How to reduce malicious free trial abuse?

Question

I'm starting to get a ton of dedicated malicious spam free trial signups at my fintech startup, these don't appear to be robots so I don't think a CAPTCHA will help. They use the service aggressively during the free trial but don't pay. IP bans won't help either, they seem to come from a large number of IPV6 addresses. Here's what I'm considering:1. Phone number / SMS verification. 2. Credit card required to start free trialAny other ideas?

bell-cot · Accepted Answer

> ...use the service aggressively during the free trial...
Step 1 - Free Trial version has limits. Look at users who do pay for a sense of where to set those limits.
Step 2 - Limited Number of Free Trial accounts. Perhaps with a separate pool of 'em for requests from IPv6's, or based on geography, or ...

nathanaldensr · Answer

Stop offering free trials. If offering them is costing you more than it's gaining, why do it?