Reason code · Visa
Visa reason code 10.4: fraud on online and phone orders
Visa 10.4 is the fraud dispute for card-absent sales: online, in-app, phone and mail orders. The cardholder says they didn’t authorize or take part in the purchase. The bank has 120 days to file.
Key takeaways
- The fraud code for selling remotely. Online, phone, mail and in-app orders all land here.
- Not every 10.4 is a stranger. Family members and forgetful customers file them too.
- Authentication changes the game. Visa’s rules make some authenticated purchases invalid for 10.4.
What Visa 10.4 means
Visa calls this “Other Fraud – Card-Absent Environment.” The cardholder denies authorizing or taking part in a transaction where the card wasn’t physically present. If you sell online or take card numbers by phone, this is the fraud code you’ll meet.
What the customer told their bank
“I didn’t make this purchase.” The bank must report the fraud to Visa first and certify that the cardholder denies the transaction.
Sometimes that’s true: a stolen card number was used. Sometimes the cardholder’s teenager bought it, or the customer doesn’t recognize your business name on their statement. That last kind is often called friendly fraud.
The time limit
The cardholder’s bank has 120 calendar days from the date the transaction was processed.
Your own deadline is shorter. Fraud and authorization codes have no separate “dispute response” step in Visa’s rules. Your bank (the acquirer) answers with a pre-arbitration attempt, and it has 30 calendar days from the dispute to do it. Your processor keeps part of that time, so the due date on your notice is the one that counts.
What kind of proof matters
Proof that the real cardholder made or benefited from the purchase: details that match their earlier undisputed orders, and signs they received or used what they paid for.
Two rules worth knowing. First, Visa’s rules make a 10.4 invalid for e-commerce purchases fully authenticated through Visa Secure (3-D Secure). Second, under Visa’s Compelling Evidence 3.0 rule, the dispute is invalid if the same card was used in two earlier undisputed purchases, 120 to 365 days back, with matching details such as IP address or device. Visa updated that rule for disputes processed from October 24, 2026.
One common mistake
Sending proof of delivery and nothing else. A tracking number shows a package arrived. It doesn’t show the cardholder ordered it, and that’s the question a fraud dispute asks.
Dispute Daddy reads your notice, lines up the reason the customer gave against your own records, and builds the response. You review it, approve it and submit it. See how the Dispute Daddy Method works.
