Thanks for the response. I understand that fraud is a very real thing and that crooks will do anything to work the system, but the crooks have very little to lose and the merchants have so much to lose, and Stripe wields a lot of power in both instances, so the power imbalance is very real.
Imagine for example that your personal bank account was closed and the moneys held by the bank and you had no recourse other than emailing a general inbox or talking to customer support who can't do anything other than sympathize. Without that bank account you can lose your house, car, and assets. It's a very scary and very real thing. The bank can say that 99% of the time, the accounts are closed due to fraud, but you're that poor 1% (according to the bank) and therefore you're just a casualty of the process. There are harms from crooks and fraudsters, but there are harms to the individuals too.
The main issue is not that Stripe is working hard to protect itself and its customers, but the merchants feel very powerless in these situations. When it takes a massive effort to get attention, especially if you're small and powerless, you feel that you have no control, and that your issues (which might not be fraudulent) will go unanswered. What can the average, powerless merchant who doesn't have the weight of social media, HN, @dang, or others on their side do when their hard-earned money is being held, locked, or otherwise prevented, and when the cause is not fraudulent, or if the merchant is unaware of that activity? The problem is that accounts are just shut down, moneys are held, and there's no quick or clear communication, with customer support simply saying it's not in their control. It's this feeling of powerlessness that's the issue, regardless of whether or not Stripe is in its rights or doing what it feels is in its and its customers best interests.
What can you do to help empower the powerless merchants when their livelihoods are at stake? Can you provide some way to not instantly assume fraud or malicious intent on behalf of the merchant and provide some quick and direct way for the merchant to feel empowered?
If someone is ramping up a new business, say a subscription business that will go from $0 in January to over $1M in just a few months, that would easily trigger a fraud system, but it's not fraudulent, it's just a business that's seeing success. How can the merchant work with Stripe in advance to provide signals that there's something legit happening?