How do I verify a customer actually posted before giving the perk?

Verification matters because without it you'll either get fraud (customer claims to have posted, didn't) or you'll over-trust and lose the data trail when you need it (FTC dispute, refund question, internal audit).

Three levels of verification, from most rigorous to least:

1. Automated platform verification. The customer pastes their post URL into your redemption form. Your system fetches the public post page and confirms (a) the post exists, (b) it tags your handle, (c) it contains the required hashtag or disclosure. This is the gold standard for scale — works for Instagram (feed posts and reels, not stories), TikTok (public videos), YouTube, X.

Limitations: Instagram stories disappear in 24h and can't be verified after the fact, so for story campaigns you need real-time verification (screenshot at point of redemption) or trust-based redemption with random audits.

2. Screenshot review by staff. Customer shows their phone to your server/barista, who eyeballs: did they tag the right handle? Use the right hashtag? Then approve in your system. Fast for low volume (under ~20 redemptions/day), error-prone above that. Works for any platform including ephemeral stories.

3. Honor system + random audits. Customer says they posted, you redeem the perk, you randomly verify 10% of redemptions later. Lowest friction, highest fraud rate. Only reasonable if your perks are very small (free side, $1 discount) where the fraud math doesn't justify checking.

Fraud rate benchmarks: with no verification, 15-30% of "redemptions" are fraudulent (customer never posted). With staff screenshot review, 2-5%. With automated platform verification, under 1% — almost all of that is sophisticated bot networks rather than individual customers.

For most small businesses, the right mix is automated verification on feed posts and reels (where it works cleanly) plus screenshot review for stories (which expire). Social Perks runs the automated layer on every submission and surfaces the screenshot path for staff redemption of story-based campaigns.