Stop free trial abuse without punishing real users
{ "email": "user+trial9@gmail.com", "deliverability": "DELIVERABLE", "is_free_email": true, "is_disposable_email": false, "is_subaddress": true, "is_role_email": false, "quality_score": 0.80, "is_smtp_valid": true }
Signals that catch a serial trialer
VOIP and burner phone numbers used to clear phone verification.
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How to prevent free trial abuse
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Frequently asked questions
What is free trial abuse?
Free trial abuse is when one person signs up for the same free trial over and over to keep using it without paying. They create fresh identities with disposable emails, plus-addressing, VOIP numbers, and new IPs, so each trial looks like a new customer. It burns compute, skews your metrics, and rarely converts.
How do people abuse free trials?
The common tricks are disposable or plus-addressed emails like user+trial9@gmail, VPNs and proxies to hide a repeat IP, VOIP burner numbers when phone verification is the gate, and virtual cards where a card is required. Each one lets the same person look like a brand-new signup.
How do you detect free trial abuse?
Score the identity at signup instead of after the fact. Flag disposable and plus-addressed emails, check the IP for VPN, proxy, or data-center origin, and look for VOIP phone numbers. Repeat signals from the same email pattern, IP, or number expose a serial trialer before you grant the trial.
Should you require a credit card to stop trial abuse?
It reduces abuse but at a real cost: requiring a card upfront can cut trial signups sharply, including from genuine prospects. Validating the identity is lighter-touch. Many teams skip the card, score every signup for abuse signals, and only add friction to the risky ones.
Does trial-abuse screening hurt signup conversion?
It should not, if you score in the background rather than block everyone. Real users on a normal email, phone, and IP pass straight through. Only signups that look like repeats or throwaways get an extra step, so you cut abuse without adding friction to the people who would actually convert.
What is the difference between free trial abuse and promo abuse?
They share the same mechanic: one person claiming something repeatedly behind fresh identities. Promo abuse is about claiming a discount, coupon, or referral reward; free trial abuse is about re-using a product trial. The signals that catch them, disposable email, plus-addressing, repeat IP, and VOIP phone, are the same.
How does Abstract help stop free trial abuse?
Call Abstract's Email Validation, IP Intelligence, and Phone Validation APIs when someone starts a trial. You get disposable and plus-addressing flags, VPN, proxy, and data-center detection, and VOIP checks as clear true or false fields, so you can block or challenge repeat trialers before you spin up the trial. Start free, no credit card.
