# How to handle multiple account?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-handle-multiple-account/15244
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [5월 2, 2014, 1:19오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-handle-multiple-account/15244 "2014-05-02T13:19:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ahmadsoe](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ahmadsoe)
#### Post date: [5월 2, 2014, 1:19오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-handle-multiple-account/15244/1 "2014-05-02T13:19:02Z")
On some big forums, some users have multiple accounts to support their own opinion, get an extra like, get an extra vote on polling or post offensive to other users.
How can we use discourse to handle issue like this?
---
### Author:  [@kpfleming](https://meta.discourse.org/u/kpfleming)
#### Post date: [5월 2, 2014, 3:29오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-handle-multiple-account/15244/2 "2014-05-02T15:29:59Z")
Your question is a bit unclear. Are you asking if Discourse can be configured to allow someone to have multiple accounts with the same email address (so they can abuse the forum in the ways you mentioned)? Are you asking if Discourse can somehow stop someone from doing this?
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### Author:  [@neil](https://meta.discourse.org/u/neil)
#### Post date: [5월 2, 2014, 4:22오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-handle-multiple-account/15244/3 "2014-05-02T16:22:10Z")
Those kind of accounts are called [sockpuppets](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sockpuppet_%28Internet%29).
We try to detect them like this: If a new user (i.e., registered in the last 24 hours) who started a topic and a new user who replies in that topic are at the same IP address, both their posts will automatically be flagged as spam. There’s a site setting `flag_sockuppets` which is enabled by default. Make sure it’s enabled on your site.
It doesn’t look at likes, and sockpuppets replying in someone else’s topic aren’t flagged either. Right now it’s aimed more at spammers who use multiple accounts. One starts a topic, and the other posts a reply that seems legit but links to a spammer site.
You’re describing real people who are trying to make themselves look good, which is different. We track the ip addresses of users, so you can look at the accounts in admin of the suspected sockpuppets and send them a warning or suspend them.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [5월 3, 2014, 3:08오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-handle-multiple-account/15244/4 "2014-05-03T03:08:08Z")
The IPs are visible to admins. So if you see a bunch of users mysteriously supporting each other, you could just look at their admin profile and correlate the IPs.
Eventually you want reports of IPs that have a bunch of users at the same IP, particularly users that tend to like each other’s posts, etc.
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### Author:  [@ahmadsoe](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ahmadsoe)
#### Post date: [5월 3, 2014, 8:33오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-handle-multiple-account/15244/5 "2014-05-03T08:33:53Z")
> [@kpfleming](#):
>
> Are you asking if Discourse can somehow stop someone from doing this?
Of course, I want to prevent someone from having multiple accounts. Why would I allowing this?
> [@neil](#):
>
> We track the ip addresses of users, so you can look at the accounts in admin of the suspected sockpuppets and send them a warning or suspend them.
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> Eventually you want reports of IPs that have a bunch of users at the same IP, particularly users that tend to like each other’s posts, etc.
IP addresses would really help on this case.
Multiple accounts were always a problem in discussion groups and were used quite effectively to intimidate honest user. Maybe, it would be nice if Discourse have feature to detect users with multiple accounts 😉
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [5월 3, 2014, 4:34오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-handle-multiple-account/15244/6 "2014-05-03T16:34:58Z")
Your first line of defense is flagging and admins; the tools already exist to make this visible and handle it. There could be more, yes, but what is there now already works.
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### Author:  [@lenberg](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lenberg)
#### Post date: [12월 1, 2017, 11:04오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-handle-multiple-account/15244/7 "2017-12-01T11:04:48Z")
Is there a way to look up all accounts that has an IP shared by a different account?
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### Author:  [@zogstrip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/zogstrip)
#### Post date: [12월 1, 2017, 11:06오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-handle-multiple-account/15244/8 "2017-12-01T11:06:32Z")
Click the IP Lookup button on the user admin page. It will show all users with the same IP address.
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### Author:  [@lenberg](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lenberg)
#### Post date: [12월 1, 2017, 11:31오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-handle-multiple-account/15244/9 "2017-12-01T11:31:12Z")
Sorry I wasn’t clear enough! I was wondering if there’s a way to get a list of all accounts that have shared IPs with other accounts? I.e. search the users and find all duplicates.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [12월 1, 2017, 10:52오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-handle-multiple-account/15244/10 "2017-12-01T22:52:53Z")
You’d need to do that with a [Data Explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) query, I think. That might be a good query to have in our back pocket anyway @simon
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### Author:  [@simon](https://meta.discourse.org/u/simon)
#### Post date: [12월 2, 2017, 3:01오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-handle-multiple-account/15244/11 "2017-12-02T03:01:33Z")
Running this as a [Data Explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) query will give a list of all users with shared registration\_ip\_addresses. It will exclude users created through the API, or SSO, where the registration\_ip\_address is NULL.
```plaintext
WITH users_per_ip AS (
SELECT
count(1) AS user_count,
u.registration_ip_address AS ip
FROM users u
GROUP BY ip
)
SELECT
u.id AS user_id,
upi.ip AS ip_address
FROM users_per_ip upi
JOIN users u
ON u.registration_ip_address = upi.ip
WHERE upi.user_count > 1
ORDER BY upi.ip, u.username
```
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [12월 2, 2017, 5:22오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-handle-multiple-account/15244/12 "2017-12-02T05:22:37Z")
I don’t think you need quotes around all the field names there, unless the field names have a space?
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### Author:  [@lenberg](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lenberg)
#### Post date: [1월 12, 2018, 2:35오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-handle-multiple-account/15244/13 "2018-01-12T14:35:24Z")
Thanks! Assuming you cannot run queries on hosted instance though?
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### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [1월 12, 2018, 4:21오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-handle-multiple-account/15244/14 "2018-01-12T16:21:32Z")
If you don’t have the [Data Explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) plugin you can run ActiveRecord queries in the ruby console or queries in the postgresql console. Syntax would be a bit different and _most importantly_ the potential for making a mess of things is much greater so _save a backup_ and _know what you’re doing_ beforehand.
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### Author:  [@simon](https://meta.discourse.org/u/simon)
#### Post date: [1월 12, 2018, 9:24오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-handle-multiple-account/15244/15 "2018-01-12T21:24:50Z")
If you are on a Business plan, we can install the [Data Explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) plugin for you. It’s not available on the Standard plan.
---
### Author:  [@candrej](https://meta.discourse.org/u/candrej)
#### Post date: [6월 20, 2021, 8:54오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-handle-multiple-account/15244/16 "2021-06-20T08:54:24Z")
이와 관련하여 작은 질문이 있습니다.
예를 들어, 포럼에서 중복된 사용자가 VPN을 통해 가입하여 IP 주소가 서로 다르다고 가정해 보겠습니다. 그런 다음 VPN을 해제하게 되면, 두 IP 주소를 서로 매칭할 수 있을까요?