Understanding Online Fraud (Without Getting Paranoid)
Fraud is a real thing on the internet. It is also mostly boring and mostly preventable if you understand the shape of it.
The shapes fraud takes for sellers
The most common patterns: a buyer places a large order with a stolen card, has it shipped to an address that doesn't match the billing address, then disappears. The card issuer eventually reverses the charge; you're out both the item and the shipping.
Preventing this doesn't require sophistication. A payment processor that flags mismatched addresses, a policy of only shipping to verified addresses on large orders, and a note to slow down on anything that feels wrong will catch most of these.
The shapes fraud takes for buyers
Fake storefronts selling in-demand products at 40% below retail. Sellers who ship an empty box or a photo of the item. Sellers who ship late-model electronics that turn out to be cheaper models from three years ago.
Marketplaces that verify seller identity make these attacks much harder. That's why real verification matters.
What Suliit does
Every seller goes through identity and business verification. Payment risk is scored in real time. Suspicious accounts are put on hold for manual review. Buyers who file cases go through a documented procedure. None of this is fancy — it's just the work.
What you can do
As a seller: use the fraud checks your platform provides, and don't override them because a suspicious order 'feels okay.' As a buyer: pay through the platform, keep the messages on-platform, and don't wire money to strangers.
This article is part of the Suliit editorial series on online commerce for independent sellers and buyers. Suliit is a U.S.-based marketplace operated from Prince Frederick, Maryland.