Overview
When a customer pays, Frisbii records the IP address of their internet connection and looks up an approximate location for it. You see this information as geolocation in the customer details, the payment method details, and the invoice details. This article explains where the data comes from, how accurate it is, and how to use it when you review payments or handle disputes.
Note
Geolocation is for information only. It shows where the customer's internet connection appeared to come from, not where the customer actually was.
How Frisbii determines the geolocation
An IP address does not contain a geographic position. To show a location, Frisbii resolves the IP address against a third-party IP geolocation database at the time of the transaction and stores the result with the transaction. The location is not recalculated afterwards.
The two values are not equally reliable:
IP address: Exact. It is the public address that the customer's connection used at that moment.
Location: An estimate. It is the database provider's best guess for the address range that the IP address belongs to. It is not a measurement of the customer's position and is not comparable to GPS.
Note
For older transactions, the location was determined when the details were opened, not at the time of payment. For these transactions, the location you see can differ from what the database returned when the customer paid.
How accurate is the location?
The more precise the location, the less reliable it is. Typical industry figures for IP geolocation are:
Level | Typical accuracy |
|---|---|
Country | 99% or higher |
Region | 55–80% |
City | 20–75% (correct means within a 50 km radius) |
The country and the internet service provider are dependable. Treat the city as an indication only.
Why the location can be wrong or misleading
Many common technologies hide or change where a connection appears to come from:
VPNs: The connection appears to come from the VPN server, which can be in a different city or country.
Proxy servers and anonymisation networks such as Tor: The location shows the server that forwards the traffic, not the customer.
Privacy features in browsers and operating systems: Services such as iCloud Private Relay route traffic through relay servers and only reveal an approximate region.
Mobile networks: Mobile operators often route traffic through central gateways, so the location can show the gateway's city instead of the customer's.
Company networks: Traffic from corporate networks often leaves through a central office or data centre.
Shared and dynamic IP addresses: Many internet providers reassign addresses regularly or let many subscribers share one public IP address.
Why the same IP address can show different cities
IP geolocation databases are updated regularly, for example when internet providers reassign or re-register address ranges. Because Frisbii stores the result at the time of each transaction, two payments from the same IP address on different dates can show different cities. The customer did not necessarily move; the database changed. Both records are correct for their own point in time. For the same reason, a lookup you run today may not match what is stored on the transaction.
How to use geolocation
Use geolocation as a supporting signal to spot clear anomalies, for example a payment from a different country than the customer's billing address. Check the country and the internet service provider first, as they are the most reliable values.
Limitations
Geolocation is not evidence of where the cardholder was.
Geolocation does not carry weight in a dispute or chargeback.
To assess fraud or respond to a dispute, rely on stronger signals:
The 3-D Secure authentication result
Whether the billing and shipping address match
The customer's order and payment history