How to Reduce Fake Orders in a Cash-on-Delivery Business

Cash on delivery (COD) is the main way online selling works in Bangladesh — but its biggest price is paid in fake orders. The customer orders and never receives the parcel, never answers the phone, or simply entered false details for fun. Every fake order means courier charges, return costs, packaging and time — all spent with no sale. This guide covers the methods that actually reduce fake orders, step by step.

First, know your own loss

How many orders come back, and how much money that costs you each month — until that number is clear, the solution won't be either. Use our free tool with your own figures: the Fake Order Calculator.

Method 1: Verify before the order — phone number confirmation

Most fake orders come from false or wrong phone numbers. With OTP phone verification at checkout, an order placed with a fake number simply can't be completed. It costs the buyer a few seconds, and it is the single strongest filter a seller can have.

Method 2: Flag risky orders

Repeated returns from the same number, suspicious patterns — these are the signals of risk. The OrderGate ecosystem builds a trust score for every order, so risky ones stand out before you ship. One rule matters: the decision always stays with a human — the system only warns; it never cancels an order by itself.

Method 3: Take the delivery charge in advance

The clearest sign of a fake-order customer is that they won't pay anything upfront. That's why many sellers now take just the delivery charge in advance, with the rest on delivery. A customer who has paid the delivery charge is serious about receiving the product — that is proven seller experience. OrderGate's landing themes can offer the advance delivery-charge option next to COD in the order form, and with OrderGate Pay that advance payment verifies automatically — no TrxID checking by hand.

Method 4: Follow up incomplete orders

Many customers start an order and abandon it halfway — they aren't fake, just distracted. If incomplete-order details are captured, a follow-up call or message later turns many of them into real orders. OrderGate's commerce system includes this capture feature.

Method 5: A quick confirmation call before shipping

A short confirmation call or message before dispatch — the old method still works. But at higher volumes you can't call everyone; that's where the automated checks above (OTP, trust score, advance charge) save the time, so calls can be limited to the suspicious orders only.

The whole system in one place with OrderGate

Reducing fake orders is not one feature — it's verification, scoring, advance payment and follow-up working together. The OrderGate Flagship Theme and its commerce plugin bring all of these together:

• OTP phone verification
• A per-order trust score (decisions stay human)
• Incomplete-order capture and follow-up
• Automatic verification of advance payments via OrderGate Pay

Remember

Fake orders can't be reduced to zero — but with the right system they can be brought down to a level the business can absorb. Start by seeing your current loss in the Fake Order Calculator, then switch the verification layers on one by one.