How to spot reshippers, freight forwarders and drop addresses on Shopify
A reshipper or drop address is a place that receives goods for someone else and sends them on. Fraudsters and resellers use them to hide where stolen-card or bulk orders really go. Legitimate forwarders exist too, so the address alone isn't proof.
Warning signs
- Many unrelated names shipping to one address, often with suite or unit numbers
- Addresses near ports or airports that serve as forwarding warehouses
- Order volume to one address that doesn't fit a household
How to prevent it on Shopify
Things any merchant can do, with or without an app.
- Look up unfamiliar high-volume addresses before shipping
- Decide your policy on forwarders and say so in your shipping terms
- Hold high-value orders to known forwarding addresses until you've checked them
AI-powered fraud detection
What Interceptor does about it
- Flags addresses where several different names, emails or cards are shipping, and shows the whole cluster
- Lets you block a drop address so every future order to it is held
What it doesn't do: Interceptor doesn't keep a list of known forwarding companies; it spots the many-people-one-address pattern. Some forwarders are legitimate, so you decide.
Questions
Should I block freight forwarders on Shopify?
Not automatically, since some honest customers use them. Hold orders to busy forwarding addresses, check them, and block the specific addresses that turn out to be fraud.