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Shopify likes to market itself as the easiest way to sell online. And it is — until you start dealing with spam. My experiences with spam, fake accounts, and fraudulent orders motivated me to write this article.
For many merchants like us, spam isn’t a rare annoyance. It’s fake contact form submissions, bot-created customer accounts, garbage comments, and low-value “orders” clearly meant to test stolen credit cards. It clogs inboxes, triggers automations, and wastes real time. Yet Shopify’s response has been remarkably consistent: install an app
That’s the core issue. Shopify doesn’t meaningfully prevent spam by default — it outsources the problem to its app ecosystem.
I’ve tried the fraud-related apps such as Blockify, Blocky, and Fraud Judge. All of them have great features, but none stopped spammy abandoned carts, fraudulent orders, or fake accounts. After a month of trying varying degrees of restrictions, I uninstalled the apps. Blocking IP addresses, IP ranges, ISPs, bots, crawlers, and/or VPNs did nothing but lower sales.
Basic features, like forms and accounts, ship with minimal protection, despite being predictable and heavily targeted by bots. At Shopify’s scale, that predictability is a gift to attackers. When one exploit works, it works everywhere. Merchants feel this immediately, but Shopify largely treats it as background noise.
What makes the problem worse is the lack of control. Store owners can’t easily see why spam is getting through, can’t configure granular defenses without technical work, and can’t rely on native tools to adapt as attacks evolve. For a platform built on “no-code” simplicity, that’s a glaring contradiction.
Yes, Shopify has FAIRLY solid fraud detection at checkout. But spam doesn’t start at checkout. It starts earlier — in forms, accounts, and content — where the platform’s defenses are thin and largely invisible.
The result is a quiet tax on merchants: more apps, more subscriptions, more configuration, all to solve what feels like a core platform responsibility. Over time, that erodes trust.
Shopify doesn’t have a spam problem because it’s careless. It has a spam problem because it prioritizes speed and extensibility over defense. Until spam prevention is treated as a first-class feature — not an optional add-on — the perception that Shopify is bad at stopping spam isn’t going away.
And honestly? Merchants have a point. Here is a quick breakdown of the spam and fraud problem storeowners face on Shopify and other platforms.
1. Bot spam floods contact forms & comments
Shopify’s built-in tools for contact forms and blog comments are basic.
- Bots easily bypass default protections
- Merchants wake up to dozens (or hundreds) of fake submissions
- Email inboxes get wrecked fast
A lot of store owners feel like, “Why is this even getting through in 2026?”
2. Reliance on third-party apps
Shopify often punts spam protection to the App Store:
- CAPTCHA, form protection, comment moderation = apps
- Many are paid
- Quality varies wildly
So merchants feel like they’re paying extra just to fix a core platform problem.
3. Fake accounts & fraudulent signups
Stores that allow customer accounts get hit with:
- Mass fake registrations
- Disposable email addresses
- Bot-created profiles that do nothing but exist
Shopify has some protections, but store owners say enforcement feels reactive, not proactive.
4. Spam orders & checkout abuse
Some merchants see:
- Fake orders used to test stolen credit cards
- $0 or low-value orders that trigger workflows
- Abandoned checkouts created by bots
This creates real costs (transaction fees, fulfillment confusion, risk flags).
5. Limited native controls for merchants
Store owners complain that:
- There’s little visibility into why spam gets through
- Few granular controls without coding
- Blocking IPs, countries, or behaviors is clunky
The vibe is: “Shopify knows this is happening, but gives us duct tape.”
6. Support responses feel dismissive
Some merchants report support, saying things like:
- “This is expected behavior.”
- “Use an app.”
- “Not a platform issue”
That fuels the narrative that Shopify doesn’t take spam seriously unless it impacts payments.
7. Scale works against them
Shopify hosts millions of stores. That means:
- Bots target Shopify specifically
- One exploit works everywhere
- Attackers know exactly how Shopify forms behave
So even decent protections can feel useless at that scale.
The fair counterpoint (because nuance matters)
Shopify does have spam detection, rate limiting, and fraud analysis — but:
- It’s mostly invisible
- It prioritizes payments over forms/content
- It assumes merchants will customize or install apps
That gap between expectation and reality is where the frustration lives.
