

How-to: Craigslist phone verification type system - apollo

How would I go about building a craigslist-type phone verification system, which, when given a phone number, either texts or calls the number with a code that the user can use to verify that it's their phone?
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timf
Check out <http://twilio.com> for making voice calls programmatically.

e.g. <http://www.twilio.com/docs/demos/appointmentreminder>

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timf
Note this thread:

[http://getsatisfaction.com/twilio/topics/are_there_any_futur...](http://getsatisfaction.com/twilio/topics/are_there_any_future_plans_to_send_and_recieve_sms_texts_as_well)

... says they are only evaluating SMS at this time but an SMS gateway would be
much easier to find out there (someone in the thread even pitches an option,
<http://www.textmarks.com> )

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fuzzmeister
Using an SMS aggregator such as CellTrust, you could send the user a code
through a shared short code. Or, if you're willing to put up with short ads at
the bottom of messages, you could try TextMarks.

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timf
Looks like textmarks requires the person to subscribe before you can send
messages to them: "To keep everybody happy and prevent abuse, you can only
send texts to subscribers of your TextMark."

<http://www.textmarks.com/dev/docs/send/?ref=devsb>

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timf
sms option to consider: <http://zeepmobile.com>

