4 ms·

Twilio Suppending Account for Fraud

3 points by ryansam10 3y ago

Just created a Twilio account for the first time and upgraded it right away paying $20 when they sent me an email that they've suspended my account. In the email they explained I needed to send some information about my intended use case. I've replied explaining I would like to use it for phone number verification and account creation. It's been 3 hours and no response. I might be a little impatient but this seems a little ridiculous in the first place. I haven't even started to read the API docs and just within 10 minutes of creating an account I get suspended?? Has anybody had this happen to them before and know what to do? Is there another service that you've had good luck with? Would it be easier if I just built this service in-house (SMS and phone number validation)? I am a technical founder.

stop50 3y ago
Twilio is popular with legal and illegal uses. Sms and phone sending requires a lot of trust at etablished cpmpanies since it requires explicit contracts between each company for routing calls.
cowsup 3y ago
> Would it be easier if I just built this service in-house (SMS and phone number validation)? If you have to ask, probably not. Ultimately when you’re dealing with large companies like this, you’re constantly being watched by algorithms to see if you’re doing anything remotely spammy. They suspend first, ask questions later. This is not a Twilio-specific policy; you’ll see it with payment processors, social media services, and more. If Twilio doesn’t act fast to prevent potential spammers, the FCC would get really stern with them, so they have to play it safe, even at the risk of annoying their paying customers. Three hours is also not that much time when it comes to this sort of thing; some platforms take a few days, since humans need to look over what you submit.
- ryansam10 3y ago
  Yeah I just figured if AWS or my Bank could get back to me within a few hours that maybe Twilio would too. This is my first experience with an API that has done this. For example setting up other APIs like Apple Notification, Google Maps, Spotify, has always been pretty strait forward. Haven't used Strip yet but maybe they also have this level of security.
chiefalchemist 3y ago
> I might be a little impatient but this seems a little ridiculous in the first place. You're more than a little impatient. Flip it around for a moment. It's a year from now. Twilio has served you well. Would you want them not closely vetting new customers? Customers that might affect Twilio's relationship with mobile phone services? And in turn how well Twilio serves you. Three hours? On a Monday?
- ryansam10 3y ago
  I feel slightly impatient but I got a startup to build and this is blocking me. Yes I have other things in this dev cycle to get done but they all require user phone numbers and verification. Just my experience with other APIs have never had this problem where when you first sign up you instantly get suspended. AWS does this if you request a bunch of new compute instances on a fresh account, but Twilio not even letting me send like a limit of 50 messages I think is weird. Even 10 messages for testing purposes would be fine until their further API account validation process is complete.
  - chiefalchemist 3y ago
    I wish you the best. But you'd help yourself if you came to terms with ...Twilio is a service where its relationships matter. For them. For you. Three hours? On a Monday?? Monday being the day well known to be backed up from the weekend, as well as from ppl catching up on the weekend and then contacting X Service Provider. You're wasting time with this on HN. You're not blocked by any means.
sp332 3y ago
If you haven't even read the docs yet, why are you in such a hurry?
- ryansam10 3y ago
  Because I feel like there's no point in reading the docs if I can't even test my code. Idk that's usually how I learn new documentation.
faeerrie 3y ago
So I work support at a tech startup that uses Twilio on the daily. It's absolutely fundamental for the nature of our service. About last year, every carrier started pushing for TCR registration for 10DLC A2P. If you aren't registered, even if you already had an account up an running, with hundreds of subaccounts, the deliverability of your messages will be shit, making TCR registration practically mandatory. Part of this registration is registering your campaign's intended use along with your business and it's EIN. This use-case includes a description of the "campaign" itself, 2 example messages, if it's going to include links and/or media, and description of how users opt-in. However the crappy thing is that this registration has started to take over 2-3 months b/c it's being handled by a 3rd party and thousands of their clients are flooding them all at once. I should know. I was forced to do this for a way-too-large number of our clients. It says to reach out if you have no update in registration after 7 days, but we were recently told that's been extended to 28 BUSINESS days before we can ask for escalation. Unfortunately, this will definitely be the case wherever you choose to service your campaigns. It's necessary even if it's for simple authentication stuff.
- ryansam10 3y ago
  Are you saying my approval could take longer than a few days? If so I need to think of a do things that don't scale hack around this.
- smswhiz 3y ago
  Certain providers like Telgorithm have built automations and relationships in the industry to expedite the TCR registration and Campaign vetting process, you can read about it here: https://www.telgorithm.com/news/avoid-a2p-10dlc-registration-and-vetting-delays-with-telgorithm/ https://www.telgorithm.com/news/avoid-a2p-10dlc-registration...

3 points by ryansam10 3y ago

stop50 3y ago

Twilio is popular with legal and illegal uses. Sms and phone sending requires a lot of trust at etablished cpmpanies since it requires explicit contracts between each company for routing calls.

cowsup 3y ago

> Would it be easier if I just built this service in-house (SMS and phone number validation)? If you have to ask, probably not. Ultimately when you’re dealing with large companies like this, you’re constantly being watched by algorithms to see if you’re doing anything remotely spammy. They suspend first, ask questions later. This is not a Twilio-specific policy; you’ll see it with payment processors, social media services, and more. If Twilio doesn’t act fast to prevent potential spammers, the FCC would get really stern with them, so they have to play it safe, even at the risk of annoying their paying customers. Three hours is also not that much time when it comes to this sort of thing; some platforms take a few days, since humans need to look over what you submit.

ryansam10 3y ago
Yeah I just figured if AWS or my Bank could get back to me within a few hours that maybe Twilio would too. This is my first experience with an API that has done this. For example setting up other APIs like Apple Notification, Google Maps, Spotify, has always been pretty strait forward. Haven't used Strip yet but maybe they also have this level of security.

chiefalchemist 3y ago

> I might be a little impatient but this seems a little ridiculous in the first place. You're more than a little impatient. Flip it around for a moment. It's a year from now. Twilio has served you well. Would you want them not closely vetting new customers? Customers that might affect Twilio's relationship with mobile phone services? And in turn how well Twilio serves you. Three hours? On a Monday?

ryansam10 3y ago
I feel slightly impatient but I got a startup to build and this is blocking me. Yes I have other things in this dev cycle to get done but they all require user phone numbers and verification. Just my experience with other APIs have never had this problem where when you first sign up you instantly get suspended. AWS does this if you request a bunch of new compute instances on a fresh account, but Twilio not even letting me send like a limit of 50 messages I think is weird. Even 10 messages for testing purposes would be fine until their further API account validation process is complete.
- chiefalchemist 3y ago
  I wish you the best. But you'd help yourself if you came to terms with ...Twilio is a service where its relationships matter. For them. For you. Three hours? On a Monday?? Monday being the day well known to be backed up from the weekend, as well as from ppl catching up on the weekend and then contacting X Service Provider. You're wasting time with this on HN. You're not blocked by any means.

sp332 3y ago

If you haven't even read the docs yet, why are you in such a hurry?

ryansam10 3y ago
Because I feel like there's no point in reading the docs if I can't even test my code. Idk that's usually how I learn new documentation.

faeerrie 3y ago

So I work support at a tech startup that uses Twilio on the daily. It's absolutely fundamental for the nature of our service. About last year, every carrier started pushing for TCR registration for 10DLC A2P. If you aren't registered, even if you already had an account up an running, with hundreds of subaccounts, the deliverability of your messages will be shit, making TCR registration practically mandatory. Part of this registration is registering your campaign's intended use along with your business and it's EIN. This use-case includes a description of the "campaign" itself, 2 example messages, if it's going to include links and/or media, and description of how users opt-in. However the crappy thing is that this registration has started to take over 2-3 months b/c it's being handled by a 3rd party and thousands of their clients are flooding them all at once. I should know. I was forced to do this for a way-too-large number of our clients. It says to reach out if you have no update in registration after 7 days, but we were recently told that's been extended to 28 BUSINESS days before we can ask for escalation. Unfortunately, this will definitely be the case wherever you choose to service your campaigns. It's necessary even if it's for simple authentication stuff.

ryansam10 3y ago
Are you saying my approval could take longer than a few days? If so I need to think of a do things that don't scale hack around this.
smswhiz 3y ago
Certain providers like Telgorithm have built automations and relationships in the industry to expedite the TCR registration and Campaign vetting process, you can read about it here: https://www.telgorithm.com/news/avoid-a2p-10dlc-registration-and-vetting-delays-with-telgorithm/ https://www.telgorithm.com/news/avoid-a2p-10dlc-registration...