Since adding the Associate (free) level of membership, we’ve been stringent in our requirements that everyone using the option provides us with true and accurate contact information. The details provided by each Associate Member are physically checked by a human being, and any that appear to contain false information are immediately deleted.

I see it this way: every Full (listing) Member HAS to provide accurate contact information in order to pay for and display their home exchange offer. Any false details would immediately result in their payments being declined. We are now allowing Associate Members the privilege of initiating contact with Listing Members, but we definitely owe it to our paid members to verify the legitimacy of people using the ExchangeHomes.com to contact them. I don’t believe any paid member would argue with that!

There are other reasons why an Associate Membership could be removed. I will list them below:

1. The Associate (free) Membership hasn’t been logged into and used for a period of 30 consecutive days. We had to implement this programming when we found that the database was becoming bloated with literally thousands of “dead” listings. People were joining, sending out a few contacts, then most likely forgetting about their free memberships.
2. The Associate Member has attempted to do nothing more than “spam” listing home exchange members. Of course, with a programmed limit of only 5 emails for Associate Members, they may claim that spamming isn’t possible. Yes it is. Programming monitors all emails leaving the website for certain trigger actions and then alerts us. At that point we check the legitimacy of the emails and a human being makes the final decision.

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