Fraud Protection Services.

Rest easily knowing that your Payflow Payment Gateway is protected using industry-leading risk-management systems, including:

  • Basic & Advanced Fraud Protection
  • Account Monitoring
  • Buyer Authentication

Sign Up Today

or login to add fraud protection services to your Payflow Gateway account

Get the right risk-management for your Payflow Gateway.

Fraud protection is something many businesses don't think about. That is, until they need it. With Fraud Protection Services, you can add an industry-leading risk-management system to your Payflow Payment Gateway. You'll rest easy knowing that both Basic and Advanced Fraud Protection will support your business with:

Worry-free setup for enterprise-level protection without enterprise-level training or hidden consulting fees.

Proven security built on leading fraud protection technology to shield you against threats at major points of entry.

World-class protection based on PayPal’s exclusive market-leading research and best practices.

Proactive screening that is continuously updated to help stay ahead of fraudulent activity.

Why fraud protection

Effective fraud protection can help your business avoid:

  • Lost revenue when turning away legitimate customers who seem suspicious
  • Unexpected charges from higher interchange rates and penalties incurred with fraudulent payments.
  • Wasted resources with employees manually investigating claims, contacting suspicious customers or following up incomplete purchasing information.

Smiley face

Compare fraud protection services.

With PayPal Fraud Protection Services, you can keep your costs for accepting online payments low and tailor protection to your business needs.

Features Basic Fraud Protection Advanced Fraud Protection
PayPal Manager
Take control: find suspicious transactions, resolve chargebacks and tune filters to your business needs.
Unusual order filters
Catch common fraud warnings like high dollar amounts, high quantities, and address mismatch.
High-risk payment filters
Catch suspicious transactions like rapid repeat buying from an internet address.
High-risk address filters
Check for suspect ZIP codes and freight forwarders plus IP addresses.
Automatic rejection lists
Help protect your business from known offenders.
Automatic acceptance lists
Keep good customers buying by automatically accepting their payments.
High-risk international filters
Help identify risky international payments.
Additional risk filters
More tools to catch warning signs, such as rapid card use, risky banks, tighter address validations.
Custom filter wizard
Customize new rules that match your specific business needs.
Operations security Identify
vulnerabilities and lit fixes with a security audit from Qualys.

When your customers use PayPal with your online store, your business automatically receives industry-leading fraud and chargeback protection with one of the lowest fraud loss rates in the industry.

Account monitoring

  • Your personal 24-hour security staff.
  • It's ideal for online merchants because you are liable for the online payments you receive. That means chargebacks and fraudulent transactions can affect your bottom line.
  • Account Monitoring uses trained security professionals who constantly monitor your business for suspicious activities and take action to protect you. Account monitoring provides:
  • Security. Our full-time protection keeps an eye on suspicious activity related to credits and refunds.
  • Assistance. Our security professionals help prevent fraud by blocking settlements of suspicious transactions. If loss occurs, we work with law enforcement and your bank to assist in recovery.
  • Prevention. We give customized recommendations to avoid future fraud.

Buyer authentication

  • Two extra protection features from one service
  • Now, you can easily get Verified by Visa, MasterCard SecureCode.
  • When you add Buyer Authentication to your Basic or Advanced Fraud Protection Services, your business will receive merchant liability protection on qualified credit card transactions.
  • Buyer Authentication gives you:
  • Single pre-integrated solution. Easily add Buyer Authentication and take full advantage of both services without wasting staff and infrastructure resources integrating them yourself.
  • Extra security measure. At checkout, customers are required to enter a password to confirm their identity with their credit card company.

$10.00/month + $0.05 per transaction

For Advanced Fraud Protection Services*

*Basic and Advanced Fraud Protection Service are only available as add-on services for Payflow Payment Gateway

Frequently Asked Questions



About Fraud Protection Services


How does this product work?

Fraud Protection Services use fraud filters, password management, lists of allowed IPs, security audits, and advanced features like Account Monitoring and Buyer Authentication to proactively combat online theft at key points of entry. The packages offer a suite of technologies from authentication to rules engines to provide comprehensive and layered security. PayPal bases these security features on the most current and rigorous research and analysis.

Is Fraud Protection Services available for PayPal’s other products, such as Website Payments Standard or Email Payments, or if I sell on eBay?

Fraud Protection Services is available only with Payflow Link and Payflow Pro. All other PayPal products, including eBay transactions, Website Payments Pro, Website Payments Standard, and Email Payments, rely on PayPal’s built-in fraud protection systems. Our sellers experience some of the lowest fraud rates in the online retail industry.

As one of the most powerful risk management systems in the world, our proprietary risk models help detect and predict fraudulent transactions – before they affect your business. We also use industry-recognized address verification and card security code checks to thwart identity theft. PayPal's industry-leading loss rate is less than 0.50%. There is always some risk when selling online, but PayPal works tirelessly to help keep your business safe.

Are PayPal’s built-in fraud protection systems available with Payflow Link or Payflow Pro?

No. Payflow Link and Payflow Pro are designed to work only with the Basic and Advanced Fraud Protection Services available with those products.

Which system provides better protection for my business, PayPal’s built-in systems or the Fraud Protection Services add-ons?

Both systems are very good; they just work differently. It really comes down to which system is right for you and your business:
Payflow Link and Payflow Pro are designed for merchants who wish to manage their own fraud risk – to make their own decisions about which orders to accept or decline.
PayPal’s built-in fraud protection systems work in the background, invisible to the merchant, and make all of the decisions. These systems are very good at what they do, and they save you the hassle of manually reviewing orders.

Do PayPal’s built-in systems and the Fraud Protection Services add-ons include the same filters, lists, and other security technology?

We do not share specific information about how our risk management system works. However, it is one of the most powerful systems of its kind, and our industry-leading loss rate is less than 0.50%. Our proprietary risk models are constantly working to help detect and predict fraudulent transactions – before they affect your business. We use industry-recognized address verification and card security code checks to thwart identity theft.

What's the difference between Basic and Advanced Fraud Protection Services?

Basic Fraud Protection Service is a starter security package designed for merchants with low transaction volumes or less sophisticated risk management needs.
Advanced Fraud Protection Service includes additional fraud filters that meet the higher security needs of merchants with mid- to high-level transaction volumes or merchants selling products in a high-risk category (such as consumer electronics, prepaid calling cards).

Can I purchase Fraud Protection Services as a stand-alone product?

No. Fraud Protection Services is available only as an add-on service to Payflow Pro or Payflow Link.
To speak to a sales representative about Fraud Protection Services, call us at , or submit your inquiry online and we will get back to you shortly.

Can I buy Account Monitoring or Buyer Authentication as a stand-alone product?

No. Both Account Monitoring and Buyer Authentication are premium add-on services. To take advantage of these advanced security features, you must have Basic or Advanced Fraud Protection Service.

How often is the product updated?

The risk lists and intelligence behind the fraud filters is continuously updated. A team of trained PayPal security professionals is constantly reviewing fraud transactions and research with an eye toward updating product features.

How much does Fraud Protection Services cost?

Go to our pricing page to see the costs for Fraud Protection Services.
If you have any questions about pricing, a PayPal sales representative can explain costs for each fraud protection service. Please call us at to speak with an online payment specialist, or submit your inquiry online and we will get back to you shortly.

Will these packages offer me enough protection?

Managing your business' risk in a cost-effective manner is an important and continuing process. Fraud Protection Services has been designed to allow you to efficiently scale your security as your business needs it.
Basic Fraud Protection Service provides comprehensive protection for merchants with lower security requirements, for example low transaction volumes and low risk product categories. The Advanced Fraud Protection Service meets the higher security needs of merchants with mid- to high-level transaction volumes selling high risk products.
If, however, you feel your business needs additional security, around-the-clock Account Monitoring and Buyer Authentication programs provide additional protection. For help deciding which services will meet your needs best, call us at to speak with an online payment specialist. Or submit your inquiry online and we will get back to you shortly.

Do I get liability protection with every transaction?

No. While PayPal Fraud Protection Services significantly reduces your chances of experiencing online fraud, PayPal does not directly provide liability protection.

Are there any eligibility requirements for Fraud Protection Services?

Fraud Protection Services has a few eligibility requirements:
  • Merchants must process payments with the Payflow Pro or Payflow Link service.
  • Merchants must use a non-host-based U.S. payments processor (for example, Nashville, Vital, Paymentech, Nova, NDCE, Amex or South).

To use Buyer Authentication, Visa and MasterCard must certify a merchant's acquirer and processor and provide the Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode services. PayPal can help you get your acquirer and processor certified.

Why use Fraud Protection Services?


Am I really at risk?

If you are using PayPal Website Payments Standard or Email Payments, your risk of fraud is low. We have one of the lowest fraud loss rates in the online retail industry. However, selling online with an internet merchant account and no fraud protection system is a risky proposition.
All online merchants are at risk for online fraud. Statistics show: one in six online consumers has been the victim of credit card fraud. Online stores experience fraud 17 times more often than offline stores. An estimated $1.80 billion USD was lost to credit card fraud in 2003. Criminals constantly troll the internet to target vulnerabilities at the network, transaction, or account levels. Fraud Protection Services helps you control that risk.

Does PayPal guarantee that no fraud will take place on my site if I am using Fraud Protection Services?

Like home security or alarm systems, we cannot guarantee criminals will not target your business. But Fraud Protection Services can significantly reduce the odds that criminals will succeed in committing online theft on your site. Implementing industry standard security practices is the best route to protecting your business.

How will Fraud Protection Services help me run my business more efficiently?

Every merchant knows that good security is a necessary cost of doing business. Controlling those costs is essential to the efficiency and profitability of your business. Fraud Protection Services provides a systematic and proactive method for maintaining strong security. You'll also have the proper security and controls in place to give you confidence to scale your business and perform more transactions with legitimate customers that you may have turned away in the past as suspicious.

When am I liable for a transaction?

As an online merchant, you are liable for every payment you receive. In the brick-and-mortar world, merchants are not liable for credit card fraud when the card issuer authorizes the transaction and the store owner gets a valid signature. In the online world, merchants are responsible for all chargebacks and fraudulent transactions. That means proper security is your responsibility, not the bank's.

What is a chargeback?

A chargeback occurs when buyers ask their credit card company to remove a charge from their credit card statement. The credit card company will ask the buyers to provide an explanation about why they are disputing the charge.
Two common reasons for reversals or chargebacks are:
  • A buyer's credit card number is stolen and used fraudulently.
A buyer makes a purchase, but believes that the seller failed to fulfill the agreement (for example, did not ship the item, shipped an item that was very different from the seller's description, or the item was damaged when the buyer received it).

How does PayPal offer a single point of integration for Buyer Authentication services?

Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode are separate authentication protocols with distinct technology requirements. PayPal establishes and maintains the technology and hardware required by each protocol. Payflow Pro customers using our Buyer Authentication product make a single API call to the PayPal server, which then interacts with the appropriate buyer authentication service. For Payflow Link customers, both services are pre-integrated, so the merchant simply needs to request to turn on these services.
To use Buyer Authentication, Visa and MasterCard must certify a merchant's acquirer and processor and provide the Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode services. PayPal can help you get your acquirer and processor certified.

Buyer Authentication

How do Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode protect me?

When an online merchant integrates Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode Buyer Authentication programs into their payment process, cardholders are required to confirm their identities by entering a password. The card issuer then validates that password to ensure that the legitimate cardholder is requesting the purchase. If the cardholder is authenticated, Visa and MasterCard give the merchant liability protection on that transaction.

Enjoy industry-leading fraud and chargeback protection.

Sign Up Now
or login to your PayFow Gateway account to add fraud protection services today.