Administrative and Maintenance Tools - Multiple Account Detection & Prevention

It happens all of the time. Some members will make multiple accounts to back their own opinion or get an extra vote in a poll. Here's a modification that will detect and prevent multiple accounts, as well as notify the administration about multiple accounts. Inspiration for this modification came from the work of MPDev (creator of the Multiple Account Login Detector) and randominity (creator of the Multiple Account Registration Prevention). This is basically a combination of those two modifications but with new and improved functionality.

This is not an update to the "Multiple Account Login Detector (AE Detector)" nor is it an update to the "Multiple Account Registration Prevention." If you have either one of these (or both of them) installed, you should uninstall them before installing this modification.

With the initial release of Multiple Account Detection & Prevention, I believe that I have fixed previous bugs/complications as well as improved the efficiency and logic of the code. This is my first publicly released modification. I would appreciate any comments and suggestions!

Confirmed! This works perfectly on all vBulletin 3.6, 3.7, and 3.8 versions.

Unfortunately, I cannot give support right now. I may be able to help periodically, but until my schedule yields some more free time, I won't be much support. Please check back in a week or two.

Basic Details
File Edits: None
Template Edits: None
New Files: 6
Hooks/Plugins: 3
Global Phrases: 36
Install Time: 2 Minutes or Less
Install Difficulty: None, Very Easy

Features and Settings
- Login Detection
- Registration Prevention (Multiple Methods)
- Ignore Child Accounts
- Ignored Users
- Ignored Usergroups
- Ignored ISPs
- Prevention Usergroup
- IP Address Based Prevention
- Extended IP Address Prevention
- IP Address Time Inclusion
- Banned Account Check
- Primary Banned Usergroup
- Cookie Expiration Time
- Cookie Refreshing
- Cookie Name
- Cookie Reset
- Multiple Account Reporter
- Reports via PM
- PM Report Recipients
- Reports via New Thread
- Forum for Report Threads
- Verbose Mode
- BB Codes: LIST, URL, CODE

How it Works
With every newly recognized login/registration, an account-counting cookie is set (or added onto) with the member's User ID. Depending on the settings, Multiple Account Detection & Prevention will analyze the cookie during login/registration to see if there are any multiple accounts.

Login Detection offers cookie-checking and reporting. Registration Prevention offers the same thing, plus more advanced features. First of all, when it prevents an account from registering, it actually moves the registrant to the Prevention Usergroup so that the administration can review the case. This also allows for customized privileges for recognized multiple registrants. Registration Prevention also has IP address detection which finds out just as much information about users. Depending on an administrator's preference, this modification can also reban a new registrant if one of their previous accounts has been banned. In fact, if the administration wishes, multiple registrants can simply be denied registration all together.

Whenever there is a detection/prevention, the modification will report the information to the administration through private messages, a new thread, or both (depending on settings). The Multiple Account Reporter can be any valid user.

Known Issues
- vB Optimise users: Reporting via thread seems to get messed up by vB Optimise, so try reporting via PM instead.
- PhotoPost vBGallery users: The registration handling appears to not work properly when PhotoPost vBGallery is enabled.

From what I can tell, these known clashes have been caused by the other modification's coding. The author of vB Optimise will not even work with me to fix it. Until they improve their coding, I'm not sure if I can do anything about these issues. As far as I know, administrators that do not use the above modifications will not have any problems.

Installation / Upgrade
Unzip the package (madp.zip), upload the files to your forum location, and import the product file (allow overwrite if upgrading). Please read the ReadMe.txt file that is packaged with the modification for more information.

Please remember to mark this modification as installed if you use it!
If you like it, nominate it for the Mod of the Month!

Thank you!

[Rene Kriest]

I'll definitely give this addon a try. Almost anything that sends a forum arzehole to hell is appreaciated.

Trust me, forum trolls and fake user are a plague.

[Forum-Germany]

hello. is it bug-free? or a beta?

[Kiros72]

Originally Posted by MrEyes

I used to use the original Multiple Account Login Detector and unfortunately had to uninstall it as it simply stopped working. So this mod is a god send.

Before diving in I have one question - I would like to run this mod in "silent mode" by this I mean that users will be allowed to create and use multiple accounts but their presence is reported to the mod team by creating a thread is a designated mod forum.

Does this mod allow me to do this?

Somewhat, yes. But you have to trick it. For the Login Detection, it will always just notify you - no user will be moved to any Usergroup or anything like that. To trick the Registration Prevention from preventing an account, turn off the Reban option, and set an incorrect Usergroup ID for the Prevention Usergroup (i.e. an ID to a Usergroup that does not exist). This will still allow the modification to report each incident to you, and it will let you know that the Prevention Usergroup is set incorrectly, so the multiple registrant will not be prevented. I may add an option for this later, but since it has this workaround, this will be at a lower priority.

Originally Posted by alessai

Marked as installed

could you please add one more feature, can you add some kind of a note in the postbit about the other account the user uses?? and when i come to band someone the same thing appear???? because i have about 20 warning a day about multiple accounts and its a waste of time to check each time if the user has another account when i want to band some1

I'll be happy to add in a feature if I can, but I do not understand what you are trying to ask me. Could you please reword your request?

Originally Posted by Rene Kriest

I'll definitely give this addon a try. Almost anything that sends a forum arzehole to hell is appreaciated.

Trust me, forum trolls and fake user are a plague.

I know... Trust me, I know.

Originally Posted by Forum-Germany

hello. is it bug-free? or a beta?

Yes, it is bug-free. The latest version (1.0.1) is stable and there are no known issues, and it should work flawlessly.

[Forum-Germany]

a German translation, there is not it?

[Forum-Germany]

The file in the root "Madp" copy? OKEY, you must also create htaccess?

[blind-eddie]

On my site, I have a few members who live in the same address. If they both take turns on their pc, this will detect them & ban them?

Is there a way to stop that from happening. If not, this could be a bad idea for some boards.

[Forum-Germany]

Kiros72, please help me.

[Kiros72]

Originally Posted by Forum-Germany

a German translation, there is not it?

I'm sorry, but I do not know German. =[

Originally Posted by Forum-Germany

The file in the root "Madp" copy? OKEY, you must also create htaccess?

Upload the folder called /madp/ to your forum directory (like /forums/madp/). Import the product file (product-kiros_madp.xml), and then configure the options. There is no need (no reason) to create a .htaccess file.

Originally Posted by blind-eddie

On my site, I have a few members who live in the same address. If they both take turns on their pc, this will detect them & ban them?

Is there a way to stop that from happening. If not, this could be a bad idea for some boards.

When they login, nothing will be done except a detection report. A user will not be affected unless he/she is registering - in which case, the registrant will be moved to the Prevention Usergroup or rebanned if a previous account is found to be banned. Again, the Login Detection will not prevent a user from logging in nor will it ban anyone; it will just notify you through PM/thread depending on your settings.

If you do not want to receive the notifications for those users who use the same computer, then add one of their User ID numbers to the Ignored Users and enable Ignore Child Accounts. With Ignore Child Accounts enabled, as long as a user is seen as a multiple of an ignored user (or Usergroup), the user will be ignored from any kind of detection.

Would that solve your problem?

[Forum-Germany]

Hello Kiros72.

1st I should therefore have the files directly into the root copy, but the whole folder named "madp"? ok what I understood.

2nd why no htaccess file? dan but everyone can access it or I see this wrong? I do not want a door for a hacker up. do you?

[Kiros72]

1: Your forum root folder is the root that I'm talking about. If your forums are located at www.example.com/forums/, then the forum root is the /forums/ directory. You must upload all of the contents (files and folders) of the 'upload' folder into your forum root.

2: All files in a default vBulletin installation are publicly accessible. There's no reason to make the files private as long as there is no room for an exploit. Since these files contain the plugin code and nothing more, it would not do anyone any good to try to access these files. Therefore, no .htaccess is needed.