This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Howard Shaw
I recently faced a problem on my SaaS (DocBeacon, for document sharing & tracking): a few new accounts uploaded documents with malicious QR codes that redirected to phishing sites.
The scale wasn’t huge (700–800 visits over 2 days), but it was serious enough to highlight how easily abuse can happen.
What I’ve already implemented:
Human verification at signup (Cloudflare Turnstile)
Email verification
A “Report Abuse” button on every shared page
But here’s where I’d love advice from the community:
For indie devs, what lightweight safeguards actually work?
Do you recommend publishing an “Abuse Policy” page even with a small user base?
How do you balance preventing abuse with keeping onboarding smooth? - I had to lower the visit limit for each share to prevent a harmful share that can be easily created from spreading widely.
Abuse is inevitable for any platform, but I think indie founders can learn a lot from each other.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Howard Shaw
Howard Shaw | Sciencx (2025-10-03T12:18:34+00:00) Fighting phishing abuse as a solo SaaS founder — what works?. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/10/03/fighting-phishing-abuse-as-a-solo-saas-founder-what-works/
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