The Only Question P411 Asks

I've been on P411 since June 2015. Of every tool I use to screen, it's my favorite.

Very little is written about it. Search for it and you'll find forum threads, complaint sites, and old arguments about what it is. That isn't an oversight. The privacy is the product.

What P411 is

P411—short for Preferred411—describes itself as a screening and verification service. In practice, it's the layer between me and the inquiry in front of me.

Clients and providers each give their personal identification to P411 rather than to each other. Plenty of people, on both sides, aren't comfortable handing their identity to someone they haven't met, for every reason you can imagine. P411 is the gateway between them.

You apply, you're selected, and from then on it's private. The network inside is enormous, but it isn't a public directory. No one on the outside can look in and discover the part of your life you've chosen to keep separate.

What an OK actually means

Inside P411, clients and providers rate each other on one thing: was this person safe?

That's what an OK is—an answer to "Is this person OK?" It doesn't measure anything else. Not whether he was interesting. Not whether he made a good impression. Only safety. It isn't a review site, and P411 is serious about keeping OKs accurate.

OKs accumulate, and over time they become your reputation in the industry. I've given 413 of them since I joined in June 2015.

Why I'll take a P411 handle over anything else

If an inquiry arrives with a P411 handle and a few OKs, I don't need any further screening. I stop there.

Without P411, I ask for two references from established providers, or government-issued ID and LinkedIn—it's all on my FAQ. A LinkedIn profile is a welcome bonus. But some people don't want to share one, and I don't believe in pushing a client to reveal himself if he'd rather not be revealed. P411's whole design is privacy. I see what I need to see—whether he's OK—and nothing more. For me, that's the most professional way to do business.

P411 also lets you add an optional description of yourself. Use it. If your passion is art, write it in. I want to know that about you before we meet.

If I want to know more, I ask privately. Usually something simple: what do you do? Not as a test. This is a date, and I don't arrive unprepared. If you tell me you're in mergers and acquisitions, I know what to catch up on. Financial literacy happens to be my favorite language, so I might revisit a few books I've kept over the years, or skim the recent news in finance—enough to understand how you make decisions and the climate you're making them in. P411 keeps that exchange optional, not mandatory.

Run by people, not a pipeline

I found out what P411 is really like when I needed to get back into my account, ten years old by then. I wasn't routed through an automated system that didn't work. A person answered. She verified my identity and restored the account over a weekend.

It has the record to match. You don't hear about P411 selling members' information to data brokers, leaking client details, or getting careless with security.

What happens when someone breaks the rules

P411 takes reports from both sides seriously. If a client or provider does something unethical, P411 investigates, and depending on what it finds, may expel them. Because it holds both parties' identification, a banned member can't quietly reapply. An appeal is possible, but only with specific documentation supporting your case.

You don't want to be expelled from P411.

Is P411 worth it for clients?

Very. Your data should be kept secret at all times, and P411 is how you get verified without handing it to everyone you meet.

It's still managed by people, so sometimes there's a waiting list. If you can get on it, do it.

If you're not on P411 yet, the other ways to be screened are on my FAQ—and screening goes both ways. When you're ready to inquire, there's a place for your P411 handle.