Chargeback Tracking

Chargebacks — formal disputes filed by cardholders with their card networks — are the most expensive class of customer abuse a WooCommerce store can experience. Each one costs the original order amount plus chargeback fees ($15–$50 per dispute), and ratios crossing card-network monitoring thresholds (Visa VDMP/VFMP, Mastercard ECP, Amex, Discover) can trigger fines, processor scrutiny, or account termination. The Chargeback Tracking module records every dispute, attributes it to the right customer, computes blended store-wide ratios against the relevant network thresholds, and contributes the strongest single class of negative signals in the TrustLens scoring engine.

Module ID: chargebacks. Default: enabled. Free tier (Stripe/WooPayments auto-ingestion, manual entry, blended ratio). Pro adds the dedicated Chargeback Monitor page, per-brand breakdown, Dispute Evidence Report, and email alerts.

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What It Observes #

The module ingests dispute data from three sources:

1. Stripe webhooks — automatic. As long as your WooCommerce Stripe gateway is processing webhooks normally, dispute events flow into TrustLens within minutes of being filed
2. WooPayments dispute events — automatic via the WooPayments hook surface
3. Manual entry — for stores using PayPal, Square, offline payments, or custom gateways, disputes can be logged through the admin UI

For each dispute the module records:

• Dispute ID (gateway-specific)
• Order ID (mapped via gateway metadata)
• Customer email hash (derived from the order’s billing email)
• Card brand (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover, or “Unknown” for offline)
• Dispute reason (gateway-provided category)
• Dispute amount
• Dispute date
• Status (open, under_review, won, lost, warning)

Dispute status updates flow in as the dispute progresses — Stripe and WooPayments send subsequent webhooks for outcome changes, which the module ingests automatically.

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What It Signals #

Lost Disputes (Severest) #

Trigger	Score	Reason Shown on Profile
3+ lost disputes	-50	“3 lost disputes”
2 lost disputes	-40	“2 lost disputes”
1 lost dispute	-30	“Dispute lost”

A single lost dispute drops the customer at least 30 points — usually enough to push them from Normal into Risk or Critical in one event.

Pending and Recent Disputes #

Trigger	Score	Reason Shown on Profile
Pending dispute (open or under review)	-20	“Active dispute”
1+ recent dispute (any outcome) in last 90 days	-5 to -15	“Recent dispute history”

Won Disputes #

Disputes that you successfully reversed in your favor still produce a small penalty (the dispute was filed at all), but the magnitude is much lower than a lost dispute. Around -5 per won dispute, capped at -15 cumulative.

Clean History (Positive) #

Trigger	Score	Reason Shown on Profile
10+ orders with 0 disputes	+10	“Clean chargeback history”

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The Blended Store-Wide Ratio #

TrustLens computes a blended monthly chargeback ratio:

blended_ratio = total_disputes_in_calendar_month / total_orders_in_calendar_month

This appears on the Dashboard as the Chargeback Ratio Speedometer with three states:

Status	Color	Threshold (Free)
Healthy	Green	< 50% of the lowest brand monitoring threshold
Approaching	Yellow	50–100% of warn threshold
Action needed	Red	At or above warn threshold

Pro replaces this single blended view with a per-brand breakdown showing each card network’s program threshold individually. See Chargeback Ratio Speedometer.

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Card-Network Monitoring Thresholds #

For context, the monitoring program thresholds the module targets:

Network	Program	Trigger Threshold
Visa	VDMP (Dispute Monitoring)	≥ 0.90% of monthly transactions with ≥ 100 disputes
Visa	VFMP (Fraud Monitoring)	≥ 0.90% with ≥ $75,000 in fraud transactions
Mastercard	ECP (Excessive Chargeback Program)	≥ 1.50% with ≥ 100 disputes
Amex	Excessive Disputes Program	≥ 1.0%
Discover	Dispute Monitoring	Variable; ≥ 1.0% typical

These thresholds are the trigger points, not the failure points — landing in a monitoring program means you get warnings, increased fees, and required remediation plans. Crossing programmatic ceilings (typically 2× the trigger) can lead to processor termination.

TrustLens defaults its warn threshold to a configurable percentage (default 70%) of the lowest applicable threshold so you have lead time to react.

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Manual Dispute Entry #

For stores not on Stripe or WooPayments, manual entry keeps the ratio accurate:

1. Go to TrustLens → Settings → Chargebacks (Free) or TrustLens → Chargeback Monitor (Pro)
2. Click Record Dispute
3. Enter:
   • Order ID (TrustLens looks up the customer)
   • Card brand (Visa / Mastercard / Amex / Discover / Other)
   • Dispute amount
   • Dispute date
   • Status (open by default)
   • Reason (free-form)
4. Save

Manually-entered disputes contribute to the customer’s signals, the per-customer dispute history, and the blended ratio just like ingested ones.

When the dispute outcome changes, edit the dispute record to update its status — the score will recalculate automatically.

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Settings #

Setting	Default	Description
Auto-block after N lost disputes (Pro)	2	If a customer accumulates this many lost disputes, automatically block them at checkout. Off in Free.
Warn threshold percent	70%	Speedometer turns yellow at this percentage of the brand monitoring threshold
Module enabled	On	Master toggle

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Common Patterns #

The Friendly-Fraud Customer #

Signature: Customer receives the product, then files a chargeback claiming non-receipt or unauthorized transaction. Pattern repeats.

Detection: Lost disputes accumulate. Signals stack quickly (-30 → -40 → -50).

Profile: Critical after the first lost dispute.

Action: Pro’s Dispute Evidence Report bundles trust score, signals, return history, linked accounts, and full timeline for submission as evidence in subsequent disputes.

The Single-Dispute Risk #

Signature: Customer with 50+ clean orders suddenly files one dispute.

Detection: -30 from the lost dispute, but loyalty bonuses and account-age bonuses offset.

Profile: Often drops from Trusted to Caution, not all the way to Risk. The clean history provides resilience.

Action: Investigate before blocking — could be a legitimate dispute (bank-side fraud claim, household member ordering without permission) rather than friendly fraud.

The Card-Testing-Then-Order Pattern #

Signature: Card-Testing module fires velocity signals; same card later completes an order; dispute filed within 60 days.

Detection: Card-Testing signal + Chargeback signal stack on the customer record.

Profile: Critical immediately on dispute.

The Ratio Creep #

Signature: No single customer is dramatic, but month-over-month the blended ratio climbs.

Detection: Dashboard speedometer moves from green to yellow.

Action: Investigate dispute reasons. Common causes: misleading product descriptions, slow shipping, unclear refund policies. Fix the upstream issue.

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Disabling the Module #

Disabling Chargebacks is not recommended — chargeback signals are the most important fraud-detection signals available, and the blended ratio is critical for staying clear of card-network monitoring programs. There’s effectively no realistic use case for disabling this module.

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Reading the Chargebacks Section of a Profile #

• Signal breakdown shows one or more Chargebacks signals
• Disputes panel lists each dispute on this customer: brand, amount, date, status
• Event timeline shows dispute_created events when a dispute is first recorded and dispute_closed events when it resolves (won/lost)

The Pro Dispute Evidence Report bundles all of this into a professional one-page PDF you can submit to your processor when responding to a dispute. See Dispute Evidence Report.

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Pro Enhancements at a Glance #

The Free chargeback experience is functional but limited. Pro adds:

• Dedicated Chargeback Monitor page — TrustLens → Chargeback Monitor
• Per-brand ratio breakdown against each network’s specific threshold
• 12-month trend chart per brand
• Trailing-30-day rolling window alongside the calendar-month view
• Recent disputes activity feed
• Top-disputed customers with one-click access to Dispute Evidence Report
• Configurable warn-threshold percent
• Auto-Block After N Lost Disputes
• Daily ratio email alerts deduplicated per brand per month

If chargebacks are a meaningful cost center for your store — and for most mid-volume merchants, they are — Pro’s chargeback features are usually the strongest single justification for upgrading.