Early Fraud Warning (EFW)

An Early Fraud Warning (EFW) is a message sourced from reports that card issuers on the Visa, Mastercard, and JCB networks generate to flag a payment they suspect is fraudulent. These come from network fraud feeds — Visa's TC40 reports and Mastercard's SAFE reports — and reach you through Stripe as the radar.early_fraud_warning.created event.

Why an EFW is a warning, not a dispute

An EFW arrives before a formal dispute. It's actionable while the payment hasn't yet been disputed or fully refunded. Stripe's own analysis has found that, absent a liability shift, roughly 80% of EFWs convert into a fraud dispute if you do nothing — so an EFW is a strong signal, but not yet a reversal of funds like a chargeback.

What to do with an EFW

• Consider a proactive refund. Issuing a refund can head off a dispute and its fee. Stripe suggests the break-even point is roughly charges at or below your dispute fee — refunding tiny transactions is cheaper than fighting them.
• Don't refund everything. Blanket refunds waste money on payments that would never have been disputed.
• Note the timing. A refund doesn't erase the network fraud report itself; only a reversal within about two hours of capture can prevent the report.

Why it matters

EFWs feed card-network monitoring programs, so a rising count can threaten your standing with the networks, not just your revenue. Watching them alongside your Stripe Radar risk scores helps you catch a fraud pattern — like a run of stolen-card charges — before it becomes a wave of disputes.