In order to make trading in SIM card verifications transparent, scientists have developed the “Cambridge Online Trust and Safety Index” (COTSI), which records daily prices for SMS verifications for 197 countries and more than 500 platforms.
Bot prices rise ahead of national elections
Using the COTSI data, which is available for free on the web at cotsi.org, the scientists were also able to find out whether and how the market reacts to political events. To this end, price data for eight social media platforms (Google/YouTube/Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, WhatsApp, TikTok, LinkedIn and Telegram) were analyzed in the run-up to 61 national elections. It turns out that SMS verification prices for Telegram and WhatsApp app increase noticeably in the 30 days before a national election. The prices for Telegram verifications increased by an average of 12 percent, and for WhatsApp it was plus 15 percent. On the other six platforms, however, prices remained stable.
The costs for SMS verification also depend on the country of origin of the SIM cards used. Verifications with SIM cards from Japan were particularly expensive, with an average price of $4.93, followed by Australia ($3.24), Turkey ($2.54) and Malta ($2.18). Cheap SIM card origin countries include the United States at 26 US cents, Great Britain at 10 cents and Russia at 8 cents per verification. Germany is in the middle. If a SIM card is assigned to one of the four German mobile networks (Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Telefónica O2 and 1&1) for verification, an average of 63 cents is due for verification.