I got a sign up today for an account from Istanbul. I am very sceptical about some countries mainly from the Asian and African Contentants.

So I wondered how many of you have restrictions in place and is there a general black list that may be of help to me.

I think I am going to reject this account in any case.

David

I'd say most of our business is from obscure places. We even get a lot of purchases from China (followed by angry customers from China who don't realize that their government is blocking their access to a lot of resources).

I don't think I would have a problem with most I wasn't suggesting I would deny the whole of asia, but from experience in internet retail I found most cases of fraud came from places like India and Malaysia.

So I just wondered what were peoples feelings on this topic? I mean I could just accept them and kep an eye on the website and content see what is happening, but it would A) be time consuming and B) not help if it was paid for with stolen money.

Definitely do fraud checks, but be cautious about banning entire countries. A lot of legitimate customers do come from countries that one might otherwise suspect as generating a lot of fraudulent orders.

Automated fraud checking services such as MaxMind can help you out.

Good luck.

-mike

If you do operate in the us, you will also have to avoid any business with certain economic-embargoed countries. For example, Cuba, among others. When ever I get a new client from a different country I double check to make sure Americans can do business with them.

I certainly restrict anything but U.S. customer bases. ALL our business now comes from local sources so when an order comes from out of the country it is probably fraud. Even if it was legit chances are there is going to be miscommunication from not speaking the native language and we wont be ab le to give them a good experience so better to cut losses on both ends.

This type of thing though is all opinion based though, ask yourself where you would like your orders to come from and where to base your specialty and the answer will come to you. The plan above I am sure works in very limited amounts as I basically only like to deal with local clients and do face to face selling and support. They pay more and are less maintenence so its a win win

Thanks again for all the opinions. I am not going to accept this account but I am also not restricting to UK, US only I will accept EU countries but I am going to check the following on non UK/US/CA:

Is native language English.
What do they plan to host on the space.
Can they verify there contact details or business details.

I presume payment fruad will be covered to some extent through the payment processor though i do understand I could end up facing a few losses.

David

You can set up a deal with other companies in countries where you get suspect orders, and redirect prospects to them. For instance us for China :)

You can set up a deal with other companies in countries where you get suspect orders, and redirect prospects to them. For instance us for China :)

It's a deal will you be sending me all your UK customers then ;)

It's a deal will you be sending me all your UK customers then ;)

That would be a pleasure however we get about 2-3 UK customers per YEAR. And they order our China hosting plans (Shanghai server). So unless you have a Chinese server as well...

I certainly restrict anything but U.S. customer bases. ALL our business now comes from local sources so when an order comes from out of the country it is probably fraud. Even if it was legit chances are there is going to be miscommunication from not speaking the native language and we wont be ab le to give them a good experience so better to cut losses on both ends.


:ukflag: And there is me thinking that the US and the UK both spoke English.

:ukflag: And there is me thinking that the US and the UK both spoke English.

About 25% of the world speak english :) still i think he point was he keeps it local. Most of the africans running fraud and online scams speak english too, badly but they do. I supose I will just accept that it is gunna happen eventually.

There needs to be several ways to make sure a new signup is who they say they are. Maxmind type services of course need to be used but with today’s shared hosting prices dropping to rock bottom, spammer’s sign up, send as many emails, set up as many phishing sites as they can until they've gotten the IP blacklisted, used up the resources to the point that everyone else on the server is suffering and calling you.
I went from monthly to annual billing and didn't lose a single client, maintained normal growth, but put a stop to abusive signups.

I know on free signups on x10Hosting we block certain countries that we have had problems with in the past, but we allow them to make a request on the forums to get an account.

Some people are angered by the fact there whole country get's banned and we are being 'racist' again them, but it's for the better...just a tip before you go off banning country's if you do.

we do not restrict any countries, but from some we accept only secure methods of payments

I'm from malaysia. I use US based host because big hosting companies from US generally have better price than local hoster.

And many of my friends have the same view.

:D don't block us please. We can speak english.

Yes us based companies are better than out of the country hosts. Many reasons for that, + they are very trustworthy as well.

Yes us based companies are better than out of the country hosts. Many reasons for that, + they are very trustworthy as well.

Many hosts from countries other than the US are trustworthy as well, I'm sure.

Brandon;5184383']I know on free signups on x10Hosting we block certain countries that we have had problems with in the past, but we allow them to make a request on the forums to get an account.

Some people are angered by the fact there whole country get's banned and we are being 'racist' again them, but it's for the better...just a tip before you go off banning country's if you do.

Yeah for free hosting only plan to let certain countries sign-up as I am doing that for a reason.

To be honest if the people I don't allow started claiming racism, it would only inforce to me that they are the sort of clients I don't want.

It's like the ABC tv channel website will only let US people watch there player, I haven't wrote a letter to them claiming racism though.

I think you have a valid point about allowing them to request an account though, if someone was willing to contact me and obviously show there would be no hardship in communication I would make exceptions.

The only restrictions I have are those that are banned from doing business with the us. Other than that, if they can pass the fraud checks, that I will accept them.

ye well you shouldnt restrict any countries because the more countries you allow potentially equals more customers, if you have a problem with users in a country just block there ips, there is no need to restrict a country.