Check for fake users

[formicin]

I need a script to check for fake users. Normally I'm doing it my manually checking IP of the suspected user to see if there is another user from the same IP, but it takes a lot of time.

I think this preperty should include:
When a new user registers, check the IPs of other users to see if there is a match. If so, "silently" flag both of the users with the same IP. This "flagged" users can vote for stories, but their vote won't count for the publish.

When the user logins (or votes for a story) this check should be done again.

In admin panel, we should be able to see flagged users, unflag them (for once or always), delete them, ban them etc.

This is very essential for a Pligg site to work "clean". Or we can keep seeing spam entries at published page.

[dollars5]

Kindly be informed that when user are behind a proxy (univ students, corporate users) - they all will come from a single IP and this scheme would only turn to a big hassle for you - hence such checks are avoided for signups.

Plus - having more users to your site is always a value - who in the world would not want more people to signup top their site ;)

If they donot spam your site - letting them go/exists is the best strategy to keep users :)

[formicin]

Yeap, I'm also behind the proxy of my college, that's why this function will be very useful with whitelisting IPs.

But, the fact is users from the same IP generally spams the site and votes their own spam stories.

Having a lot of users is good, but if you want to keep your website more elite, you have to say goodbye to some spammers.

So is this a very hard function to get working properly?

[formicin]

OK, I'm working on this by myself. If anyone is interested, just let me know.

[DrBionic]

did you find a way to check for fake users? My site hasn't even officially launched and I'm getting hit with spam.

[formicin]

no, my programming is limited, so i couldn't do anything useful.