Yes, this kind of thing can actually happen. When a brand new or a relatively small store suddenly starts getting a very fast increase in orders, especially from viral traffic sources like TikTok or Instagram, then the automated risk systems of the payment processing companies can potentially flag the activity for review.
If you look at it from the platform’s perspective, you realise that sudden spike can actually resemble patterns which are seen in fraud, card testing, or dropshipping scam, even when your business itself might be 100% legitimate and you might be selling genuine products or services. During the review, the payment platforms, they often request the merchant to share documents such as supplier invoice, fulfillment proof, or warehouse verification.
Even when merchants do provide all of such documents which are requested as a proof of evidence, the final decision can still be fully based on the internal risk model. And unfortunately, the explanation given to merchants in such scenarios are usually very limited. Another issue that merchants actually face in such situation such as payout hold period. When an account is terminated, then the pending payout is not immediately released to the merchant. That money is placed on hold for several months, and this is simply done to cover the potential disputes and chargebacks.
It is important for you to know that the payment processor does it just to reduce the credit risk. While this can be definitely frustrating for merchants, it is a very standard practice across most payment processors. For a business like yours, which is heavily dependent on online sales, it is always safer to build a payment solution that does not rely entirely on a single platform. You should have multiple merchant accounts if you are expecting a lot of sales on your website or from your TikTok page. You should also explore high-risk merchant accounts, as these accounts offer more stable payment processing options to high-volume and risk-oriented merchants.