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.

[nvhlinh]

It would be better if the detected multiple accounts will written in a log table in the database (Can also add a search function so that later you can search for user who you want to know that they use multiple accounts or not). And you will not flood by threads and Pms each time.

[Divokymuz]

this is realy the most helpful modification, i ever installed.

thanks for this great work.

[maroceve]

Guys is there a way to disable Vb from putting the messages that AE trips ...When u click on the "get new messages button" ...like so it doesn t get annoying for admins when browsing the latest topics ..

thanks

[Tulsa]

You could set up a forum just for these posts and exclude that forum from the search engine.

admincp > forums & moderators > forum manager > select the new forum to edit > Index New Posts in Search Engine - No

A search of new posts will not show this way. You can also hide the forum from other than admin view so it won't show at all to your users.

[randychase]

This is a great hack.

One issue and one request:

Issue. For some reason, every time the AE Detector reports a violation, it also assigns the same IP to my admin account. If I do a search on my IP addresses now, it shows a lot, and each one is the same IP used by someone that was flagged by AE Detector.

Suggestion, if possible: Set it so that it only announces a violation for a given match, just once. If a husband and wife for example share the computer, then I don't want to see the violation each time. I know I can enter the users as exceptions, but that is more time consuming and also means that a potential violation later by one of those same people would not be flagged.

Thanks!

[Darat]

Originally Posted by randychase

This is a great hack.

Agreed!

Originally Posted by randychase

One issue and one request:

Issue. For some reason, every time the AE Detector reports a violation, it also assigns the same IP to my admin account. If I do a search on my IP addresses now, it shows a lot, and each one is the same IP used by someone that was flagged by AE Detector.

I have this problem as well, my mods may ban me for having multiple sock puppets if I'm not careful!

Suggestion, if possible: Set it so that it only announces a violation for a given match, just once. If a husband and wife for example share the computer, then I don't want to see the violation each time. I know I can enter the users as exceptions, but that is more time consuming and also means that a potential violation later by one of those same people would not be flagged.

Thanks!

I use the create a new thread option and what would be ideal for me would be for it merge all reports into the same thread... somehow I suspect that is anything but as simple as it sounds.

[MPDev]

We tried a workaround for the IP issue, but it didn't work. Because of how the posting section works when you try to post as someone else it's adding their IP to your usernames history.

You would only get one report for a husband/wife as long as they weren't clearing out their cookies; once a report has been made as long as the cookie remains there would be no further reports unless they logged into a third account.

[EdQ]

Still cannot get it to post in a forum. Any ideas?

[RemiAlone]

Mine doesn't seem to work either, is this related to the latest release?

[wacodep]

Originally Posted by EdQ

Still cannot get it to post in a forum. Any ideas?

Works like a charm here .... clicks install.

Make sure your forum ID is set correctly (and the user has access to post there).

Make sure the ID number of the PM Sender/Alert poster is correct (see above).

Make sure the last item of the config is ENABLED ("Enable New Thread Creation on Multiple Login Detection").

Make sure that the usergroup # and/or usernames that you're using to trigger the post/PM are NOT included in the configuration "Ignore" fields.