Integrating Visa CE 3.0 & Mastercard Fraud Protection

What This Guide Covers

This guide helps you implement automated fraud chargeback protection through Visa Compelling Evidence 3.0 Mastercard Fraud Protection & American Express's equivalent programs. When properly configured, these programs can reduce your liability for fraudulent chargebacks by automatically proving legitimate cardholder usage patterns.

Links to Card Scheme compelling evidence rules:

Visa 3.0

Mastercard FTP

Amex

How It Works

When a cardholder disputes a card-not-present transaction as fraud these programs allow merchants to submit a "purchase history" - namely two previous, undisputed transactions made with the same card - to prove the customer really made the purchase. If a match can be shown between core data points detailed below, the dispute can be stopped before it turns into a chargeback.

Key Requirement

You need at least 2 related transactions from the same cardholder (within a specific timeframe) to qualify for protection.

Step-by-Step Implementation

Step 1: Identify Qualifying Chargebacks

Your chargeback must have one of these reason codes to be eligible:

Step 2: Find Related Transactions

To prove cardholder legitimacy, find transactions that match these criteria:

2A. Card Matching (All Must Match)

• Last 4 digits of the card number
• Card network (Visa, Mastercard, etc.)
• Bank identification number (first 6 digits) - when available
• Billing descriptor (how the charge appears on statements)
• OR unique card identifier (if your system generates card fingerprints)

2B. Time Window

• Transactions must be 120-365 days before the disputed transaction
• Use your transaction timestamp to calculate this range

2C. Transaction Status

✅ Qualifying transactions:

• No disputes filed
• Only non-fraud chargebacks (if any)

❌ Disqualifying transactions:

• Any fraud disputes filed
• Active fraud reports on file

Step 3: Verify Cardholder Patterns

For each qualifying transaction, you must have at least one match from each category:

Device Evidence (Choose 1+)

• IP Address - Same internet connection
• Device ID - Same device/browser identifier
• User Agent - Same browser/device signature

Delivery Evidence (Choose 1+)

• Email address - Same account email
• Shipping address - Same delivery location
• Account ID - Same user account
• Subscription ID - Same recurring service

Additional Evidence (Include all available)

• Phone number - Same contact number
• Billing address - Same payment address
• Product details - Same or similar items purchased

Example data structure using our API

By using our Transaction enrichment endpoint with the next body param:

{
    "transactionTransactionId": "65SD89F08236587G4",
    "transactionCardLastFourDigits": "5450",
    "transactionCardAppleLast4Digits": "3847",
    "transactionCardScheme": "Mastercard",
    "transactionCardBin": "458059",
    "transactionCustomerDisplayedTransactionDescription": "Sugarcube New York",
    "transactionCardFingerprint": "Xt5EWLLDS7FJjR1c",
    "transactionCreatedDate": "\"2022-03-15T09:39:24.514Z\"",
    "transactionStatus": "COMPLETE",
    "reasonCode": "10.4",
    "reason": "product_unacceptable",
    "transactionEarlyFraudWarningFraudType": "card_never_received",
    "transactionVerificationCustomerPicture": "Image.com/imagyimage284972395",
    "earlyFraudWarningCreatedAt": "2022-03-15T09:39:24.514Z",
    "transactionArn": "8563785864",
    "transactionOrderIpAddress": "173.66.27.204",
    "transactionOrderDeviceId": "m7Cmrf++0cW4P6XfF7m/rA",
    "transactionOrderUserAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/93.0.4577.63 Safari/537.36",
    "transactionOrderEmail": "[email protected]",
    "transactionBillingEmail": "[email protected]",
    "transactionShippingToAddressLine1": "1111 S Figueroa St",
    "transactionShippingToAddressLine2": "Suite 22",
    "transactionShippingToCity": "Los Angeles",
    "transactionShippingToZipCode": "90015",
    "transactionShippingToState": "CA",
    "transactionShippingToCountry": "United States",
    "transactionShippingToCountryCode": "US",
    "transactionOrderSteamId": "8376938475934759",
    "transactionOrderPhone": "19495551234",
    "transactionBillingAddressCity": "Laguna Beach",
    "transactionBillingAddressAddressLine1": "30801 S Coast Hwy",
    "transactionBillingAddressAddressLine2": "Suite Number 21",
    "transactionBillingAddressZipCode": "92651",
    "transactionBillingAddressState": "CA",
    "transactionBillingAddressCountry": "United States",
    "transactionOrderItemsProductName": "Concealer Palette",
    "transactionOrderItemsProductDescription": "A professional concealer palette. shade #light"
}