I'm about to embark on a website build where a company wants to reward new visitors with a gift. The gift has some monetary value, and I'm concerned about the site being gamed. I'm looking for ways to help reduce the chance that any one person can drain the entire gift inventory.
The plans call for an integration with Facebook, so authenticating with your FB credentials will provide at least a bit of confidence that a new visitor is actually a real person (assuming that scripting the creation of 100's of FB accounts and then authenticating with them is no simple task).
However, there is also a requirement to reward new visitors who do not have FB accounts, and this is where I'm looking for ideas. An email verification system by itself won't cut it, because it's extremely easy to obtain countless number of email address (me+1@gmail.com, me+2@gmail.com, etc). I've been told that asking for a credit card number is too much of a barrier.
Are there some fairly solid strategies or services for dealing with situations like this?
EDIT: The "gift" is virtual - like a coupon
Ultimately, this is an uphill, loosing battle. If there will be incentive to beat the system, someone will try and they will eventually succeed. (See for example: every DRM scheme ever implemented.)
That said, there are strategies to reduce the ease of gaming the system.