
Ask HN: How to control users abusing the free credits and demo - udayrddy
It&#x27;s the 3rd month of https:&#x2F;&#x2F;extracttable.com released to the internet. While it attracted a couple of bulk purchases and 30+ small packs, but I&#x27;m seeing the rise in visitors abusing the service it in 2 ways<p><pre><code>  no signup needed to try the demo - visitors are trying on more than 12+ files per session

  no credit card details requested for free API credits - multiple email accounts are being used
</code></pre>
Do you have recommendations on the services or plugins I should opt to reduce my cost here
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mtmail
Welcome to my world. We're in year 5 and no amount of checking for multiple
signups by IP, block/spam/burner email lists, captchas, questionnaires, email
confirmation, oauth logins (google, facebook) helps. Multiple signups for free
stuff come from students, whole universities (we found our service listed in
several curriculum with "just sign up for free") and Fortune 500 companies.
Record was a user with 100 accounts. Written warnings works somewhat but also
get ignored regularly. After IP blocks our last defense is returning fake
data.

While frustrating we see it was daily business to block some users. Overall it
costs us time but rarely lost revenue. Those users willing to register 10
accounts don't convert to paid accounts much.

Free trials requiring credit card will help, it's more work to setup and will
lower the number of signups.

~~~
udayrddy
> Those users willing to register 10 accounts don't convert to paid accounts
> much

Well, there are instances in our case who are paid users now.

We are operating the service under 50% margin after op cost - our closest
competitor in price, charges 2-5x to ours.

I'm afraid (at least at this point of time) to put the CC requirement upfront.
I may eventually go for it, if we bleed more.

Thanks for sharing your experience

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Nextgrid
So far it doesn’t seem like they’re dedicated attackers trying to abuse the
service but more like legitimate users just using the free service without
concerns for paying because you don’t prevent them from using it freely.

So restrict the free tier to an amount that allows them to try it while
limiting intensive usage, and then ask for a prepaid entry/starter plan for
more (don’t just rely on active credit cards as they can be generated
infinitely - you need to actually take money from them).

~~~
udayrddy
Guess what, the data usage policy has made the difference for us.

    
    
      Data from Purchased Credits neither be used nor shared 
    
      Data from free/promotional/demo will be used internally ;)

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WheelsAtLarge
Add something that will show people how the system works. A short demo or
video that just shows the input and the results. That will cut down on the
number of users using the service just for curiosity.

Also, keep in mind that only a small percentage of the people that use the
system will signup to pay so don't be surprise of the number of people trying
the system for free versus signups.

~~~
udayrddy
The offering is API as a service, unsure if Video amuses me as a developer.

