I read something somewhere about how POF checks you when you are creating an account. It said that somehow it verifies such things as your IP, computer name, browser, OS and the directory from where you upload your pictures. It uses an algorithm to calculate similarities. Lately I was also thinking that somehow they do MAC address check as well. It appears to be very detailed. But if a bot could be created that could manipulate all these factors I think it would be a profitable venture indeed.
I have a gut feeling that more than 1 website/social network/etc uses the MAC address to identify a user: but my feeling is that it isn't done via the network per-say. I wish I still had the hardware to verify this myself (I had 32 VMs available to me previously): consider this a challenge for a one-off test ! ...
The dating sites and other social networks have lots of fine print in their agreements that few people, if any, actually read carefully: usually there is a clause that includes verifying identity or confirmation via email or cookies etc. Has anyone analyzed the data stream used when you signup to see if the MAC data is obtained through the browser?
OR . to test another way..
Setup multiple accounts on private IP proxies, all proxies being geolocated in widely differentiated geographic locations, and
using different geolocation enabled browsers and CPU-IDs & OSes, etc to be as different as possible but all accounts are
on the same MAC, (ie do this in VM farm but specify same MAC in all setups == means you can only use 1 VM at a time due to same MAC) and then see how quickly you reach a ban if you log-in sequentially from NYC, LA, Chicago and Dallas in a loop with the accounts setup in those cities.
If anyone can make a definitive test procedure, or would like to discuss, PM me. I would be extremely interested in seeing the results.
I hope I am not considered as hijacking the thread,
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