Detecting duplicate accounts by device

[pinkteddyx64]

I know somebody who was a member of a forum which uses a heavily customised version of vbulletin 4.0 and they used to create a new account on their Android smartphone every time they were on a different connecton, and would make sure their cookies were cleared before creating the new account then closing and reopening Chrome to ensure that the cookies were cleared. They were using completely different ip addresses for each account but then they were eventually told by one of the moderators that a database analyst ran a check and found x amount of accounts matched to their device.

Is it really possible to detect if a user has multiple accounts not by ip addresses or posting style but by device in particular by doing an database check?

[BirdOPrey5]

Hello,

The default vBulletin software would only allow checks by IP Address and regular cookies, however if the forum is heavily modified they may well include the ability to track devices beyond normal cookies. It is technically possible (Google "Super Cookies") but it is not part of the VB software. You should contact the site administrator for further info.

[bg8npk]

[BirdOPrey5]

I don't understand the purpose of that photo?

[pinkteddyx64]

Me neither. By the way, would it be ok to name the forum that I was talking about at the start of this thread?

[BirdOPrey5]

There is really no reason to. If this was not a pre-sales topic I will close it. We do not have any forums for discussing other VB sites.