Fraud tools are supposed to protect your business. But when they start flagging legitimate customers as threats, they can do more harm than good.
That’s what several merchants recently discovered after Stripe Radar began rejecting too many real transactions. Some saw their best customers turned away. Others watched conversion rates drop without knowing why. A few only figured it out after angry emails from confused shoppers who couldn’t complete their orders.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone.
In forums and merchant groups, this issue keeps coming up: Stripe Radar is doing too much.
The good news? You don’t have to accept the default settings. Stripe gives you tools to fine-tune its fraud detection, but you have to know where to look and what to change.
Let’s break it down.
What Stripe Radar Does (And Why It Sometimes Overreacts)
Stripe Radar is built to stop fraud in real-time using machine learning, blacklists, and behavioral patterns. It scans every transaction based on rules and scoring. If something looks off, like an IP address mismatch or a suspicious card BIN, it can automatically block the payment or flag it for review.
The problem is that Radar can be too cautious out of the box.
For example:
- International buyers might get blocked because their IP doesn’t match their card region.
- Returning customers might get flagged if they switch devices or cards.
- VPN users often get caught in the filter even when they’re legitimate.
You might see this in your dashboard as “highest risk blocked” transactions. But if you dig deeper, some of those “risks” were actual paying customers.
Common False Positives (Shared by Real Merchants)
A few shared examples:
- “My customer tried to buy a $150 course and got declined twice. I manually pushed it through, and it worked fine.”
- “We lost two high-ticket sales last month. Both were from users in Singapore paying with corporate cards.”
- “Radar blocked Apple Pay from our top user. They emailed asking if our site was down.”
Each case had a pattern: default Radar rules were too strict for that business model.
How to Adjust Stripe Radar (Without Opening the Fraud Floodgates)
If you’re losing legitimate sales, here’s how to take back control.
1. Use the Radar Dashboard to Review Blocked Payments
Go to Radar > Payments in your Stripe dashboard. Filter by Blocked and Highest Risk to review recent transactions. Look for patterns in:
- Location
- Payment method
- Order amount
- Customer history
Sometimes it’s a single rule that’s getting triggered too often.
2. Customize Rules in Radar > Rules
You can override Stripe’s default behavior. Start by creating exceptions for your good customers or common use cases.
Examples of custom rules:
3. Lower the Risk Threshold (With Caution)
Radar uses a risk score between 0 and 100. You can tell it what to do based on the score:
- Block anything over 85
- Review between 70–85
- Allow under 70
If you’re seeing too many good customers above 75, consider adjusting your thresholds — but only after reviewing several blocked transactions. Some fraudsters also sit in that range.
4. Whitelist Returning Customers
If you’ve already approved someone once, you can stop flagging them every time.
You can create rules like:
This prevents repeat buyers from being blocked for minor red flags like new devices or IP changes.
5. Tag Legitimate Declines with Metadata
When you manually approve a blocked payment, tag it with something like:
Over time, this helps Stripe’s machine learning model better understand what your good transactions look like.
Bonus: Consider Using Radar for Teams
If you’re on Stripe’s higher-tier plans, Radar for Teams gives you more advanced features:
- A/B testing rules
- Real-time alerts
- More detailed scoring insights
- Collaborative review tools
This level of control is helpful for high-volume or high-risk merchants who need more visibility and agility.
Final Thoughts
Stripe Radar can be a powerful tool. But it’s not perfect out of the box. Default settings don’t fit every business. If you’re seeing unexplained drop-offs or strange patterns in your Stripe logs, it’s worth digging into the Radar rules.
A little tuning can go a long way—not just in stopping fraud but also in keeping good customers happy.
Stop Letting Stripe Block Your Best Customers
Fraud filters should work with your business, not against it. If Stripe Radar is killing legit sales, it’s time to take control. Chargeblast helps merchants automate chargeback protection and alerts, but we’ve also helped clients spot silent killers like overly strict fraud tools. Want to stop losing revenue to false positives? Let’s talk.
