How do you solve a prolbem like Maria

by Mr Rogers

Not this Maria

This Maria

Mission Artists United

• Site for Artists to showcase their work
• 6 years old
• http://missionartistsunited.org

Mission Artists United

Signup requires

• Form with Captcha
• Email Verification/Confirmation

Mission Artists United

Over the past 2 years we've seen more and more fake accounts show up.

At first there were a pile that appeard to come from China who did not get activated. (this may be when I put in the Captcha)

Then a few folks from maybe Germany who got as far as adding art that had an ad for Viagra.

Most recently we got over 500 accounts created in 2 months, almost certainly by real people. They do not have art but they clearly were trying to get the message out.

What to do, what to do?

Seems like a potential client problem that we should, at least, think about.

Possible Solutions

• Phone verification
  Expensive to implement/maintain (?)
• Secret Question that only artists could figure out
  difficult to come up with a good question whose answer is not available on the web
• Invite only/Manual acceptance of new accounts
  Expensive to maintain (man hours)

I need your help to find a solution.

Discuss