User Guide

IPN Guide June, 2009 37
6
Using Fraud Management Filters
With IPN
Fraud Management Filter actions are reported in IPN payment messages only when a filter
causes the payment to be pended awaiting your review or a when you accept or deny a filter-
pended payment. Filter actions are not reported when filters flag payments for review, allow
payments to be accepted, or cause them to be denied.
When a payment occurs, an IPN message shows the transaction’s payment status as
Completed, regardless of whether a Fraud Management Filter was activated or not. There is
no special notification for transactions that are flagged by a Fraud Management Filter. If a
Fraud Management Filter is set to Deny, PayPal does not send an IPN message when the filter
actually causes the payment to be denied.
When a transaction is pended, however, PayPal sends an IPN message containing one or more
fraud_management_pending_filters_
n variables, which identify the filters that caused
the payment to be pended, where n=1 specifies the first filter, and so on. In addition, the
payment_status variable is set to Pending. The following example shows an IPN message
in which two filters cause the transaction to be pended: