Fidro Blog
Practical guides on fraud prevention, email validation, and chargeback protection for developers and product teams.
Visa VAMP 2026: New Chargeback Thresholds and How to Stay Under 1.5%
Visa cut the VAMP merchant threshold to 1.5% on April 1, 2026, and acquirers now answer to a 0.5% portfolio limit. Here is how the new ratio is calculated, what counts against you, what does not, and the practical steps to stay clear of fees and account reviews.
1 in 8 Signups Are Disposable Emails: The 2026 Data and How to Fix It
New 2026 data reveals 12% of all form signups use disposable email addresses, and only 62% of submitted emails are actually valid. Here is the real cost, the detection methods that work, and implementation patterns to protect your platform.
Google's June 2026 Fraud Advisory: What AI-Powered Scams Mean for Your Fraud Stack
Google's June 2026 fraud advisory reveals a 1,210% surge in AI-powered scams. From deepfake voice cloning to synthetic identities, here is what developers need to know and how to harden your fraud prevention stack.
Fraud Prevention API Integration: From Zero to Protected in 30 Minutes
A step-by-step guide to integrating Fidro's fraud prevention API. Covers getting your API key, understanding risk scores, integrating into signup and Stripe checkout flows, and tuning your fraud thresholds.
IP Risk Scoring for Developers: How to Assess IP Reputation in Real Time
IP risk scoring helps you catch fraud at signup and checkout by analyzing VPN usage, proxy detection, Tor connections, data centre IPs, and geolocation anomalies. Learn how to integrate IP reputation checks and set scoring thresholds.
VPN Detection API for Developers: How to Detect and Handle VPN Users
VPN detection helps you identify users masking their real location. Learn how VPN detection works technically, how to integrate it into your app, and when you should (and should not) block VPN traffic.
How to Prevent Fake Signups Without Killing Your Conversion Rate
Fake signups pollute your funnel, waste resources, and skew your metrics. Learn how to stop disposable emails, bots, and multi-accounting with a tiered risk approach that keeps friction invisible for real users.
Best Email Validation APIs Compared: Features, Pricing & Developer Experience (2026)
An honest comparison of the top email validation APIs for developers. We evaluate Fidro, Kickbox, ZeroBounce, NeverBounce, Abstract API, and Hunter.io on features, pricing, response time, and developer experience.
How to Block Disposable Emails with an API (PHP, Node.js & Python Examples)
A practical guide to integrating disposable email blocking into your signup flow. Includes working code examples in PHP/Laravel, Node.js/Express, and Python/Flask, plus caching strategies and edge case handling.
Webhook Patterns for Stripe Fraud Prevention: Building Real-Time Risk Pipelines
Learn how to build a real-time fraud prevention pipeline using Stripe webhooks, Laravel queues, and Fidro's risk scoring API to catch suspicious transactions before they become chargebacks.
Friendly Fraud: When Legitimate Customers File Chargebacks (and How to Fight Back)
Friendly fraud accounts for up to 75% of all chargebacks. Learn why real customers dispute valid charges, the true cost to your business, and proven strategies to prevent and win disputes.
Bot Signups and Datacenter Abuse: Detecting Non-Human Traffic at Registration
Bots exploit your signup flow using datacenter IPs, headless browsers, and disposable emails. Learn how to detect non-human traffic at registration using IP intelligence, email validation, and behavioral signals.
Tuning Fraud Thresholds: How to Balance Security and Conversion
Setting fraud thresholds too high blocks real customers. Setting them too low lets fraud through. Learn how to find the right balance using precision, recall, and iterative tuning with risk score data.
How to Block Disposable Emails in Laravel, Node.js, Python & PHP
Code examples for blocking throwaway email signups in every major framework. Laravel validation rules, Express middleware, Django validators, Flask decorators, and raw PHP -- all using one API.
Card Testing Attacks: How Fraudsters Validate Stolen Cards on Your Checkout
Card testing attacks let fraudsters validate thousands of stolen card numbers through your checkout. Learn how these attacks work, the warning signs to watch for, and how to stop them with velocity limits, IP intelligence, and risk scoring.
Account Takeover Prevention: A Developer's Guide
Account takeover attacks cost businesses $13 billion annually. Learn how ATOs work, the signals that indicate an attack, and how to build layered defenses using email, IP, and behavioral analysis.
Email Bounce Rate: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Fix It
High email bounce rates damage your sender reputation and reduce inbox placement. Learn what causes bounces, how to calculate your bounce rate, and practical steps to bring it under control.
How to Detect VPN and Proxy Users on Your Website
VPNs and proxies hide a user's real location and identity. Learn how VPN detection works, when to block VPN users, and how to implement IP intelligence in your application.
Geolocation Fraud Detection: How Location Data Catches Bad Transactions
IP geolocation reveals mismatches between where a customer says they are and where they actually are. Learn how location intelligence catches fraud that email and card checks miss.
How to Reduce Your Stripe Chargeback Rate Below 1%
Exceeding 1% chargeback rate triggers Visa and Mastercard monitoring programs with fines up to $25,000/month. Here's a practical checklist for keeping your rate well below the threshold.
What Are Disposable Emails and Why You Should Block Them
Disposable emails let users create throwaway inboxes that bypass your verification flows. Learn how they work, why they damage your business, and how to detect them in real time.
How Chargeback Fraud Works and How to Prevent It
Chargeback fraud costs merchants billions annually. Learn the mechanics of friendly fraud, first-party fraud, and true fraud — and the practical steps to prevent chargebacks before they happen.
Email Validation API Integration Guide: Best Practices for Developers
A practical guide to integrating email validation into your signup flow. Learn where to validate, how to handle edge cases, and the patterns that reduce fraud without hurting conversion rates.
How to Detect Disposable Emails in Your Signup Flow
A practical implementation guide for adding disposable email detection to your registration form. Covers API integration, response handling, user messaging, and the edge cases that trip up most implementations.
Free Email Providers vs Disposable Emails: What's the Difference?
Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook are free but legitimate. Mailinator, Guerrilla Mail, and 10MinuteMail are disposable and risky. Learn how to tell them apart and why the distinction matters for fraud prevention.
Email Validation for SaaS: The Complete Guide
Everything SaaS teams need to know about email validation — from basic format checks to advanced disposable detection, risk scoring, and integration patterns that protect revenue without killing conversions.
The True Cost of Fake Signups: What We Found Analyzing 10,000 Accounts
We analyzed 10,000 SaaS signups to measure the real impact of fake accounts. The results: 23% used disposable emails, they cost 4.7x more in infrastructure per dollar of revenue, and they destroyed conversion metrics.
What Is a Risk Score? How Fraud Risk Scoring Works
A risk score is a numerical value that represents the likelihood a user or transaction is fraudulent. Learn how risk scores are calculated, what signals they incorporate, and how to use them in your application.
IP Intelligence: How to Detect VPNs, Proxies, and Tor at Signup
IP intelligence reveals whether users are masking their location with VPNs, proxies, or Tor. Learn how IP analysis works, when anonymization is a fraud signal, and how to use it without blocking legitimate users.
Free Tier Abuse: How to Protect Your SaaS Without Hurting Real Users
Free tiers drive growth but attract abuse. Learn how to detect multi-account fraud, disposable email signups, and resource exploitation while keeping the experience smooth for legitimate users.
Stripe Radar vs Custom Fraud Prevention: When You Need Both
Stripe Radar provides baseline fraud protection, but it has blind spots. Learn when Radar is sufficient, when you need additional fraud detection, and how to layer them effectively.
How to Fight a Stripe Chargeback (and Win)
A practical guide to responding to Stripe chargebacks with compelling evidence. Learn which dispute reasons you can win, what evidence to submit, and how to automate the process.
Pre-Transaction Fraud Detection: How to Catch Bad Actors Before Payment
Pre-transaction fraud detection evaluates risk signals before payment is processed. Learn why validating emails, IPs, and geolocation before checkout prevents chargebacks and saves revenue.
Adding Email Validation to Laravel: A Step-by-Step Guide
Learn how to integrate real-time email validation into your Laravel application using a custom validation rule, service class, and queue job for async processing.
Building a Fraud Prevention Middleware in Node.js
A step-by-step tutorial for building Express middleware that validates emails, checks IPs, and scores risk before requests reach your application logic.