I am starting a trading site where people list things they have and want. When a match is made they send eachother the respected good. I am using a payment system similar to ebay: Use the site all you want, $2 a trade, and pay at the end of the month through various forms of payment methods.

To keep the site safe and fraud down, I need to somehow "verify" each of the accounts. I was thinking about before their 1st trade they have to enter a credit card which once confirmed verifies their account or another thought is they enter a credit card which matches the billing address to the shipping address they signed up with.

My questions are:

1.) Should I even have this verification process? If not would I get too many fraudulent accounts?

2.) Are there any other ways to verify without using a credit card?

3.) Sometimes making people bust out their credit card causes them to turn away. Is this the best method in verifying an account?

4.) what if they dont have a credit card?

thanks guys, I appreciate any wisdom or insight you have

kind regards

myke

1) Yes
2) You could voice verify them, although that isn't a perfect solution, also have them sign some sort of contract?
3) If they are truly interested in the product it won't bother them as much
4) You could do things in #2 I mentioned.

You could also have them photocopy an ID card and email or fax it..

As i plan on having at least 100 (in the begining) new trades a day, I guess the only realistic way to verify is to use a credit card

That probably makes the most sense. Again it would be good to have them agree to a Terms of Service or something similar.

Should they just enter a credit card and be validated? Or should they enter a credit card that matches the billing address and their shipping address? This would be the most secure, but some peoples shipping addresses may be different from their billing address i presume..

I don't know if it works on its own but you might want to check out fraudguardian software. It checks a lot of variables and gives you a fraud score then you can go by that whether it looks legit.

Worth looking into anyway.