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  • Sep 21, 2011 @ 08:10am

    Maybe we are just looking at this the wrong way

    I read just about every comment on this thread. Maybe we are looking at this the wrong way and the solution is much simpler and staring us right in the face.

    1. Make everyone have a phone verified account (no charge).
    2. Disable the ability for people to contact you via email (where most scams originate)
    3. Disable all links on posts
    4. Only have a phone number, the one verified to start your account available for contact information

    This would get rid of most spammers because they would actually have to use a legitimate phone number for contact. I don't know about you guys, but I'm always suspicious if a phone number isn't listed in a post. I just assume its spam and move on. This isn't a new idea, this is how a thing we used in the olden days worked, we called it a newspaper.

    The big point is only have verified information (phone number) available as a communication medium. You could even make a "get contact info" link where you would enter a captcha to retrieve a persons verified phone number for a post.