My order was flagged by fraud screening

What this is#

Every order placed with us is screened automatically at checkout, by industry anti-fraud services and our own in-house checks. When the screening flags an order, you see an "Automated Fraud Screening Alert" page with the specific reason, and the order is held with a fraud status instead of being processed.

Automated screening protects our network and our customers, but no screening is perfect: false positives happen, and a flagged order is not an accusation. This page covers the usual causes, what you can fix yourself, and how to reach us when the flag is wrong.

This is not the same as the review every paid order goes through before activation, that's a human step that happens to all orders. It's also not the same as an invoice sitting in Security Review, which is the card processor checking a payment.

The usual causes#

• You ordered over a VPN, proxy, or Tor. Anonymized connections are the single most common trigger. Disconnect the VPN or proxy, then place the order again from your normal connection.
• Your billing country doesn't match your IP's location. The screening compares the country of your billing address with the country your connection comes from. If you're on a VPN, disconnect it. If your account details are incomplete or out of date, update them fully on the Account details page (https://vpsdime.com/accountdetails), address, city, state, and country, as if we were shipping you a physical product, then order again.
• The order was placed with automated tools. Scripted or automated checkouts get flagged. Place the order normally in a browser.
• A high number of orders at once. Many orders in quick succession looks like abuse to the screening. If you genuinely need a large deployment, contact us first and we'll make sure it goes smoothly.
• You're in a region we cannot serve. In this case the screen will say the order requires manual verification or can't be accepted, and re-ordering won't change the outcome, see below.

What happens to a flagged order#

Our staff checks flagged orders. If we can verify the order with the data available to us, we contact you ourselves, usually by ticket or email, so watch your inbox. While the order is in this state, your client area shows a Fraud Check notice for it, and if we've opened a verification ticket, the notice asks you to reply to it, that reply is what moves things forward.

If you believe the flag is a false positive, don't wait for us: open a ticket and ask us to review the order. A person looks at every such request.

What to do, in order#

1. Read the reason on the alert page. It names the specific trigger.
2. If it's a fixable cause, VPN/proxy or the country mismatch, fix it (disconnect, or complete your account details) and place the order again.
3. If your reason isn't one of the fixable ones, place one more order to rule out a one-off false positive.
4. Flagged again? Stop and talk to us. Open a ticket and ask for a manual review, a person looks at every such request.

Don't keep re-ordering#

Placing the same order over and over after it's been flagged works against you: an account that collects several flagged orders in a row (three or four is enough) is closed automatically by our systems. See Account closed for what that means.

Creating another account to get around it doesn't work either, the order screening recognizes repeat orders across accounts, and it puts the new account on the same path.

The pattern that works is the one above: fix a fixable cause, retry once otherwise, and then bring a human into it. A genuine order has nothing to lose from a manual review.

Still need help?#

You can open a support ticket. So we can help on the first reply, it's worth mentioning:

• the email address you ordered with, and the order number if you have one,
• the exact reason shown on the screening alert,
• whether you were using a VPN or proxy at the time, and your billing country.

Related questions#

• "My order was flagged as fraud, what do I do?"
• "Why was my order blocked at checkout?"
• "I ordered through a VPN and my order was rejected."
• "My billing country doesn't match my IP, why does that matter?"
• "The fraud screening flagged me by mistake, how do I get reviewed?"
• "Can I place many orders at once?"
• "Will my account be closed if my orders keep getting flagged?"
• "Can I just make a new account after being flagged?"
• "Where do I update my address before ordering again?"