Resolve a Declined Transaction with the Stripe Fraud Challenge

This article explains how the Stripe Fraud Challenge works, what cardholders can expect, and how to respond if a transaction is flagged for suspected fraud.

What Is A Stripe Fraud Challenge

A Stripe Fraud Challenge allows a cardholder to confirm whether a declined transaction is legitimate. When a transaction is flagged as high risk, Stripe sends an SMS message to the cardholder’s registered phone number. The cardholder can reply to confirm or deny the transaction. For information from Stripe, see Fraud challenges.

This functionality is available to cardholders who have a valid, verified phone number associated with their account.

Cardholder Process

If a transaction is declined for suspected fraud, the cardholder receives a one-time SMS message similar to the following:

Did you attempt a [amount] transaction at [merchant]? Reply YES if you did, or NO if you did not. Reply STOP to opt out.

If The Cardholder Replies YES

If the cardholder replies YES, they receive the following response:

Thank you. Please wait a moment and try again.

The cardholder must attempt the transaction again to complete the purchase. After the retry, Stripe will not send another SMS prompt for that transaction, and the payment will not be blocked due to the prior high-risk assessment.

If The Cardholder Replies NO

If the cardholder replies NO, they receive the following message:

This transaction was declined. We recommend canceling your card and requesting a new one. Please review your account for any other suspicious transactions.

In this case, the cardholder should review their account activity and contact their company administrator to request a replacement card if needed.

Opting Out Or Re-Enrolling

Cardholders can reply STOP at any time to opt out of future fraud challenge messages. To re-enroll, reply START.

Example Of Stripe Fraud Challenge SMS

The example below shows a Stripe Fraud Challenge SMS notification.