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!

[Kiros72]

Not a problem. I'll update the known issues to include this newly found complication.

Ciao

[Makaveli007]

thanks installed

[physiart]

Hi all, great mod, congrats to Kiros and all coders who contributed to this.

I have a slight problem with the mod. Although it works fine, I never get any PMs when multiple registrants are trying to register; they are only trasnfered to the proper usergroup.

My settings are correct, I have set the mod as follows:

Registration Prevention: Move to Usergroup, Except Banned Users
Silent Mode: No
Ignore Child Accounts: No
IP Address Prevention: Yes
Extended IP Address Prevention: Yes

Multiple Account Reporter: 1 (admin)
Report by Private Message: Yes
Recipients of Private Messages: 1;otheruserid;otheruserid
Report by New Thread: No
Verbose Mode: Yes

I run it on vb 3.8.1 PL1. Why don't I get any PMs?
Any help will be appreciated. Thanx in advance!

P.S. Before that I used the two separate mods that were combined to make this one, and there was no problem with the PMs.

[Kiros72]

The PM reporting is a little different than everything else. You should use the actual usernames (not User ID numbers) when setting the recipients and separate each username with a semicolon.

[physiart]

Thanks Kiros, that did it!

[SnapOff Racing]

is there a way to run a scan for all registered users to match up duplicate ip's and have it auto-ban the 2nd+ account associated with the same ip as the first account?

[BlueNinjaGo]

To be honest, I don't think there is a way to run a scan. But, AFAIK, when a user logs in with an alt, it'll detect it. So say User A and User B are the same person. User B hasn't logged in since you installed the mod. User A logs in all the time. During an argument, User B logs in to back up User A, then it should automatically detect it and let you know. AFAIK, it won't automatically ban/move that user into any group.

This is just from my experience with the mod.

[BlueNinjaGo]

*Feature Request *

Can there be a feature added that notifies new registrants who are moved into a "awaiting moderation" usergroup via PM why they were moved.

Basically, just when someone is moved into the "awaiting moderation" usergroup, it sends him/her a PM explaining why, and instructing the user to PM the Administrator with an explanation.

[Kiros72]

Originally Posted by SnapOff Racing

is there a way to run a scan for all registered users to match up duplicate ip's and have it auto-ban the 2nd+ account associated with the same ip as the first account?

Unfortunately, no. Besides that, such a feature would cause horrible mayhem on larger forums. Many people will have the same IP address when they register because some ISPs (AOL for instance) use proxies.

I might develop something like this to use a time inclusion setting, but I'd need to do some research and figure out how to not lock up the database tables during such scans. So I'm afraid we won't be seeing anything of the sort for quite some time =/

Originally Posted by BlueNinjaGo

*Feature Request *

Can there be a feature added that notifies new registrants who are moved into a "awaiting moderation" usergroup via PM why they were moved.

Basically, just when someone is moved into the "awaiting moderation" usergroup, it sends him/her a PM explaining why, and instructing the user to PM the Administrator with an explanation.

Hmmm, well what I did when I was a webmaster, I set vBulletin to put up a notice for a specific Usergroup informing them that their account was disabled because it was recognized as a multiple account. This is why it's good to have MADP send users to the moderated Usergroup instead of the "Awaiting Activation" Usergroup.

So if you put a notice up for the Usergroup, then they'll be notified every time they're logged in and on every page.

Does that help at all?

[BlueNinjaGo]

Originally Posted by Kiros72

Does that help at all?

I'm sorry, but your use of common sense is disturbing...