DOMAIN NAME CONTROL BASED SOCIAL WEBSITE ACCOUNT AUTHENTICATION

Methods of the present inventions allow for verifying the authenticity of social website accounts. An example embodiment of a domain name control based social website account authentication method may comprise the steps of receiving a request (that may include a business name and a business email address) to verify the authenticity of a social website account, determining whether the domain name used by the business email address is registered to and under control of the business, and—if so—certifying the authenticity of the social website account.