Verification of Travel Records
NomadMania is the only place where highly ranked travellers are verified, ensuring their travel claims are valid. We are also an authority to the people who have been to every country – check out our UN Master List.
In our effort to establish ourselves as the most credible and reliable travel site online, we check our users with regards to the validity of provided travel information on their accounts. Thus, we have developed a special verification procedure of their travel records.
The verification system is our way of ensuring that travellers’ claims of their regions and countries visited are true according to our ‘minimal visit’ requirements. Therefore, a special Verification Committee has been set up to deal with all verifications.
There are three levels of verification:
UN countries- NomadMania regions
- Supreme verification.
UN countries
NomadMania regions
Supreme verification.In all cases, a random sample of countries/regions is given, and the traveller must prove a visit, ideally through visas/stamps, boarding passes, bills and, in certain cases, photographs. Given the wide variety of profiles, the process is adapted to the traveller in question.
Travellers who pass the verification get a badge on their profile.
Read more about each level of verification below.
UN Countries Verification
The NomadMania UN 193 countries verification is mandatory for users ranked 1-100 and any UN Master who claims to have visited all 193 UN countries.
Here we typically choose 40/193 countries, randomly selected, but in practice this always includes some of the most difficult countries on the planet to visit. Geographically hard to reach, difficult visa procedures, or even closed doors for some nationalities, here we are curious how these travellers really managed to visit these ‘hermit kingdom’!
For example: North Korea (DMZ the neutral zone is not a legitimate visit on NomanMania), Turkmenistan, DR of Congo, Nigeria, Somalia (we accept Somaliland), Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Yemen etc.
When the person is verified he/she receives a badge next to their profile.
For UN country proof, there should ideally be:
- a visa (where applicable and requested),
- an entry/exit stamp (as we had cases where visas in passports were not used, so a visa per se is not sufficient proof).
Some countries are no longer stamping passports (Schengen countries for instance) as there is no border control for people among them. In that case, any proof that is accepted in the regional verification would be fine.
If someone arrives/leaves on the same day, we usually ask for further proof, especially in remote and exotic countries, as people could typically just go from the arrival to the departure terminal and never leave the transportation hub, like the airport of a country. In that case, they would have no further proof, no photos, no diaries etc, and the visit would be considered a transit in terms of NomadMania.
39 out of 40 UN countries requested have to be positively proven, 1 could be a mistake.
NM Regions Verification
The regional verification is mandatory for the top ranked 50 travellers.
Class 1 and Class 2 proofs.
In order to pass the regional verification, a candidate should have at least 45 valid. Class 1 elements of proof, the rest could be Class 2. Once 56 regions are successfully proven, there will be no further questions, and the Regional verification badge can be attached to the profile.
In case of geographical mistakes, errors, exaggerated claims, the region or territory has to be deleted. If this affects more than 4 regions, we generally choose replacement regions to keep the grand total in place. We suggest that regions be deleted by the NomadMania team before the badge is awarded.
What is a Class 1 and Class 2 proof?
Class 1 would be:
- Selfies with a prominent landmark
- Serial photos within the region
- Screenshots of diaries describing the trip, ideally with date and places
- Bills of hotels in the name of the traveller
- Other bills mentioning the location and date
- ATM withdrawal mentioning location and date
- Any other valid and strong proof accepted by our team
Class 2 proof would be:
- Friends certifying your trip under trustworthy conditions
- Ordinary photos (not selfies)
- Description of the journey with maps
Supreme Verification
We believe that an enhanced, further type of verification, which we will call ‘Supreme Verification’ can do three important things:
- Safeguard and guarantee the NomadMania name;
- Generate some donations by enthusiastic members;
- Ensure dynamic, ongoing and up-to-date certification of traveller claims.
The Supreme Verification – which supersedes the other two and results in a special badge – is available for anybody who requests it, provided they have already passed BOTH of the other verifications.
For Supreme verification a payment of $300 is required. Supreme Verification is repeated every year; no further payments are needed following the initial Supreme Verification. NomadMania reserved the right to contact members and require Supreme Verification.
Associated Verifications
NomadMania’s verification team also checks the correct entries in the Series, especially travellers ranking high up on World Heritage Sites (UNESCO) list. If necessary, visited sites are added/deleted to reflect the reality on the ground.
Moreover, NomadMania’s verification team also checks the correct entries in the M@P list, especially travellers ranking high up on M@P who rank low on the NomadMania Masterlist. If necessary, visited regions are added/deleted to reflect the reality on the ground.
Finally, NomadMania also conducts the so-called Special Investigative Verifications (SIV) for regions or territories that are remote or very hard to visit, for the users who have claimed them as visited. It will be sufficient to submit a reliable proof within one month that indeed you have gone there.
It could be the South Pole or a remote region in Africa, anything on that level. If there is no response to the request for proof, or if valid proof is not provided, or indeed if it was added in error, the region/territory under investigation will be removed from the profile of the traveller without any further communication.
Dealing With ‘Questionable’ Cases
While we accept our members’ claims, experience has shown that certain people exaggerate their travels, either deliberately or through haste and error. Moreover, following 5 years from the initial regional verification or a sudden major increase in number of regions claimed, the NomadMania verification team reserves the right to request additional proof.
We reserve the right to conduct verification for anyone registered on the NomadMania website, should we believe that the integrity of a profile and its locations clicked as visited are questionable.
In case a mandatory NomadMania verification is refused, our mail request is not answered, or the countries/regions clicked as visited don’t correspond to the reality on the ground, there has to be a consequence.
NomadMania reserves the right to:
- remove a profile until the geographical mistakes are corrected and/or a verification is completed;
- freeze a profile until the geographical mistakes are corrected and/or a verification is completed;
- delete as many regions as the NomadMania Team deems appropriate;
- turn the user’s profile into the ‘Ghost Status’ (read below).
The time frame for a response and completion of verification should not exceed 3 months for UN 193 and 6 months for regional verifications.
‘Ghost User’ Status
This exceptional measure is applied provided that the user is not reacting our numerous approach attempts or fails to prove their travels records but still want to keep their profile on NomadMania in order to keep access to our functionality.
When the “Ghost Traveller” status is applied, the account will be:
- Excluded from all rankings on NomadMania, including our Master Ranking and Series Ranking;
- Excluded from our Country/Region/Dare pages in the sections showcasing members from there or those who have visited that place;
- Excluded from the daily Triumphs section;
- Excluded from the quarterly updated Achievements ranking;
- Excluded from the NomadMania statistics section.
If an account receives the ‘Ghost User’ status, the profile page will remain available but will display an additional ‘Unverified’ badge and will not show NomadMania or country rank numbers.
Voluntary Verification and Certificates
If you’re not subject to Verification according to the terms above you still can be verified and receive a badge.
Specifically for this reason we launched a Certification programme which is a win-win for both parties 🙂
Check out all the Certificate we offer and order here 🙂