Whether it’s spam, fraud, or even a cyber attack, criminals are using fake accounts to commit a variety of crimes on e-commerce sites, online gaming platforms, and other popular services. And these accounts aren’t just annoying and inconvenient for real users – they can also pose a serious security risk.
Eliminate fake user creation is created by bots that imitate human behavior to pass CAPTCHA fields and two-factor authentication, and then use these false identities to engage in account takeover, phishing, malware distribution, or other cyberattacks. While some fraudsters may create one or more fake accounts to test stolen username/password combinations, others are increasingly using coordinated networks of fake accounts to amplify fraudulent content on multiple platforms, and even manipulate ratings and reviews.
Techniques to Eliminate Fake User Creation
Aside from their direct impact on consumer experience, fake accounts are a threat to data security and privacy. Personal information collected by a malicious attacker can be used for identity theft, sold on the dark web, or used to launch other types of attacks, including DDoS and CPU-intensive operations like bitcoin mining.
Fake accounts can also skew analytics and lead to misinformed business decisions, with marketing budgets wasted on engaging fake users instead of real ones. And when a site is flooded with fake accounts, it can lead to a degradation in overall community health, disrupting the experience for real users and resulting in brand damage. Despite the high prevalence of fake accounts, traditional detection solutions are largely reactive and only detect them after they’ve already been used to commit fraud.