decision is the final gate before you part with the goods.
What to do when you suspect fraud
- Do not fulfill the order while the transaction is still being reviewed — a transaction in the
Declinestate must not be delivered. - Check your open manual tasks — a suspicious transaction usually surfaces there and waits for your decision.
- Review the authorisation response for a declined card payment — see Authorisation Response for the response codes.
Related topics
- 3-D Secure — cardholder authentication and the liability shift.
- Manual Tasks — how the platform asks for your decision on a suspicious transaction.
- Transaction States — the
DeclineandFulfillstates that end a risky transaction. - PCI DSS — how card data is protected throughout the payment.