Multiple account login detector (AE Detector)

If you are like me and migrated from .threads, a common modification was an "AE detector", a simple mod that saved a cookie of a history of ids logged into on your site. If someone logged into more than one account, you got a PM letting you know that your site was being accessed from multiple accounts.

Over the years this was very helpful in identifying users who were posting under multiple accounts (alter-egos!) and users who would return after being banned.

You might be wondering why I don't use the vbcookie call - well, thats because on logout all vB cookies are cleared, so we need to store a cookie that is not effected by the login/logout process.

New Installation
1. Add New Product with attached XML
2. Go to vBulletin Options -> AE Multiple Login Detection Settings and set your specific settings.

Time to install: Easy - 2 minutes.

Upgrade
If you installed this as a Plug-in manually, you can delete that plugin and install this Product, just make sure to go into the Options and set them accordingly.

I hope you find this useful and will click INSTALL if you use it; should it prove useful to enough people I can look at making this installation more automated without the need for edits and an Admin Options page.

To upgrade you will want to reimport this XML file and edit your options accordingly.

1.0.3
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. Added a check to ensure that users weren't deleted when reporting violations
. added htmlspecialchars_uni call to username

Note: I am unable to get the call to construct_phrase with $vbphrase['multiplelogin_alert'] to work reliably, as such the $message variable is still set manually inside the plug-in and not via the phrase. If anyone has an idea of why this might not always work, I'm all ears.

1.0.2
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. Updated to include exclusion groups, users
. Changed so PM is sent by ae sender id

1.0.1
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. Released as a Product (thank you PHPGeek2k3 for your help)
. Added option to post to a forum versus send a PM (or both)
. All settings moved into Admin Option

1.0.0
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Initial release.

[MPDev]

Originally Posted by zagman76

Back in January - this stopped working for me. I have tried uninstalling and re-installing, but no luck. Is there something I can look at to fix it?

I've only found other mods could interfere with this mod; but I am not sure which ones. I did see that the "only post images/links after XXX posts" could interfere with it.

[zagman76]

Originally Posted by MPDev

I've only found other mods could interfere with this mod; but I am not sure which ones. I did see that the "only post images/links after XXX posts" could interfere with it.

yup - sorry for the long delay on this - but that's what caused it!

[94supratt]

I might finally have reason to upgrade from 2.x to 3.x. The "who this user might be hack" on 2.x was a life saver when detecting trolls. While this is not the same hack it will help.

[kollam003]

cool hack thanks

[provedel]

Works on 3.6.7?

Thanks

[EdQ]

Its working for me

[bryanb]

Great hack - it's already nailed a few members. A couple of spammers, and a couple of members who had multiple accounts.

Questions: Since I may have to confront some people that they are in violation of the rules (having more than one account, BSing me, etc.) how can I prove this? Where exactly is the evidence stored? If I'm going to bust someone on this, I have to be 110% sure.

Also, the AE detector indicated that one user has three accounts, but they've been posting with different IP addresses (same country though). Is this like one guy using different dial-up/DSL connections from the same computer?

[NeitherSparky]

Originally Posted by bryanb

Also, the AE detector indicated that one user has three accounts, but they've been posting with different IP addresses (same country though). Is this like one guy using different dial-up/DSL connections from the same computer?

That's what I've always assumed (like using an AOL account to connect, and a Comcast account to connect, but on the same computer/browser). If this is wrong I'd like to know too.

[MPDev]

Probably dialup or some AOL proxy account; cookies are computer specific and do not take IP addresses into account.

[bryanb]

Originally Posted by MPDev

Probably dialup or some AOL proxy account; cookies are computer specific and do not take IP addresses into account.

But if cookies are cleared when the user logs off and then logs on, how does this plugin detect the user having multiple accounts? This is what I need to know. Thanks!