Multi-accounting: What Industries Are Under Threat And How To Minimize It?

The impacts of multi-accounting are typically understated by businesses. Discover when it could turn into an urgent issue and how to minimize it.

Table of Contents

1. What is multi-accounting?

1.1. The definition of multi-accounting

According to Sumsub, when an individual registers numerous accounts to utilize an online system, this technique is known as multi-accounting. This can be done to remain using the service after being blacklisted or to regularly take advantage of free trials, discounts, and other perks.

It may appear harmless to have several accounts; for example, people frequently have both public and private accounts on social media. Multi-accounting, however, can be employed for a variety of fraudulent actions when it relates to online services. Because of this, businesses should take notice when several accounts are created or accessed from a single device.

Many companies explicitly prohibit having more than one account, but some users find ways to get around these restrictions. In fact, you can find tips on this practice on forums and Youtube videos, which offer detailed explanations on how to multi-account without getting caught.

1.2. Multi-accounting techniques

Multi-accounting approaches can be simple or sophisticated:

Establish numerous accounts utilising separate email addresses along with identical IP addresses and devices (1st level): The easiest way to manage several accounts is in this method. Although tech-savvy users are not required, more experienced ones may use a VPN.
Gnoming (2nd level): After being restricted or prohibited by bookies, professional gamblers turn to this more sophisticated strategy. They frequently use the personal information of close friends and family members to establish new profiles in other people’s identities. In more complex situations, gnomers generate new accounts exploiting emulators, virtual machines, and even residential-like IP addresses.
Employ stolen or false identities (3rd): The most skilled fraudsters use stolen information, made-up identities, or IDs that were fabricated from authentic documents to trick KYC operators into thinking they are new clients.

2. The purpose of multi-accounting

There are several justifications for using several accounts:

Misuse of promotion: Consumers use this chance to benefit from promotional codes, sign-up discounts, and other perks offered by businesses. Several services reward customers who refer friends by giving them money. Users can get affiliate and welcome incentives by opening new identities. However, this doesn’t result in more people using the service.
Counterfeit consumer testimonials: The authenticity of online ratings can be affected when multiple accounts serve as tools to compose countless false reviews, which eventually decreases customer trust.
Bypass restrictions: One of the most frequent reasons for users to set up new accounts under other names is to continue utilising specific services even though they have poor credit histories, driving records, or gaming restrictions. Those with poor ratings on peer-to-peer services, such as online marketplaces, may also be involved in this practice.
Smurfing: This is when a skilled gamer makes a new account to compete with novices. Smurfing is a technique used by skilled players to get points or enhance their playstyle without endangering their primary account. Unbalanced matchmaking is the result, which may ultimately turn away players.

The purpose of multi-accounting

Multi-accounting, in general, causes a variety of issues based on the site platform or service sought.

3. What businesses are affected when using multi-accounting?

Any company may develop into a multi-accounting threat. However, the following industries are especially susceptible:

3.1. E-commerce

Online marketplaces have recently developed into prime candidates for affiliate fraud and deceptive promotion practices. The recurrent usage of welcome rewards, referral bonuses, and discounts from various accounts is represented by this.

3.2. Peer-to-Peer Services

These are distributed marketplaces where transactions are made directly between the buyer and the seller. These digital communities are used by people to purchase and sell items, provide services, and advertise jobs for skilled workers. Fraudsters can use several accounts to defraud others, such as by asking for prepayment and then vanishing with cash or by selling counterfeit goods. These activities have the potential to drive away a sizable portion of loyal customers if left unchecked.

3.3. Travel services

Untrue reviews are frequently written by scammers in the travel sector using several accounts, and huge quantity count on these ratings when making trip plans. So, a single bad review can be pricey for any travel agency. Fake bookings are another way that multi-accounting is employed to gain value during onboarding. Moreover, there are fake identities that mimic actual tour operators.

3.4. Gaming

As dishonest players can make money by buying and reselling accounts and specific resources, multi-accounting has been a major concern for gaming companies. Players can, for instance, register on several accounts to collect free items meant for beginners and monetize them.

4. In which cases can multi-accounting be used effectively?

E-commerce	The Crypto/Airdrop industry	Social media accounts management
Digital marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, and Etsy depend on sellers to remain profitable. When a seller uses different profiles, they can trick the algorithm to boost sales, perform better, and receive better ratings.	Multi-accounting enables users in raising their winning percentage in the cryptocurrency field. Developers will make sure there are no duplicate accounts when users receive AirDrop by checking. In other words, there won’t be any cases when someone uses their several accounts and free coins in an unfair way. Genlogin antidetect browser can be helpful in this approach.	Building several accounts on blogs, websites, or social networking sites involves setting up many accounts and utilising them, is frequently used to raise the popularity of the content. For instance, a company can open numerous accounts on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Use them after that to share, like, comment on, or post content about your services or products. Generate additional accounts through BOT or a third service to engage with the information: By employing the BOT or a third service to create accounts and interact with your material or that of others, this strategy is frequently used to make content more attractive.

5. How to prevent multi-accounting

While fraud controllers can directly identify links, they cannot do it on a large scale. It is crucial to gather all the studied data and filter it using sophisticated procedures. As a result, velocity restrictions, behaviour analysis, and AI-powered rules are the only ways to disclose precise information about whether or not numerous accounts are indeed owned by the same individual.

The following approach is a three-pronged layer of protection, which we think is essential for minimizing the possibility of multiple accounts:

Device fingerprint: This makes it simple to identify when many users are obviously using the same device to log in to your service by producing browser, device hashes, or IDs. Even though it’s not always a sign of fraud, it’s vital to double-check this.
Email assessment: Data enrichment can create whole user portraits from a single data point. This is especially true when it comes to email address criteria like domain legitimacy, creation date, and connections to social media accounts.
Phone number evaluation: To gain a more complete view of your users, you may look up their provider information, location, and social media activity.

How to prevent multi-accounting?

In summary, the goal is to process enormous amounts of data using a system that combines AI and human intelligence while validating recommendations with human experience and knowledge.

6. Some tips for users

For any kind of internet-based organisation, multi-accounting is an urgent priority. It might be easy or difficult, benign or carried out on a scale that only an organised crime ring could do. But, you should empower yourself against fraud with sophisticated methods like IP and device fingerprinting, email analysis, and AI-driven algorithms.

Also, even while not all multi-accounting should be considered fraudulent, you may still use the appropriate equipment to enable your team to assess whether it needs to be stopped or not. Most significantly, you should have the ability to add or remove dynamic verification processes if a user’s browser fingerprint indicates that they may be suspect.

7. Conclusion

In short, multi-accounting in marketing can be used to increase the number of customers or interact on social networking sites, blogs or websites of a business or individual. Besides, multi-accounting is also used in E-commerce which brings much revenue for sellers. However, using this technique can also be considered spam and banned by online platforms. Therefore, businesses or individuals need to use this technique effectively and properly to avoid violating the regulations.

Multi-accounting: What industries are under threat and how to minimize it?

Genlogin