Visa didn’t create the Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP) to make merchants’ lives easier; it makes their lives easier.
Released in April 2025, VAMP is Visa’s master monitoring program we broke down in a previous article. Think of it as Visa’s way of setting guardrails on a merchant’s transactions: if a business gets too many chargebacks, fraud attempts, or card testing attacks, they get VAMPed.
That comes with penalties, stricter terms, and long-term reputational damage. But here’s the catch: how VAMP affects you depends on whether you’re high-risk or low-risk.
How VAMP Affects High-Risk Merchants
Think supplements, coaching programs, dropshipping stores, or adult platforms are the kind of high-risk merchants whose transactions will always be under Visa’s microscope. VAMP just increases that.
If you’re already in this category, one spike in disputes or fraud pushes you straight into Visa’s escalation ladder.
What VAMP Means for High-Risk Merchants
Stricter Thresholds
Fraud and dispute allowances are tighter for high-risk verticals. What might be tolerated for a large retailer could instantly trigger VAMP for a high-risk merchant.
Heavier Fines
Once inside VAMP, high-risk merchants face escalating fees, rolling reserves, and even potential termination.
Constant Monitoring
Every transaction is scrutinized. High-risk merchants can’t afford “small” fraud spikes because Visa treats them as systemic.
Here’s an example:
Card testing fraud mostly hits high-risk merchants that offer digital goods or subscriptions. Bots flood checkout pages with stolen card numbers just in case they get a hit, and even a handful of successes can destroy ratios.
For a high-risk business, that’s enough to trigger VAMP. So if you’re high-risk, Visa says you’re guilty until you’re proven innocent.
How VAMP Affects Low-Risk Merchants
On paper, low-risk merchants like apparel shops, local retailers, or household goods brands shouldn’t be on VAMP’s radar. But “low-risk” is a label, not some guarantee that you won’t face scrutiny.
VAMP doesn’t care who you are, only if you hit any of its thresholds.
How Low-Risk Merchants Can Get Burned
Transaction Volume Spikes
Sudden growth from a product launch or social media trend can inflate disputes and push ratios.
Chargeback Chains
Even a small percentage of disputes on high volume can trigger alerts under VAMP.
Compliance Slip-Ups
Misuse of 3DS or failure to meet Visa’s fraud-prevention rules can turn a low-risk merchant into a flagged merchant overnight.
Here’s an example:
A clothing brand running a holiday sale doubles its volume. Even if only 0.7% of orders lead to disputes and fraud cases, that ratio is enough to push them into VAMP’s “excessive” tier. Suddenly, a brand with no history of being high-risk is paying the same fines and penalties as industries that Visa has flagged for years.
For low-risk merchants, VAMP is a reminder that no one avoids Visa’s watchful eyes.
How the Escalation Ladder Punishes High-Risk and Low-Risk
Every merchant in VAMP faces Visa’s escalation ladder.
It’s simple: the longer you stay in the program, the harsher the penalties become. This system punishes both sides, but high-risk merchants could face bigger issues.
The Escalation Ladder Includes:
Higher Fines
Monthly fees that grow with each month you spend in VAMP.
Tighter Terms
Shorter timeframes to respond to disputes or fraud attempts.
Reputational Damage
Once flagged, your bank and payment partners see you as a liability.
That causes serious damage to high-risk merchants, meaning you just impacted your relationship with every payment processor. For low-risk merchants, it can mean suddenly being treated like a “bad actor” from a completely unrelated industry.
Don’t think it’s fair? Visa doesn’t care.
Smart Practices to Stay Ahead of VAMP
The good news? Both high-risk and low-risk merchants can save themselves. Escaping or avoiding VAMP requires proactive fraud management, but it’s possible.
4 Steps Every Merchant Should Take
1. Track Ratios in Real Time
Don’t wait for Visa to tell you you’ve crossed thresholds. Use dashboards and reporting tools to track disputes and fraud rates daily. Analyze fraud type data to determine why customers are claiming transactions as fraud.
2. Adopt Advanced Fraud Prevention
Tools that detect enumeration, device fingerprinting, and velocity checks can stop fraud before it hits your ratios.
3. Implement Rapid Dispute Resolution (RDR)
Solve customer complaints before they escalate into chargebacks. It could prevent a chargeback, but it will still add to your VAMP count.
4. Educate Your Team
Chargeback prevention is more than just tech. Staff need to understand compliance and how to stop repeat mistakes.
Whether you’re high-risk or low-risk, there’s only one way to escape VAMP: show Visa you’ve tightened your systems, reduced fraud, and lowered disputes.
Without that, the penalties only get worse.
How Luqra Helps Merchants Beat the Odds
Visa’s VAMP program stacks the rules against merchants. Whether you’re selling sneakers or supplements, Visa will always protect its network first.
Luqra doesn’t believe in letting fraud and chargebacks define reputations. Our system identifies fraud patterns before they spiral, stopping enumeration attacks and dispute chains in their tracks. We work side by side with merchants to implement fixes, fight chargebacks, and protect revenue.
We don’t treat merchants as liabilities like Visa. We treat you as a partner. Whether you’ve been unfairly labeled high-risk or you’re a growing “low-risk” business worried about VAMP, Luqra helps you build the defenses you need to stay ahead.
Stop living in fear.
Contact Luqra to start thriving.
