Web hosters often do chose to verify their clients. As a manager of a web hosting, I do ask for certain details, to ensure both that fraud is kept out of the business, and to ensure the integrity of the business.

One business today requested identification of a client. Unfortunately, the client did not have any identification available. The requested identification material could have been:


Copy of the front of the credit card used to order.
Copy of the back of the credit card used to order.
Copy of a valid government issued identification (front and back)
Copy of a utility bill with address and name on it (phone, electricity, gas, water)The client then suggest to an agent that his business partner could verify and was allowed to do so.

The business partner then uploaded a copy of his passport, which has been sufficient proof of identity of a person when it comes down to identification with other hosting providers, however, this reply was given by the agent when he/she examined the uploaded document:

A passport would be helpful if it were you we were getting the verification from. As your verification is purely supplemental, a passport alone isnt really substantial at all
Do you have a copy of a utility bill with your name and address on it?

The business partner does not and asks if there any other means since many options have been exhausted.

What identification documents could you provide now?

I'm not sure how a passport copy isn't a verification of identity. It's actually significantly better than a utility bill.

I'd deny the request and go with someone else. Reasonable verification is a good thing, but being annoying about it isnt.

What does a utility bill provide that a passport doesn't? How is a passport not substantial?

There's a lot of fraud around, but I'm not sure how many "fraudsters" are uploading copies of passports.

More importantly, a passport can't be easily forged, ok, that's debateable, but, who on earth would have a passport forged for that?

Now a days anyone can duplicate one of these pieces of ID (for scanning or faxing purposes). -- Even credit card info.

You can do a reverse lookup on the phone number they submitted to ensure it matches what the local bell company has in their white pages. Then manually call them up. This is a viable solution, if you're only getting a few orders under 10-20 a day. If you're getting more than that per day, I'm sure you're doing well enough to hire staff to do all this manual work for you.

Phone has to be the best way. Scammers don't like their targets to hear their voices at their location.

If I have any questions, in the future, I'll call before approving any order. If it's international, I'll refund the payment immediately. Suspicious orders aren't worth it.

It seems to be pretty obvious, my fraud order today had the city listed as JNDASOGJDA, listed in Germany, and a US zip code. Not to mention the phone number was totally out there.

Doing things like requesting verification by fax is probably a bit much for most hosting situations. Requesting 2 forms is outrageous if you aren't extending a line of credit.

Even if it's International orders, with the rate of VOIP these days, it'll cost you all but $0.10-$0.40 to confirm the order.

Interesting :) I might just use voice!

Phone has to be the best way. Scammers don't like their targets to hear their voices at their location.

If I have any questions, in the future, I'll call before approving any order. If it's international, I'll refund the payment immediately. Suspicious orders aren't worth it.

It seems to be pretty obvious, my fraud order today had the city listed as JNDASOGJDA, listed in Germany, and a US zip code. Not to mention the phone number was totally out there.

Doing things like requesting verification by fax is probably a bit much for most hosting situations. Requesting 2 forms is outrageous if you aren't extending a line of credit.

International phone numbers are generally "out there". When I was stationed in Germany, I had a number like 0621.7234.56236 which, if dialed internationall would look like this 011.29.621..... and another way it is put in would be +49.621....... So that is not necessarily a reason why you should cancel an order.

International phone numbers are generally "out there". When I was stationed in Germany, I had a number like 0621.7234.56236 which, if dialed internationall would look like this 011.29.621..... and another way it is put in would be +49.621....... So that is not necessarily a reason why you should cancel an order.

True, I have though of investing in MaxMind's phone verification service, http://www.maxmind.com/app/telephone_overview, you don't have to do the work of calling, and its 20 cents for US calls. International rates are low as well, under 50 cents for nearly all countries. This is the best way of preventing fraud in my opinion :D

We just had a client who placecd the order and then continued the email communication with our billing department. We activated the domain and then 2CO people told us that it was fradulent. I am stuck with the domain name charges.

Do you think Maxmind would have solved the issue ? Who knows that it is the valid phone number for that person ???

We just had a client who placecd the order and then continued the email communication with our billing department. We activated the domain and then 2CO people told us that it was fradulent. I am stuck with the domain name charges.

Do you think Maxmind would have solved the issue ? Who knows that it is the valid phone number for that person ???

Well Maxmind would verify that that is the person's valid phone number, though it might not solve all fraudulent orders :/