I am interested in offering a free 30 days trial for Virtual Private Servers (VPS). I am wondering what security measures work best to prevent fraud or multiple accounts signing up?<p>I notice cloud providers offering various methods such as credit card verification, SMS code to mobile phone, telephone number verification, email verification (not allowing gmail or free email domains), etc.<p>Does anyone have experience in this area? What kind of verification method worked best for you? Do you have any other thoughts or advice on this business venture?
Although I don't sell VPS services, I personally lease dedicated machines and VM/VPSes for my side-projects.
I guess you want to grab some attention of pretty saturated market by lowering the entry barrier. So what kind of customer do you want to target?<p>As a serious user I don't see a problem to pay a few bucks for VPS which is pretty much a commodity nowadays. Welcome discount or a money back guarantee would be nice but not essential for a cheap plan. However for me the most important is the reputation. For sure I won't handover my own or customers' data to some unknown provider who gives away free accounts to anyone with an email.<p>My previous and current reputable providers asked me for CC and ID/passport scan upfront. And I am absolutely fine with that. I know that my hosted neighbours are also verified and an IP address I get with the machine has low chance to be blacklisted by previous tenant's malcious activity.