Slightly off-topic. A client uses Stripe for a small business website. We got an automated email saying a transaction was flagged as potentially fraudulent. We should investigate and possibly refund before a chargeback occurs. What? Is this a stolen card or what?

So I inquired with the chatbot and they list possible causes of a flagged transaction could be stolen card, as well as a few other examples which amount to a mix of service issues which are customer-determined. But the bot says it’s definitely not a chargeback. What?

So now I contact support. They say it’s a flag from the credit card issuing bank. Wait. What? Is this a fraudulent stolen card or not? Still no. It’s just a warning based on pattern usage. Why you passing this slop to my client? If there is a pattern problem, the flag should go to the customer who authorizes the charge. Otherwise it’s a chargeback or known stolen card.

They say, well, you can contact the customer. What? If the pattern is actually a stolen card, which is listed as a possible cause of the flag while not saying it is or isn’t, then they can just lie!

Which is a lot to say this pattern matching for fraud or negative patterns suffers from idiocy, even in the simplest of contexts.