My Order Was Flagged for Fraud Review
What it means when the fraud screening cancels a NoBull Networks order, what to check first, what verification asks for, and how the order is reinstated.
Your order went through checkout and, instead of a confirmation, the page said it failed the automated fraud screening. The order has been cancelled and marked as fraud, and no server has been built. That is the system's word for it, not a verdict on you: every order is screened automatically at checkout, and the screening sometimes stops legitimate orders for mundane reasons. This guide explains what the flag means, what to check first, what extended verification involves, and how a cancelled order gets reinstated.
What the flag means#
- The order is cancelled automatically. The screening runs at checkout, and an order it flags is marked as fraud and cancelled on the spot rather than left waiting for someone. Nothing is built. In most cases no payment has been taken at that point; if one was, it is refunded, as described below.
- Nobody has decided anything about you. Automated screening scores an order on how well its details agree with each other and with what a normal first purchase looks like. It does not know you; it only knows the order.
- Cancelled is not final. Tell us, and a person reviews the order. Most flagged orders are reinstated after a single reply, and once cleared the account is treated like any other.
We do not publish what the screening looks at, for the obvious reason that the people it exists to stop would read the list too. What follows is the short list of everyday things that trip it. Sharing that costs nothing, because none of it helps anyone use a stolen card.
Check the everyday causes first#
Go through these before you write to us. If you recognize one, say so in the ticket; that sentence alone gets a lot of orders reinstated.
- Were you on a VPN, proxy, or Tor? Always-on privacy VPNs, corporate VPNs, and browser extensions all count, and so does ordering from a server you rent elsewhere. Switch it off before you reply, and use the same connection you would use from home.
- Does the billing address match the card exactly? Compare it with the address on your latest statement, not from memory. An old address, the server's intended location, or a mail drop all look like mismatches.
- Is the name on the account the name on the payment method? A company card in a colleague's name, a partner's PayPal account, or a nickname in the name field all need explaining.
- Is the country consistent? The card's issuing country, the billing address, and the place you ordered from should agree. If you were traveling, say where you were.
- Is the email address real and reachable? Disposable and forwarding addresses get flagged, and they also mean anything we send about the order may not reach you.
- Did the bank decline first? Look for a confirmation request in your banking app and approve it. Do not retry the card repeatedly; every failed attempt is another signal.
- Is this a second account? If you created a new account to try again, stop there and give both logins in the ticket. Two accounts with shared details is a signal in its own right, and we would rather close the spare one than review it.
The full version of this list, written for reading before checkout, is Before You Order.
Placing the same order again from a new account, a different card, or a different address does not get around the screening. It links the attempts together, makes the review harder, and is the one thing that reliably turns a routine flag into a refused customer. One order, one ticket.
Open the ticket#
- Open a ticket from inside MyNobull. Your account exists even though the order was cancelled. Open a ticket to the Billing department; tickets opened from your account skip the identity back-and-forth. If you cannot log in, use the contact form from the email address you ordered with, and if we emailed you first, replying to that email lands in the same place.
- Say which order. The order number if you have it, otherwise the product you ordered and the email address on the account, so nobody has to go looking.
- Say what you found. "I was on a VPN", "the card is a company card in the director's name", "I ordered from a hotel in Lisbon". A one-line explanation of the mismatch is often all the review needs.
- Wait for the reply before doing anything else. Verification tickets are handled by the same engineers as everything else, around the clock, with a first-response target of under 60 minutes.
Extended verification#
When the explanation alone does not settle it, we ask for evidence that the person placing the order controls the payment method and is who the account says. Which items we ask for depends on what did not line up. It is normally one or two of these, rarely more.
| What we may ask for | What it settles | Cover this before you send it |
|---|---|---|
| A photo of a government-issued photo ID: passport, national ID card, or driver's license | That the name on the account belongs to a real person, and that the person is you | The document number and any field we did not ask about. Name, photo, and expiry date stay visible. |
| A photo of the front of the payment card | That the card is physically in your hands | Everything except the cardholder name and the last four digits. Never send the full number, the expiry date, the security code, or the back of the card. |
| A screenshot of the payment from your PayPal activity | That the PayPal account that paid is yours and matches the order | Nothing in particular. The transaction ID, date, and amount are what we compare. |
| A recent proof of address: utility bill, bank statement header, or government letter | That the billing address is really yours, when the address was the mismatch | Account numbers, balances, and transactions. Name, address, and date stay visible. |
| A one-line confirmation from the cardholder | Company cards and cards in another person's name | Nothing. The cardholder replies in the ticket or sends one line from their own email address approving the charge. |
| A company registration number or public registry link, or an order placed from the company's own email domain | Business orders where the company and the person did not obviously belong together | Nothing sensitive is needed. |
How to send it#
- Attach files to the ticket in MyNobull. The ticket is tied to your account and read by the engineer handling it. Do not email documents to any address you were not given inside the ticket, and do not paste them into live chat.
- Redact first. Cover what the table says to cover, with a piece of paper or an image editor, before you take the photo or upload the file. We ask for the minimum, and you are welcome to send less than we asked for and let us say whether it was enough.
- Legible beats pretty. A clear phone photo in good light is fine. Heavily cropped or blurred scans are the usual reason for a second round.
Your MyNobull password, a two-factor code, the full card number, the card's security code, online banking credentials, remote access to your computer, or a payment to any account "to confirm the card". A request for any of these is not from NoBull Networks, whatever the sender name says. Verification only ever happens inside a support ticket; if you are unsure whether a request is genuine, log in to MyNobull and read the ticket there instead of following anything in an email.
What happens to what you send#
The attachments are used to verify the order and for nothing else, and are handled under the Privacy Policy. If you would like them removed from the ticket once the order is cleared, ask in the same ticket.
After verification#
- Cleared. We reinstate the order and say so in the ticket, along with the next step: usually the original invoice reopened for payment, occasionally a fresh order now that the account has been verified. Once the invoice is paid, a Performance VPS is built within a couple of minutes, other products follow the timings in What Happens After You Order, and the normal welcome email arrives.
- Not cleared, or you would rather not. The order stays cancelled. If a payment was taken at checkout it is refunded to the original payment method, and card and PayPal refunds usually appear within a few business days depending on your bank. Withdrawing instead of verifying is a perfectly acceptable answer; just say so in the ticket.
- Later orders. Once an account has a verified order behind it, further orders with the same details normally pass without another look. Change the payment method, the address, or the country and a fresh review is possible.
Do not dispute the charge#
If a payment was taken and the review is taking longer than you would like, chase the ticket; do not open a chargeback. A dispute with your bank places the whole account on hold, ends in termination if it is not resolved, and under the Terms of Service carries a penalty fee per disputed transaction plus, ironically, the requirement to prove ownership of the payment method anyway. Refunds and the 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee covers the refund routes that work. For a held order, the verification ticket is the fastest of them.
Why this exists#
An order placed on a stolen card costs a host twice: once for the chargeback, and once for whatever the server was bought to do, which lands on the same IP ranges and the same network your server shares. Screening keeps the network clean and the prices honest. The cancelled order you are reading about is the price of doing that without pretending a checkout form can tell people apart, and we would rather ask an honest customer one question than let a bad order through.
Common situations#
"I always use a VPN. Do I have to switch it off every time?"#
Only at checkout. Using a VPN to manage the server afterwards is normal, and running one on the server is too.
"The card is my employer's, in the finance director's name."#
Say so in the ticket and have the cardholder confirm the charge in one line from their work email. For the long term, hold the account in the company's name with the cardholder listed as a contact: Contacts and Sub-Accounts.
"I was traveling and ordered from a hotel in another country."#
One of the most common flags there is. Say where you were and where the card was issued; a photo ID usually settles it in one round.
"I paid with PayPal. Why was it still flagged?"#
PayPal proves that a payment was made, not that the PayPal account belongs to the person who placed the order. If the name or address on the PayPal account differs from the one on the order, expect a question.
"My card was declined. Is that the same thing?"#
No. A decline at the payment step, with no mention of fraud screening, comes from your bank rather than from us. Check your banking app for a confirmation request or call the bank, then pay the invoice from MyNobull. If instead checkout said the order failed the fraud screening, follow the steps above.