What is Sentinel?
Sentinel is a Stripe marketplace app that scores refund requests for fraud risk before you approve them. It uses 5 signals including a cross-merchant abuse network shared across Sentinel merchants. You see the score in your Stripe Dashboard when you open a charge.
How much does it cost?
$49 per month flat. Unlimited refund scoring. $39/month with the Reflex bundle. First 14 days are free with no card required. Cancel anytime.
How is the refund risk score computed?
Sentinel combines 5 weighted signals and clamps to 0-100: cross-merchant abuse network (device, IP, card, email hashes), per-card refund history, IP classification (VPN/Tor/datacenter), authentication data (3DS/AVS/CVC), and delivery-to-refund timing. If a signal is missing, the engine skips it.
When does Sentinel intercept a refund?
Sentinel is a decision-support tool, not an interceptor. You see the score when you open the charge in Stripe, before you click Refund. If you refund via the Stripe API without opening the Dashboard, Sentinel still records the outcome but won't block the refund — it wasn't designed for that.
Will the abuse network work on day one?
Three of the five signals (IP, authentication, timing) work immediately. Two (abuse network, card history) compound as more merchants join. Early installs see weaker network flags; expect meaningful cross-merchant signals after the network reaches ~50 merchants.
What data do you store?
We store the refund risk score, the risk factors that fired, your approve/block decision, and hashed signal values (device, IP, card fingerprint, email). We do not store full card numbers, customer names, or email addresses. Signal hashes are one-way and can't be reversed to PII.
Does Sentinel work with Reflex or Evidence Vault?
Yes. If you run Evidence Vault, Sentinel automatically pulls 3DS/AVS/CVC data from your vault entries to strengthen the score. If you run Reflex, you pay $39/month for Sentinel instead of $49 (bundle discount applied automatically).
How does billing work?
$49/month invoiced on the 1st of each month for the prior month. First 14 days free. Your first invoice is sent via Stripe's hosted page (net-30). From month 2 on, invoices auto-charge the card you paid the first invoice with. No per-refund fees, no success fees.
What are the proof request emails?
Opt-in feature (off by default) that sends the customer a link to upload a photo or explanation before you approve the refund. It's opt-in because card network rules set time limits on refund processing. Review your local Visa/Mastercard rules before enabling. Every send and reply is RFC 3161 timestamped.
How do I cancel?
Uninstall Sentinel from your Stripe Dashboard, or disable scoring in App Settings. Billing stops at the end of your current billing period. No cancellation fees.
Who owns the abuse network data?
Aggregate abuse network signals are operated by CertNode on behalf of all Sentinel merchants. No merchant can see another merchant's individual scores or customers — only hashed signals and aggregate counts. Your decisions feed the network but are never attributable to you publicly.
Does this replace Signifyd or other enterprise fraud tools?
No. Signifyd is an enterprise-grade fraud and chargeback tool that costs 1-3% of revenue and targets large merchants. Sentinel is the SMB-priced alternative — flat monthly fee, no per-refund cost, narrower scope (refund abuse only). Use Signifyd if you need full fraud protection with guarantees. Use Sentinel if you want refund abuse detection without enterprise pricing.