Phone Based Identity Verification How My Online Business Finally Beat Spam and Scam
As the Internet becomes a more and more dangerous place to do business, verifying online clients and leads keeps on getting trickier. When I first starting making my online business, it was enough to have a “please provide your name and email address” field to stop “bots” from spamming my inbox with phony product requests. That didn’t last long. Spammers and scammers figured out a way to get around this petty obstacle, and along came the “CAPTCHA” (you know- those annoying little boxes with hard to read letters). Okay, I thought, problem solved. “There’s no way I was going to open up a mailbox full of thousands of false requests again using those little beauties.” Well, that didn’t last too long either.
One way that I do business is by target marketing my products on Craigslist (scam and spam central). That’s where I first came into big problems with identity verification, and that’s where I first saw it: telephone verification.
At last, I think my long journey to operating a fraud-free Internet business is complete! If you’re a casual Internet user, feel free to stop reading now. This article isn’t for you. But if you run an Internet business, and if you’re tired of false leads, spambots, and malicious “users” turning your business into a science experiment, then consider your problems solved.
Telephone verification is a special sort of identity verification that requires users to enter a cell phone number during registration or check out. As soon as this information is entered, an automated voice or text message is sent to the site visitor containing a one of a kind PIN number. The customer then enters this PIN number into the confirmation field and voila- identity verified (or not).
I’ve found this method to be fast, easy, and completely effective at stopping spammers and scammers—even on Craigslist. There is simply no way around the cell phone PIN number solution. Spammers can make thousands of fake email addresses, but no one can get thousands of fake phone numbers.
This service was a revelation to my business. It has basically changed whole aspects of what I do from impractical to ideal in a single fell swoop. There are a few different options, but the telephone verification service I use is called TeleSign. It comes with automated voice confirmation, text confirmation, 50 different language supports, and a whole lot of other bells and whistles. It’s a pretty simple process of installing the service in your web code (my developer did it for me) and then paying a few cents each time you use it. For that, you get a functional Internet business that is absolutely spammed and scam free.
About the Author
Caroline Prosser is Internet entrepreneur specializing in reselling used items through Craigslist and other online directories. She lives in Ann Arbor Michigan with her husband and two beautiful children. Caroline sometimes supplements her income by lecturing and writing articles about how to run a successful online business.
This is her first article about identity verification.
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