Ask HN: How to reduce malicious free trial abuse?

1 pointsby _xnmw3 tahun yang lalu2 comments

I'm starting to get a ton of dedicated malicious spam free trial signups at my fintech startup, these don't appear to be robots so I don't think a CAPTCHA will help. They use the service aggressively during the free trial but don't pay. IP bans won't help either, they seem to come from a large number of IPV6 addresses. Here's what I'm considering:

1. Phone number / SMS verification. 2. Credit card required to start free trial

Any other ideas?

2 comments

bell-cot3 tahun yang lalu

> ...use the service aggressively during the free trial...

Step 1 - Free Trial version has limits. Look at users who do pay for a sense of where to set those limits.

Step 2 - Limited Number of Free Trial accounts. Perhaps with a separate pool of 'em for requests from IPv6's, or based on geography, or ...

nathanaldensr3 tahun yang lalu

Stop offering free trials. If offering them is costing you more than it's gaining, why do it?