What is the “early fraud warning” status?

Donations can be in the “early fraud warning” status when a cardholder lodges a claim of fraud with their issuing bank and occurs before an official chargeback. Stripe provides this warning when they detect fraudulent activity or when they are alerted of possible fraud by the card-issuing bank. Act quickly and contact the donor to determine whether this donation should be refunded or not, as fraud disputes can incur a dispute fee from Stripe.

Things to keep in mind:

• Early fraud warnings become disputes 70 - 90% of the time across the Stripe processing platform.
• Refunding window is most often within 24 - 48 hours.
• Fully refunding an early fraud warning is the only way to prevent a dispute.