Card decline code
fraudulent: Suspected fraud
Stripe's fraud systems judged the payment likely fraudulent and blocked it. Do not retry the card; for a known subscriber, ask them to confirm their details or use another card.
What fraudulent means
fraudulent means Stripe suspected fraud, typically through Radar, and declined the charge before or during authorization.
Stripe recommends presenting this to the customer as a generic decline. For an existing subscriber it is often a false positive, but you should not keep retrying the same card.
Should you retry the payment?
Do not retry the same card. Review the charge in Radar, and ask the customer to update their payment method.
How to recover a subscription payment declined with fraudulent
- Review the payment in your fraud dashboard to check whether it is a false positive.
- Do not retry the same card automatically.
- Ask the customer to re-enter their card or use a different one.
What to tell the customer
Show a generic decline message and ask for a payment method update.
"Hi Sam, your payment of $49 for Acme was declined. Please update your payment method here to continue your subscription."
More wording for every situation is in our dunning email templates.
How Revnio handles fraudulent
Revnio never retries a card declined with fraudulent automatically: the retry cannot succeed, and card networks can charge fees for reattempting declines like this one. Instead the customer gets a recovery email straight away with a secure link to add a new payment method, followed by WhatsApp (Pro plan) reminders if the email is not clicked. Once the customer adds a new card, the open invoice is collected.
Decline codes are returned by the card issuer through your payment processor. Code names here follow Stripe's; Chargebee and Paddle surface the same issuer reasons with their own wording. Last reviewed 2026-10-15.
Frequently asked questions
What does decline code fraudulent mean?
Stripe's fraud systems judged the payment likely fraudulent and blocked it. Do not retry the card; for a known subscriber, ask them to confirm their details or use another card.
Should I retry a payment declined with fraudulent?
No. Do not retry the same card. Review the charge in Radar, and ask the customer to update their payment method.
Can Revnio recover payments declined with fraudulent?
Revnio picks up the failed payment from Stripe, Chargebee or Paddle, adjusts retry timing to the decline code, and reaches the customer by email and WhatsApp (SMS is coming soon) with a secure link to pay or update their card.
Recover failed payments on autopilot
Revnio retries failed payments at the right time and reaches customers by email and WhatsApp until the card is fixed. Works with Stripe, Chargebee and Paddle.
Related
- stolen_cardThe card was reported stolen and has been cancelled by the bank. Stop retrying immediately; the only fix is a new payment method.
- merchant_blacklistThe payment matched a value on your own Stripe block list. Stripe recommends presenting it to the customer as a generic decline.
- generic_declineThe payment was declined for an unspecified reason. Stripe also returns generic_decline when its own fraud screening blocks a charge, and for lost, stolen or fraudulent cards it reports to customers.
- All decline codesEvery common card decline code, grouped by what to do next.
- Dunning email templatesCopy-ready emails for each kind of failed payment.