# \`levenshtein distance spammer emails\` should flag accounts that are similar even if no accounts have been marked as spammers yet **URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/levenshtein-distance-spammer-emails-should-flag-accounts-that-are-similar-even-if-no-accounts-have-been-marked-as-spammers-yet/49858 **Category:** Feature **Created:** [7 בספטמבר,‏ 2016,‏ 10:10pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/levenshtein-distance-spammer-emails-should-flag-accounts-that-are-similar-even-if-no-accounts-have-been-marked-as-spammers-yet/49858 "2016-09-07T22:10:57Z") **Posts on this page:** 1 **Showing post:** 17
### Author: ![jomaxro](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/jomaxro/32/126216_2.png) [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro) #### Post date: [8 בספטמבר,‏ 2016,‏ 12:11am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/levenshtein-distance-spammer-emails-should-flag-accounts-that-are-similar-even-if-no-accounts-have-been-marked-as-spammers-yet/49858/17 "2016-09-08T00:11:28Z")
> [@mpalmer](#): > > The current implementation just auto-blocks the new user, which some might consider overly draconian for having an e-mail address that happens to be similar to any other user on the site. It’d be more palatable if the lookup was done on, say, the last hundred signed-up users, rather than everyone. Tricky to get it dialled in just right, though. Absolutely agree here. Just like my other request [here](https://meta.discourse.org/t/automatically-put-new-accounts-with-the-same-ip-into-approval-queue/49839) I’d like to see this flagged for review, not auto-blocked silently. Also agree that there needs to be a time-period, not forever. 100 days certainly sounds reasonable, and while I don’t have the data to back this up, I’d assume that shortening this substantially (to 7 days even) would likely be effective against most spammers. I’d like to hope most spammers don’t plan ahead and spread out their registrations to avoid detection. --- _[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/levenshtein-distance-spammer-emails-should-flag-accounts-that-are-similar-even-if-no-accounts-have-been-marked-as-spammers-yet/49858)._