Craigslist Phone Verified Account

11/2/2009    by John

Back in February 2008 Craigslist created a new type account that is called a Phone Verified Account or a PVA.

To post in the Erotic Services section of Craigslist you needed to have set up a Phone Verified Account.

To create a PVA you input your phone number into a page on the website and Craigslist automatically calls you with a PIN number. You enter the PIN on the next page of the website and you are verified.

The phone numbers have to be either cell or land lines. VOIP phone services and pre-paid cell phones do not work.

The drop in spam postings was significant and the Craigslist blog has an interesting chart showing the drop off in postings.

As soon as the PVA service was installed the spammers started selling Craigslist PVA Accounts. At prices from around $5 per account.

Craigslist then changed the rules on PVA accounts to indicate that they had to post an item within 48 hours of account activation or the account would no longer be active.

One individual reported touring cell phone stores and identifying phones that worked so that he could text the number to an office so that they could use the phones to create PVA's.

The problem with providing a free service is that people abuse the service.