Thread: how to prevent misuse of service?

I'm providing a subscription-based service.

When a user registered with me (I only collect his name and email), I will give him a two-weeks free trial of my service. At the end of the two weeks, he will only continue receiving my service if he pay for it.

There are some users who may after the two-week free trial, cancel his account, re-register with a different name and email to receive the two weeks free trial again and the cycle continue.

How can I minimize such misuse?

Well- you could have the php script that processes your form collect the IP address of the sender. That way- if you suspect that this is occuring, you can compare the IP addresses and if they are the same, deny service.
Additionally, once it is detected that this person is doing this- you could modify the script to not process any requests coming from that IP address.

Be mindful that if a person signs up from a computer at their work- there may be over a hundred computers with that same IP address. So if they tell a friend and they also sign up from work- it could appear that the same person is abusing the free service.

That is why it is important to get additional information such as address, contact number etc... They would be less likely to provide that much false info.

Thats my two cents worth. There may be better methods out there that I am unaware of. But that would get you started.

Andy

I don't know of any programs or anything, but I can only imagine there must be something to track the ip of the computer and this would be the way to track this ... perhaps, do a search for "ip tracker" .... maybe something will show up under this ....

hi Andy,

How do I capture the sender's IP address using the php script?

KG

Yes, IP tracking and storing is one of the possible measures. However, even if you log in from the same computer, most ISPs use dynamically changing IP addresses, and they have HUNDREDS ot THUSANDS, so it becomes practically impossible to trace a customer (he's IP address changes continously).

Thanks for all your kind help. will think of alternate ways to minimize the misuse.

KG

how about email address? There are still ways around it but it could be a start to stopping many small timers.

Originally Posted by econstas

how about email address? There are still ways around it but it could be a start to stopping many small timers.

?? Please explain.