How an Automotive Retailer Stopped Automated Checkout Attacks and Secured Revenue
Case Study: Eliminating Automated Checkout Attacks and Restoring Transaction Integrity
A leading automotive accessories retailer engaged us to address a severe e commerce integrity issue. Their Woo-Commerce checkout system was being targeted by automated actors generating fraudulent transactions at volume and attempting to simulate real buyers. The attacks originated from multi geographic sources and leveraged mobile device impersonation, cloud infrastructure, and spoofed browser agents.
THE SYMPTOMS WERE BUSINESS CRITICAL
The checkout platform was experiencing:
• Hundreds of fake transactions executing across the checkout API
• Continuous high velocity requests to WooCommerce endpoints
• Database saturation from fraudulent customer records
• Suspicious activity originating from several countries within seconds
• Fraudulent order attempts increased by 1641.67 percent in a 24 hour period
These were not accidental crawl attempts. The pattern demonstrated coordinated automation designed to exploit the checkout workflow.
OUR APPROACH
We executed a structured diagnostic across application, infrastructure, and security controls.
Traffic analysis included:
• Real time monitoring of WordPress and WooCommerce logs
• Cloudflare telemetry correlation against Wordfence analytics
• Review of WooCommerce checkout and order API sequences
The traffic sequence revealed:
• Initial sessions hit /wp-json/wc/store/products
• Followed by add-item, cart update, and checkout actions
• Finally executing approval and creation endpoints such as /ppc-create-order
This validated a programmatically driven mechanism to generate orders without human interaction.
THE FIX
We deployed a multi layer mitigation initiative:
• Cloudflare rules to score and challenge automated traffic
• Endpoint filtering for high risk WooCommerce order paths
• Application controls to block impersonated browser agents
• Advanced bot filtering and origin blocking
• Removal of all fraudulent orders and customer records
The remediation secured the platform without affecting legitimate customers.
BUSINESS OUTCOMES
• Fake checkout attempts dropped immediately after enforcement
• Customer checkout remained fully operational
• Database and infrastructure load returned to normal
• Fraudulent transaction exposure was neutralised
The business regained control of its transactional platform and reduced future vulnerability.
THE LESSON
Attacks are increasingly bypassing traditional security layers by imitating real users and executing valid checkout logic. Modern e commerce environments require layered protection across DNS, firewall, application behaviour, and API traffic inspection. Plugins alone are not sufficient to defend against this threat profile.
NEXT PHASE
We continue to monitor the environment and adjust controls as new traffic patterns emerge. This ensures sustained resilience, transactional continuity, and operational readiness as the platform scales.