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!

[BlueNinjaGo]

Originally Posted by exportforce

If you directly deny a registration they'll figure more fast, that they should do this. If you let them register and instantly ban them, they don't fiddle around much. Don't know why but it works better that way

Why don't you just set it up so the prevention usergroup is "banned" usergroup. That way, any alt (account B) is automatically banned.

This would NOT ban the original account.(Account A) But you would get a PM and/or a thread made, allowing you to manually ban the original account.

If you ban the original account, and the user tries to make another account (Account C), he/she would automatically be banned.

You can do all of that with the built in features.

As for users clearing cookies, using different browsers, or IP addresses, there's nothing Kiros or anyone can do about that. (AFAIK)

[exportforce]

Originally Posted by BlueNinjaGo

Why don't you just set it up so the prevention usergroup is "banned" usergroup. That way, any alt (account B) is automatically banned.

This would NOT ban the original account.(Account A) But you would get a PM and/or a thread made, allowing you to manually ban the original account.

If you ban the original account, and the user tries to make another account (Account C), he/she would automatically be banned.

You can do all of that with the built in features.

As for users clearing cookies, using different browsers, or IP addresses, there's nothing Kiros or anyone can do about that. (AFAIK)

That is what I already do, but I need to have the first account instantly banned too.

[Alfa1]

I added these suggestions to my post, but I am not sure if you noticed them when you posted your reply, since you posted a long post only 27 minutes later.

Originally Posted by Alfa1

Some suggestions:

- After each account:

• Add a link to PM the member. (optimal would be a predefined PM text to be sent)
• Add a link to search the database for all IP's that belong to the account.
• Add a link to add the account to the miserable users group
• Add a link to add the account to 'Tachy goes to Coventry'
• Add a link to ban the member.

- Add a function to ignore the accounts or IPs in the future.
- If an IP is reported, then add the whois.

[bigcurt]

Let me ask you a question. If all I want is for it to report to me cases of IP links/cookie links to a forum..and disable everything else. Should I just say with AE detector or is there something better/more secure about this mod? Thanks a ton for working on it bud.

Curt

[Markos]

is there anyway to stop it to detect Multiple ips cos i keep getting it detecting multiple accounts and they don't even know each other :S

[BlueNinjaGo]

Originally Posted by Markos

is there anyway to stop it to detect Multiple ips cos i keep getting it detecting multiple accounts and they don't even know each other :S

You can disable the IP address part of it and only use the cookie part. If it's just a few users, you can add them to the ignore list...

[bond010007]

great work mate i try it now and installed

[Kiros72]

Originally Posted by bond010007

great work mate i try it now and installed

Awesome. Let me know if you have any questions/suggestions.

[Kiros72]

Quite a few new posts. Let's see...

Originally Posted by exportforce

If it is a matter of money, please tell me a price to get this a bit higher into your priority list.
Maybe as a hardcoded option in a file, so if you really want to activate it, it is not easily accessable through the options



For me not. As Stated. Account X and Y are already banned for being shared accounts. Yesterday someone logged into both accounts with the same IP and browser and the System did NOT inform me about that.
About the detectiontype... in our test the text was missing, now on a real one it showed the detection very well


If you directly deny a registration they'll figure more fast, that they should do this. If you let them register and instantly ban them, they don't fiddle around much. Don't know why but it works better that way

Well, I hate to be "that guy," but yes, money always helps, and I would work on a feature with much higher priority if I'm getting paid to do so.

The reason why it wouldn't have reported the a multiple account is that it only reports NEW detections. That means that if someone creates a duplicate account, and it catches it, you'll get a report about it, but if they keep login in to those two accounts, you won't get another report since it already notified you about the multiple accounts. You know?

Originally Posted by Alfa1

I added these suggestions to my post, but I am not sure if you noticed them when you posted your reply, since you posted a long post only 27 minutes later.

No, I didn't notice your edit. Those are some good suggestions, mate. I'll see what I can do with future versions (it might not all come at once).

Originally Posted by bigcurt

Let me ask you a question. If all I want is for it to report to me cases of IP links/cookie links to a forum..and disable everything else. Should I just say with AE detector or is there something better/more secure about this mod? Thanks a ton for working on it bud.

Curt

Well, the AE Detector does not support IP address checks and it does not have checks for registration. It also uses slower code. My modification is, in my honest opinion, a big step up. MPDev did a fine job, but he/she hasn't worked on that modification in a long time. Lastly, the AE Detector is not as feature-rich and well-documented as my modification. If all you want is reports about cookie/IP linked accounts, then you can use my modification and enable Silent Mode.

Originally Posted by Markos

is there anyway to stop it to detect Multiple ips cos i keep getting it detecting multiple accounts and they don't even know each other :S

Yes, you can disable the IP address checks within the settings (found in the AdminCP).


Also, thank you, Muffin Man (BlueNinjaGo) for the support to others

[BlueNinjaGo]

Originally Posted by Kiros72

Also, thank you, Muffin Man (BlueNinjaGo) for the support to others

No problem... 8 hours at work goes by so slow...

Hope I didn't step on your toes... Just tried to give answers to the questions that I (think I) can answer.