What does PVAs stands for and what is the use of PVAs?

[Please note that the content on this page is for information purposes only. Also, note that buying/selling of PVAs is not allowed by any site: so you should never participate in either buying or selling of PVAs. Doing such thing is a direct violation of TOS]

What does PVA or PVAs stands for?

PVA (s) = Phone Verified Account (s)

What is the use/meaning of PVAs?

There are some websites on the internet where users are required to have a phone verified account. PVAs are different than normal accounts as in order to get a PVA, you need to verify your phone number. Some sites support Landlines numbers, Mobile Numbers and VoIP (voice-over-internet-protocol). Support for these three phone types vary from site to site.

Why sites want us to have a PVA account?

There can be different reasons why sites may demand us to have a PVA. One of the most common reasons can be: To Prevent Spamming.

Spammers post so much of their spam stuff in sites and all they need to do is to create an account which may take just few minutes. Some spammers manually create thousands of accounts where some use scripts/tools/software to do this work. Then they use these 1000’s of accounts to spam other sites.

I am talking about Big Sites as they are the one where spammers prefer to work. Take an example of Craigslist: spammers post hundreds of ads in CL in hope to get lot of traffic or they do this as a job given to them by some other person. I have read in some forums where people actually tell others to try this technique as it is a very effective way to get traffic for a site. They actually are telling others to start spamming CL.

Anyway, CL now has limited some sections in their site where only people with PVA will be able to post ads. This certainly will help CL to fight spammers and this will ensure the quality of posted ads.

Can you show us a list of sites where one may need a PV account?

Here is a list of few sites [I have heard that they] use PVAs:

1. Craigslist [CL]
2. Associated Content [AC]
3. Facebook
4. Plus many other sites: including classified sites.

Can you buy/sell PVAs?

According to my information no site allows you to either buy or sell a PVA. You should never participate in such an activity. Selling/buying of PVAs is considered as illegal and a spam activity.