{"id":7088,"date":"2021-05-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fraudlabspro.com\/resources2\/tutorials\/why-fraudsters-create-fake-accounts\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T18:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:33:12","password":"","slug":"why-fraudsters-create-fake-accounts","status":"publish","type":"docs","link":"https:\/\/www.fraudlabspro.com\/resources\/tutorials\/why-fraudsters-create-fake-accounts\/","title":{"rendered":"Why fraudsters create fake accounts?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Why<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fraudsters are everywhere on the Internet. If you run a website that allows users to create an account in order to access goods or services then you will definitely encounter your fair share of them. For the purpose of this article, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll cover 2 types of such fraudsters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Credit card fraudsters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is the type of fraudster that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see frequently if you run an online business. They will create multiple fake accounts with various email addresses, often using free or disposable email providers. For them, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a form of anonymization to cover their malicious activities. As far as the online merchant is concerned, they are different people because the email address is different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After creating multiple fake accounts, the fraudster will then attempt to purchase multiple items at the website using stolen credit cards. With different accounts and varying email addresses, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s often hard to manually trace the culprit. In the end, the online merchant will suffer severe financial losses from chargebacks by the legitimate card owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spamming fraudsters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Now, these guys are everywhere in forums, blogs, review sites, etc. They are often paid shills that are given the task of promoting some dodgy websites or giving fake reviews to boost the status of a questionable product. They just keep spamming everywhere that they can post their website links as well as any review sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar to the credit card fraudsters, they hide behind the identities of multiple email accounts. Without an automated screening tool, it would be next to impossible to identify all such accounts. Using mass spamming bots, they can severely compromise the integrity of review sites as well as degrade the usage experience of the normal web users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to limit the fake account issue?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the case of the credit card fraudsters, online merchants can use the FraudLabs Pro plugins<\/a> or APIs<\/a> to screen order transactions to root out potentially fraudulent credit card transactions. The highly sophisticated algorithm in FraudLabs Pro, coupled with blacklists powered by feedback from other merchants, makes it a highly effective screening tool to block the transaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since both types of fraudsters rely on fake accounts to perform their nefarious deeds, the use of the FraudLabs Pro SMS Verification<\/a> is another tool to prevent the fraudsters from signing up with multiple accounts. By requiring a mobile phone number to receive the One-Time-Passcode (OTP) for verification, it is a lot harder for bad actors to successfully sign up for multiple accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Deploying the FraudLabs Pro protection is an easy and fast way to limit the potential damage that fraudsters can do to your website and your reputation. With a free Micro plan, there is no reason not to try it out today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.fraudlabspro.com\/pricing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fraudsters are everywhere on the Internet. If you run a website that allows users to create an account in order […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"doc_category":[184,213],"doc_tag":[],"class_list":["post-7088","docs","type-docs","status-publish","hentry","doc_category-general-topics","doc_category-sms-verification"],"year_month":"2026-05","word_count":459,"total_views":0,"reactions":{"happy":0,"normal":0,"sad":0},"author_info":{"name":"Chris","author_nicename":"chris","author_url":"https:\/\/www.fraudlabspro.com\/resources\/author\/chris\/"},"doc_category_info":[{"term_name":"General Topics","term_url":"https:\/\/www.fraudlabspro.com\/resources\/categories\/general-topics\/"},{"term_name":"SMS Verification","term_url":"https:\/\/www.fraudlabspro.com\/resources\/categories\/sms-verification\/"}],"doc_tag_info":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy fraudsters create fake accounts? -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fraudlabspro.com\/resources\/tutorials\/why-fraudsters-create-fake-accounts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why fraudsters create fake accounts? -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fraudsters are everywhere on the Internet. 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