• COD VERIFICATION & AVAILABILITY • SETUP GUIDE

How to Block Specific Phone Numbers from Placing COD Orders

By Rivio Support Team
3 min read

How to Block Specific Phone Numbers from Placing COD Orders

Every Cash on Delivery merchant occasionally deals with repeat offenders—serial returners who repeatedly reject parcels at their doorstep, prank submissions, or competitors attempting to exhaust your inventory.

With Rivio COD & Partial Payments, you can create a silent Blocked Phone Numbers denylist. When a blocked phone number is entered during the checkout address step, the app automatically hides Cash on Delivery, requiring the customer to pay online upfront with a credit card.

In this guide, you will learn how to add phone numbers to your fraud prevention denylist.

Before You Begin

Before blocking numbers, confirm that:

  • Rivio COD & Partial Payments is installed and active on your store.
  • You have identified the phone numbers of repeat non-delivery or fraudulent customers from your previous Shopify order history.

Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. From your Shopify admin, open Apps → Rivio COD & Partial Payments.
  2. Go to Features → COD verification.
  3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to locate the Blocked phone numbers card.
  4. In the multiline text box, enter the phone numbers you want to block, entering one number per line.
📸 SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: SC-COD-020

Rivio COD verification settings showing the Blocked phone numbers multiline text area

Rivio COD verification settings showing the Blocked phone numbers multiline text area

Include the full phone number along with its country code (for example: `+15550192834` or `+919876543210`) to ensure exact matching across international dialing variations.

  1. Click Save in the top-right corner.

Configuration Settings & Options

Setting Default Description Best Practice Recommendation
Blocked phone numbers Empty Denylist of phone numbers checked during the address step. Enter one number per line including the country code prefix.
Silent Enforcement Automatic The app quietly hides COD without alerting the buyer. Prevents bad actors from knowing they were blocked.

Example Scenario

Stopping a Serial Returner in Delhi

An online cosmetics retailer identifies a customer who placed five Cash on Delivery orders over two weeks and refused delivery on all five, costing the store over $60 in wasted courier charges. The store owner copies the buyer's phone number (+919811223344) into Rivio's Blocked phone numbers list. When the buyer attempts to place a sixth order, Cash on Delivery is completely absent, forcing them to pay upfront or abandon the attempt.

Important Notes & Limitations

For data privacy and security, blocked phone numbers are stored securely on Rivio's backend server and are never transmitted to the storefront browser DOM.

The phone number is verified during the customer address step of the popup. If a customer enters a blocked number, the payment options dynamically update to remove COD.

Troubleshooting

A blocked customer was still able to place a COD order

  • Possible Cause: The customer used a different phone number, or the number was entered without matching the digits entered at checkout (e.g., missing leading zero or country code).
  • How to Fix:
  1. Inspect the order in Shopify Admin to see the exact phone number string entered.
  2. Add both variations (with and without country code) to the blocked list on separate lines.

Related Guides

Need Help?

Have questions about configuring fraud prevention filters? Our support specialists are here to help!