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So, here is what I need to do. I have a web application we have developed with Laravel 4, where people register to gain access to. I use their email as their username.

Here is the catch though. We award our users points for using the website, but we have a daily cap of those points, and if user goes over the daily limit, they are capped and can't receive points no more. The problem is that, we don't want the same user to register multiple times with multiple email addresses and avoid the cap in that way.

I've thought of using cookies for this, but cookies can easily be deleted. I've also thought of using their IP address, but Ip addresses change, and sometimes different users can have the same IP address. So, I am looking for a more fool proof solution. Any ideas are appreciated.

Thanks!

AlexBet
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  • Well, the only solution I can think of, is a combination of IP/cookies/email. But it's not bullet-proof. If you really want to avoid a user from having multiple accounts, you might have to check it's personalities (like a phone-number or a credit-card number). But I guess this is no option. Maybe you should overthink your system? – maja Jan 31 '14 at 18:27
  • You could also set the rule, that a user can only earn points, when he was an active member for x days? – maja Jan 31 '14 at 18:27
  • [Specifically this from the above duplicate.](http://stackoverflow.com/a/170178/509610) – DampeS8N Jan 31 '14 at 18:42

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This related Stack Overflow question has a lot of ideas, as well as a technical rundown of various issues with using unique emails, versus cookies/IP addresses for this. There is also a brief discussion of OAuth further down on the page.

This other Stack Overflow question also discusses the issue, and gives guidance for how to re-adjust your thinking about the original app and why you might want to limit multiple-email signups.

Community
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Megan Squire
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