How to block orders from high-fraud regions in WooCommerce

Many WooCommerce stores face fake or fraudulent orders from specific countries or regions. By blocking these orders, you can save money on chargebacks, refunds, and shipping costs.

This guide explains how to configure the Fraud Prevention for WooCommerce plugin to automatically block orders from selected high-risk countries or regions. (Plugin feature: Block High-Risk Countries)

• Business Value: Prevents chargebacks and reduces fake orders.
• Who Should Use This: Store owners selling internationally who experience repeated fraud from specific countries.

Preconditions

Before you begin, ensure:

1. Fraud Prevention For WooCommerce plugin is installed and activated.
2. You know the list of high-risk countries where you want to block or restrict orders.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Open Fraud Prevention Settings

• Go to Dashboard → Dotstore → Fraud Prevention.
• You’ll see the main dashboard with available rules.

Step 2: Create a Country Block Rule

• Click the Blacklist Settings menu from the header menu item.
• Go to the Blocked Countries label
• Choose Countries and pick the ones you want to block (e.g., Nigeria, Vietnam, Pakistan, etc.).

Step 3: Save and Enable

• Click Save Rule.
• Toggle Enable Rule to make it live.

Step 5: Test on Checkout

• Try placing an order from a blocked country using a VPN/browser location.
• The checkout page should show a “Sorry, we don’t ship to your region” message or prevent order placement.

Alternate Flows

• Instead of blocking, you can restrict payment methods (e.g., only allow prepaid/PayPal for high-risk regions).
• You can also combine with IP blocking to catch fraudsters using fake addresses.

Expected Outcome

• Orders from selected countries are blocked or flagged.
• Store saves money on chargebacks and fraudulent COD orders.
• The admin dashboard shows all blocked attempts in the Fraud Prevention logs.