Fraud & Abuse Protection

Identify behavioral patterns and apply consistent policies automatically with our Fraud & Abuse Protection functionality.

Overview

The Fraud & Abuse Protection feature is embedded directly within the parcelLab App and enables you to detect patterns in customer activity across your post-purchase experience, including returns, claims, and refunds.

An assessment tool enriches parcelLab events, such as order history and return behavior, with behavioral risk signals provided through integrated risk assessment services. These signals are surfaced in the parcelLab App and can be used to:

• Monitor customer activity

• Filter and review high-risk cases

• Create rules to automate workflows and policies

This allows you to protect revenue and reduce refund abuse, while also maintaining a frictionless experience for trusted customers.

The feature also includes a dedicated area in the Returns section of the parcelLab App to help you review and configure fraud signals to incorporate in your fraud prevention workflows.

Take the Tour

Explore the Fraud & Abuse Protection feature with our interactive demo below.

Configuring Fraud & Abuse Protection

The following sections describe the configuration required for the Fraud & Abuse Protection feature.

Customer Requirements

For the feature to work, the following requirements need to be met:

• Define the thresholds that will be used to classify risk levels

• Align on how risk signals should be used in your setup

Fraud risk signals are generated via parcelLab’s integrated fraud assessment models and automatically enriched into your data once enabled.

Implementation Process

To activate this feature, please contact your parcelLab representative or sign up here to request a trial.

Once requested, parcelLab will enable the feature for your account and validate that fraud signals are available in your workflows.

Using Fraud & Abuse Protection

This section describes the process of using the Fraud & Abuse Protection feature in the parcelLab App.

Monitor Fraud Risk Signals

You can view fraud risk levels for customers in associated tracking details in the Trackings module.

Filter Trackings by Fraud Risk Level

To view trackings by fraud risk level:

1. Navigate to the Trackings page.

2. Click the Add filter button.

   

   A drop-down menu will display a list of available filters.

3. Select the Tags filter.

   
4. Select the required fraud risk level.

   You can select more than one risk level.

   

   After enabling the filter, the Trackings page automatically refreshes to display the relevant tracking records.

5. Select the required tracking to view. The tracking details page will display.

6. Click the fraud risk level indicator (that is: low, neutral, medium or high fraud risk).

   

   For high fraud risk, a red banner will display at the top of the tracking details page.

   

   A sidebar will open for the fraud risk level to allow you to review and monitor risk signals of the customer.

   You can expand the sections to view further details about the reasoning for the fraud risk level applied to the customer.

   

Create Rules by Fraud Risk Fields

When Fraud & Abuse Protection is enabled for your account, you can use the fraud risk levels and categories to create rules across different workflows to trigger actions based on the assessed risk. The Fraud Risk Level and Fraud Category fields can be used like any other filter field in the parcelLab App to target specific customer groups, including in journeys and returns portal configurations to adjust customer experiences and automate operational policies in the post-purchase-journey.

Fraud Signals Use Cases

Check out the following use cases that you can apply for fraud risk levels and fraud categories used in the Fraud & Abuse Protection assessment tool.

Use fraud risk levels to apply stricter controls where needed, while fraud categories allow you to apply targeted polices based on the type of behavior detected. You can also combine fraud signals with other customer or order attributes to ensure you create comprehensive policies.

Refund Method Control

Goal: Protect cash flow and prevent refund abuse by restricting instant refunds for higher risk customers while maintaining a frictionless experience for trusted customers.

Example settings:

• If Fraud Risk Level = "low" or "neutral" → allow instant refund

• If Fraud Risk Level = "medium" → allow standard refund

• If Fraud Risk Level = "high" → store credit only

Refund Window Adjustment

Goal: Discourage abusive return behavior by shortening return windows for higher risk customers while keeping flexible policies for trusted customers.

Example settings:

• If Fraud Risk Level = "low" or "neutral" → 60 day return window

• If Fraud Risk Level = "medium" → 30 day return window

• If Fraud Risk Level = "high" → 14 day return window

Manual Review Routing

Goal: Ensure suspicious returns or claims receive manual review while allowing low-risk cases to be processed automatically.

Example settings:

• If Fraud Risk Level = "low" or "neutral" → auto-approve return

• If Fraud Risk Level = "medium" → show warning and require reason

• If Fraud Risk Level = "high" → route to manual review

Wardrobing Prevention

Goal: Reduce temporary product use followed by immediate returns by shortening the return window to discourage abuse while still allowing trusted customers to return items within a reasonable timeframe.

Example settings:

• If Fraud Risk Level = "medium" and Fraud Category = "Fast return" → shorten return window

High-Value Refund Protection

Goal: Prevent high-value orders from being automatically refunded when fraud risk signals indicate suspicious behavior.

Example settings:

• If Fraud Risk Level = "high" and Order Value = >$300 → disable instant refund → route to manual review

Loyalty Reward for Trusted Customers

Goal: Provide premium experiences for trusted customers by prioritizing low-risk customers in campaigns for loyalty offers.

Example settings:

• If Fraud Risk Level = "low" or "neutral" → include in loyalty campaign

• If Fraud Risk Level = "medium" or "high" → exclude from loyalty campaign

Access the Fraud & Abuse Protection Dashboard

The Fraud & Abuse Protection dashboard is available from the navigation pane in the Returns module and allows you to review fraud signals and access recommended fraud prevention configurations.

You must have access to the Returns module in the parcelLab App to view and use the Fraud & Abuse Protection dashboard.

The dashboard consists of the following tabs that can be accessed at the top of the page.

Overview

The Overview tab provides a high-level overview of available fraud signals used to identify customer behavior.

From the Overview tab, you can:

• View which fraud signal sources are active for your account

• Understand the risk levels and how they can be used in your workflows

• Review available fraud signal categories and request additional fraud signals

Configurations

The Configurations tab provides guidance and recommendations for fraud prevention workflows.

From the Configurations tab, you can:

• Navigate directly to configurable areas in the parcelLab App to update operational workflows, including return policies, return reasons, and journeys.

• Select a target goal and view recommend setup suggestions for different customer risk levels

• Make configuration changes to workflows manually, review return cases, and generate recommendations with Copilot

Dashboard

The Dashboard tab provides a centralized location for fraud reporting insights.

From the Dashboard tab, you can get an aggregated view of fraud and abuse insights when reporting is connected.