Hello,

In a further method to prevent fraud on our service we are thinking about implementing phone verification for countries where the most abuse originates from.

It would work like this:

1. Before creating a web hosting account for the first time, you will be asked to enter in your phone number.
2. After doing so, you will be displayed a 4 digit PIN number.
3. An automated computer program will phone your number and ask you to enter in the 4 digit PIN.
4. After you have successfully entered the PIN you can create as many accounts as you'll like.

It won't cost anything at all.

Would you be put off by our service if we did this?

Jack, Based on all the hacking attempts lately, I certainly understand you contemplating phone verification for new accounts. For me personally, however, I probably would not sign up for a free service that required phone verification. That said, I certainly very much appreciate all your efforts in providing the free hosting services here @Zymic. Cheers .....

Hi,

Any reason why you would not signup? Is it due to the fact you feel your own phone number is considered sensitive information? What if phone number never touches our service, and is verified by a third-party anti-fraud website?

Thanks

What you mentioned about phone# being sensitive information, is one of my main reasons. I'm a bit of a privacy buff and hesitate giving too much personal info, even on paid accounts (just my pov). Cheers .....

I would still signup for it mainly becuase I know how those sort of systems work and usually if people put that sort of system in place there is a reason behind it.
I think a large majority of the community wouldn't sign up becuase of the privacy issue.
Great idea though.

Jacob.

I totally agree with Narzy, It wouldn't bother me signing up by using a phone.

phone vertification wouldn't bother me either

I suppose it would put some people off but they would just be spammers.

doing phone verification would be a great system to be put in place.

I am not sure this phoning will prevent fraud, but it should reduce fraud. It is quite possible to give a phone number of a club or other person's house, or what about a public phone or stolen/friend's mobile phone (used without permission)?

Just a thought.

Well, nice idea. I'll not mind to provide number on zymic, as I'm grateful to this service. But when it's a question of registering new users, I'm not sure, is it a good idea or not. I guess, some people will look for another free hosting solution due to bypass mobile number verification. People are lazy, and bit sensative. Aren't they?

But I think you should introduce this system. ..The fewer the users are, the purest are they .. Sorry for my bad english. LOLz.

It would be a good idea. In my opinion anyway.
I felt cool when google called me, it may have been a computer, but it was still cool.
Plus, it'll be the only phone call I get that isn't from my parents!

I don't have any problem providing you with my phone number, Jack, and I think it's a small price to pay for the splendid free service you provide. I'm sad to see that you're selling zymic, but I can understand as to why you want to move on in this age of so much economic uncertainty.

Regards,

Lost Irish, who resides on the Southern California Coast, and he had a nice phone conservation with a guy at Lunarpages, in our sunny, Orange County

You might consider allowing a single site without requiring a ph#. Give users a chance to testdrive zymic before providing the info. I don't know the typical habits of abusers. If they typically only open a single site it wouldn't help but if they open site after site it may.

Facebook uses that. They text you to validate your account.

I think it's a great idea... how to make it work is a mistery but if it's free !

I see why lots of people won't register tho... :/ but i would.

I would not sign up, because my phone for some reason does not receive many text messages. Many sites that have required text based phone verification have been required to call me in order to help verify my account.

Im happy with phone verification.

That were clearly an improvement to Zymic and overall internet security. There are laws against abuse of data like that. I'm sure Zymic doesn't intend to break these but rather help improving internet security.

So, very fine with me!

Facebook now also requires phone verification for new accounts.
For me, it's a turn off because we joined the forums to share our opinions and ideas and feedback but our phone numbers? Maybe not.

What if we get junk/spam sms into our phones because someone forgot to protect the phone number file? Almost like giving your email. But then email we can just change but to change one's phone number is really a hassle. So in short - phone verification is not fine with me.

You have a point - but at no point did Jack say he was storing your phone number - it's used immediately, we won't need it again, why store it? Much less hassle data protection wise for us then.

swordz

i would be ok with a third party doing the phone verification but not everyone has a phone with SMS so it would need to be sent in an email or put on the screen if ya would like to make open for everyone to sign up. And alot of people us Real verification like for paypal they send you a letter in the snail mail so as to verify your address and there are others out there. It would just need to be handled with care as to not invade anyone privacy.

I think the idea would be to phone, not sms, then have people type into the phone - this would work provided you have a touch tone phone.

swordz

It's fine with me as long as it doesn't cost me anything

I Agree By SMS Would Be Better!

I would still sign up. While we're on that, payment system through phone for commercial services?

It's fine with me as long as it doesn't cost me anything aswell

From my home, where I have a telephone, my only access to the net is VT100 dialup into Unix shell, so it's impossible to view the CAPTCHa needed for opening a new account. So I needed to go to a semi-public computer lab where I can see the CAPTCHa, but don't have my phone handy, and the lab phone is usually unavailable except for emergencies.
Summary: Anyone who needs to go to a public computer lab, such as at public library, might not have any phone handy to accept the callback, so wouldn't be able to get a new account.
My proposed alternative is a pure-text Turing test, whereby you need to fill in a missing word in some text, or somesuch human brain activity, to prove you aren't a bot. See for example UrlGo.

I think its a great idea, however as a new comer I wouldn't sign up. Most of the time I'm looking for a fast sign up that will have me up and running in no time. This security will further delay that process and loose my interest

I have to agree with DroNix. I think it is a great idea, but at the same time, as a newcomer, not only will it take longer, but if you apply for a free hosting account and it asks for a phone number from a company you have never heard before, you don't know what they will do with your phone number, much less who/if they will give it to anyone.

When it comes to new users, people simply aren't educated on the topic. As soon as they see the phone number thing, they'll be afraid of identity theft or some other cyber-scare. I would still sign up, if it directly told me my number was not being stored, and said exactly what it was going to do with it.

I think as long as you say right there on the form what you're doing with the number, people will be more open to it. Although, these days we're told not to trust anything on the net.

No, It would not turn me away (as long as the automated telephone call responded to the common telephone's touch-pad dtmf tones) even though I am not a commercial enterprise here. If I were commercially active here the presence of the provider, ZYMIC, employing anti-fraud measures would be a plus.
In the quest to prevent fraud or maliciousness (or any like in kind) one has to be prudent and responsible (whether destructive information at the hands of an anti-fraud vendor or by non-destructive information in the hands of the host, or vice versa. If a deterrent is set in place a specific notice of disclaimer should reflect such specific deterrent and concise disposition clarification of such information requested as deterrent).
I reason it (non-destructive information, for ZYMIC's deterrent usage only, on a secured storage device) to be an applicable solution due to the fact that the rats will leave the good ship fast and hard for fear of being caught by the cat who they know is coming. (I know that you, Jack, have put tremendous energies in to this realm and hate/loathe to have to clean up after the messing of others who have abused your good name because they are what they are and if this digital solution police(ses) the ZYMIC Neighborhood Community then we are all the more secure for its adoption and/or implementation. I mean, geezes Jack, if your good enough to put this place together there is no doubt in my mind that you, prudently and responsibly, can manage the good folks numbers)

It MIGHT, because I hate things that could potentially give me a lot of phone spam, those just utterly pisses me off. I hate hearing the phone ringing, then running it to see that it's a advertisement, and god-knows-where the corporal people behind it got my number. As soon as I hear some "buy this crap" I usually spam 2 and hang up.

You could ring me to verify. But as I'm already done........

I would be happy for the phone-call to confirm.

Great idea.

I would still sign up, it sounds like a good idea. I have used other sites with phone verification and had no problem with it.

I wouldn't mind at all. IF I had a phone. Which I don't. So this would in fact be very, very terrible for poor people like me, lol.
There's a reason why I'm using FREE hosting, if you get what I mean...

You can actually buy mobile phones for £8 these days. So, not exactly expensive (:

would have np with this as long as its free