Third-party verification (TPV) is a process of getting an independent party to confirm that the

customer In sales, commerce, and economics, a customer (sometimes known as a Client (business), client, buyer, or purchaser) is the recipient of a Good (economics), good, service (economics), service, product (business), product, or an Intellectual prop ...

is actually requesting a change or ordering a new service or product. By putting the customer on the phone (usually via transfer or 3-way call) the TPV provider asks a customer for his or her identity, that he or she is an authorized decision maker and to confirm the order.

Who uses

In many parts of the world, especially the United States, long distance providers,

telemarketing Telemarketing (sometimes known as inside sales, or telesales in the UK and Ireland) is a method of direct marketing in which a salesperson solicits prospective customers to buy products, subscriptions or services, either over the phone or throu ...

companies are required by law to use a third-party verification service while selling products or services over the phone or they may face substantial penalties or criminal sanction. Merchants who take electronic check payments over the phone are required to receive either written or voice recorded authorizations; or anyone else who wants to have third-party companies, lawyers, appointment setting, schools and universities, utility companies, telecom companies,

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...

s, security companies, auto dealers service departments, summer camps, healthcare and hospitals, real estate, travel and vacation, and many more. A TPV provider allows companies to prove that a consumer agreed to almost any kind of sale or other transaction, using either email or telephone or both, and obtain a legally binding instrument in the process. .

Advantages of using

Third-party verification adds an important element of proof to electronic transactions. For example, in a just-completed experimental study of consumer reactions to electronic contracts, over 80% of respondents agreed that a transaction was harder to dispute because the verification was made and held by an independent third party. However, the actual telemarketing sales calls leading to third-party verification are typically not retained. Given this, marketing abuses are often difficult to identify, even with the use of third-party verification. Currently, TPV elements are used in complex verification and approval of different web transactions in conjunction with

address verification service An address verification service (AVS) is a service provided by major credit card processors to enable merchants to Credit card hijacking, authenticate ownership of a credit or debit card used by a customer. AVS is done as part of the merchant's ...

s provided by credit card companies, IP geolocation, phone type identifying (land line, mobile,

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

etc.).

References

{{reflist Telemarketing