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!

[nick.dap]

First off, Thank you! for a great module. It makes our lives so much easier.

If I may suggest a feature (sorry =P) to make this module completely automated.

Consider the following use case:

A vigilant user goes in through a proxy and registers 5 accounts within 5 minutes. We've seen it done.

Step by step, what happens:

1. Account 1 is registered, new IP (proxy remember), cleared cookies. We cannot prevent this.
2. Account 2 is registered, the IP is detected, Account 2 is moved to the prevention group, report is sent.
3. Account 3 is registered, the IP is detected, Account 3 is moved to the prevention group, report is sent.
4. ... etc

Here is the problem:

All 5 accounts belong to the vigilant user. The last four are dealt with. However, the first account remains in the "Registered Users" group until we manually ban the account or move it to the prevention group. Needless to say this is not an ideal situation.

Solution/Proposed feature:

• OPTION: Also move existing users to the prevention group - Yes/No
  Yes - Move all previously registered users that are discovered to the prevention group.
  No - Take no additional action.

[BlueNinjaGo]

Originally Posted by nick.dap

• OPTION: Also move existing users to the prevention group - Yes/No
  Yes - Move all previously registered users that are discovered to the prevention group.
  No - Take no additional action.

This was already requested. Scroll up for a response to that feature.

[Kiros72]

Originally Posted by BlueNinjaGo

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.

Not at all

Originally Posted by nick.dap

First off, Thank you! for a great module. It makes our lives so much easier.

If I may suggest a feature (sorry =P) to make this module completely automated.

Consider the following use case:

A vigilant user goes in through a proxy and registers 5 accounts within 5 minutes. We've seen it done.

Step by step, what happens:

1. Account 1 is registered, new IP (proxy remember), cleared cookies. We cannot prevent this.
2. Account 2 is registered, the IP is detected, Account 2 is moved to the prevention group, report is sent.
3. Account 3 is registered, the IP is detected, Account 3 is moved to the prevention group, report is sent.
4. ... etc

Here is the problem:

All 5 accounts belong to the vigilant user. The last four are dealt with. However, the first account remains in the "Registered Users" group until we manually ban the account or move it to the prevention group. Needless to say this is not an ideal situation.

Solution/Proposed feature:

• OPTION: Also move existing users to the prevention group - Yes/No
  Yes - Move all previously registered users that are discovered to the prevention group.
  No - Take no additional action.

Yep. It's already been suggested. Not exactly like that, but it would still do the same thing. Thanks for the suggestion. It might have to wait until version 2.0.0 because unless there is a bug in the current version, I don't think there will be a 1.1.4.

[cozmin]

Is it ok to use this mod for my 3.8.2 forum ?

[BlueNinjaGo]

Yes, it works fine.

[I.am]

Hello sorry just a question but this mod work also if members are using proxy servers?

Thanks

[Raul7]

hi Kiros,
if i only care about login detection and not registration, i can just select no prevention and silent mode doesnt really matter then right?

[BlueNinjaGo]

Originally Posted by I.am

Hello sorry just a question but this mod work also if members are using proxy servers?

Thanks

In regards to IP checking, AFAIK, it won't detect a user who uses a proxy. (There is a mod on here that allows VBulletin to see through SOME proxies.) But the user will have to use the proxy every time they log in, and for every post. If they forget to use the proxy just once, it'll be detected.

And I'm not sure about cookie detection.

[vitrag24]

wht's difference between Multiple account login detector (AE Detector)
mod and this mod?
if difference, then which is better?
shd i keep both or only one? which?

[exportforce]

Yes another one that wants the same I do
First account instaban too! Yes.

I have a problem.
The thing just did not! ban a multiple one

Originally Posted by XXXXXXXXXX

Multiple login detected from ABCABC.

Other recognized logins for this user are:

1. XXXXXX
2. YYYYYYY
3. ZZZZZZ

[ :: Verbose Information :: ]

[ Cookie Information ]

Cookie Used: ThreadRead
Raw Data: ,1234,,12345,,123456,
Clean Data: 1234, 12345, 123456

[ Capture Information ]

Caught by: Cookie

[ Verbose Messages ]

[ Dev Information ]

Verbose Message Bitfields: 0

Yes the two commas are there already I only edited the values for security reasons.
It did NOT! ban ABCABC as it should.