Help & Support

1. What is FraudClient?

FraudClient is a community-powered fraud prevention platform designed for online businesses. It allows you to screen new customers, monitor existing ones, and collaborate with other providers to prevent losses from fraud, chargebacks, spam, and abusive behavior. Our system is built with privacy at its core, using one-way hashing to protect sensitive data.

2. How It Works

The FraudClient ecosystem is a continuous cycle of reporting, screening, and monitoring. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown:

Report & Contribute

When you encounter a fraudulent or abusive client, you can submit a report on our platform. The client's identifying information (such as name, email address, and IP address) is securely hashed on your end before being transmitted to our servers. This adds an anonymous signal to our network, helping to protect other businesses from the same bad actor.

Screen & Verify

Before approving a new order or customer, you can query their details through our system. We check the hashed data against our network's reports and provide you with a risk score, without revealing any personally identifiable information (PII).

Monitor & Protect

You can add clients to your personal watchlist and use the Query History feature to see if other businesses are screening them. This allows you to get proactive alerts and strengthen the entire community's defense against repeat offenders.

3. Reporting a Client

What happens when I file a report?

When you file a report, you provide information about the client and the reason for the report. This information is then processed in the following way:

• Data Hashing: All identifying information (name, email, IP address, etc.) is immediately converted into a secure, one-way hash. This means the original data is never stored on our servers.
• Point System: Each report is assigned a point value based on the severity of the reason for the report. For example, a chargeback report will be assigned more points than an early cancellation.
• Network Update: The hashed data and associated points are added to our network, making it available for other users to query.

How is the data kept?

All reported data is stored as secure, one-way hashes. This means that even in the unlikely event of a data breach, your clients' personal information would remain safe and unreadable.

4. Searching for a Client

How do I search for information?

You can search for a client using any of the identifying information you have, such as their name, email address, or IP address. When you perform a search, the information you provide is hashed on your end and then compared to the hashed data in our network.

What will I see in the search results?

If a match is found, you will see a summary of the reports that have been filed against that client, including:

• The total number of reports
• The total number of points
• A confidence score based on the number of unique reporters
• A reliability score (e.g., "Low Risk," "High Risk")

You will also be able to view the details of each report, including the reason for the report and any additional information provided by the reporter.

5. The Watchlist

What is the watchlist and how does it work?

The watchlist is a feature that allows you to monitor specific clients. You can add a client to your watchlist by providing their name, email address, IP address, or other identifying information. If another user files a report that matches a client on your watchlist, you will receive a notification.

This is a powerful tool for staying ahead of potential threats and keeping your business secure.

6. Privacy and Security

We take privacy and security very seriously. Here are some of the measures we have in place to protect your data:

• One-Way Hashing: As mentioned above, all sensitive data is hashed before it is transmitted to our servers. This means that we cannot read or reconstruct the original data.
• GDPR-Aligned: Our platform is designed to be GDPR-aligned by design. We only store the minimum amount of data necessary to provide our services.
• Secure Servers: Our servers are located in a secure data center in Canada and are protected by multiple layers of security.
• Removal & Dispute Workflow: We provide a clear and simple workflow for clients to dispute reports and request the removal of their data.

7. Frequently Asked Questions

Is the service free?

Yes, the core features of FraudClient, including reporting and queries, are free to use. We do not currently have any paid plans.

How do you protect personal data?

When you submit a report or perform a query, the raw data is processed by the `normalizeAndHash()` function. This function first normalizes the data by trimming whitespace and converting it to lowercase, and then it applies the SHA-256 hashing algorithm. Our servers never receive raw PII.

Can clients dispute a report?

Yes. We have a removal workflow that allows reported clients to request the removal of a report and communicate with the reporter through the removal process. Providers and reporters can also delete reports they have submitted.

What integrations are available?

We currently offer integrations for WHMCS and XenForo, as well as a REST API for custom integrations.

8. Contact

If you have any questions or need support, please visit our Community Forum.