World Cup Chargebacks Are Coming: How Merchants Can Prepare Now

Major sporting events create major sales opportunities. They also create ideal conditions for payment fraud.

As World Cup-related spending increases across travel, hospitality, merchandise, ticketing, streaming, and e-commerce, merchants should prepare for a delayed increase in chargebacks. The greatest risk is not always visible when the transaction is approved. A fraudulent purchase may appear legitimate, be fulfilled successfully, and only become a dispute weeks later when the actual cardholder reviews their statement.

For merchants, that delay can create a false sense of security.

Why Major Events Increase Chargeback Risk

Fraudsters take advantage of periods when transaction volume is unusually high and customers are purchasing quickly. Consumers may be shopping with unfamiliar businesses, placing international orders, making larger purchases, or requesting expedited delivery.

This makes suspicious activity harder to identify.

It is also important to understand that an approved transaction does not guarantee that the purchaser was authorized to use the card. If stolen payment credentials are used, the merchant may lose the merchandise or service, refund the transaction amount, pay a chargeback fee, and absorb related operational costs.

A sharp increase in disputes can also lead to funding delays, rolling reserves, increased processing costs, or additional scrutiny from the merchant’s payment provider.

Strengthen Fraud Controls Before Volume Increases

Merchants should use multiple fraud-prevention tools rather than relying on one approval rule.

Effective controls may include:

• Address Verification Service, or AVS
• CVV verification
• Device identification
• IP address and geolocation monitoring
• Transaction velocity limits
• Email and phone reputation checks
• Customer purchase history
• Billing and shipping address comparisons
• Manual review of unusual transactions

Particular attention should be given to multiple transactions from the same device, repeated failed payment attempts, unusually large orders, overnight shipping requests, and major inconsistencies between the customer’s billing address, shipping location, IP address, and device location.

Merchants should also avoid making fraud controls so aggressive that legitimate customers are automatically rejected. Transactions that fall outside normal patterns can be routed for manual review rather than immediately declined.

Preserve Strong Transaction Evidence

Good documentation can make a significant difference when responding to a chargeback.

Merchants should retain:

• Order confirmations
• Transaction timestamps
• IP addresses and device data
• AVS and CVV results
• Customer emails and communications
• Shipping and delivery confirmations
• Signed receipts, when applicable
• Refund and cancellation policy acceptance
• Proof that digital products or services were accessed

Clear billing descriptors are also critical. Many disputes begin because a customer does not recognize the business name appearing on the card statement.

Review Security and Operations

Merchants should avoid storing raw card information and use secure technologies such as tokenization, hosted payment fields, and point-to-point encryption whenever possible.

Temporary staff, website plugins, third-party vendors, gateways, and fulfillment partners should also follow consistent security procedures.

Internally, someone should be responsible for reviewing fraud alerts and disputes each day. Orders under investigation should not be fulfilled until they are cleared.

Monitor Chargeback Performance Daily

Merchants should not wait for a processor warning before taking action.

Monitor dispute volume, fraud trends, refund activity, authorization declines, and chargeback ratios throughout the event period and for several months afterward. Merchants should also maintain sufficient liquidity to cover delayed refunds and disputes.

The primary takeaway is straightforward: increased event-driven sales should be treated as increased-risk sales.

Merchants that strengthen fraud controls, preserve transaction evidence, secure their payment environment, and monitor disputes proactively will be better positioned to benefit from World Cup demand without being blindsided by a chargeback surge later.