Kotbo 4 min read
Discord alt accounts: spot members returning with another account
A banned member creates another account and is back three days later: it’s the most common problem on moderated servers. Discord doesn’t link accounts together. In Kotbo, the Suspect accounts page spots arrivals that look like an already-known account, shows the reasons for the suspicion, and lets your staff confirm or reject each link. A suspicion is never proof: a moderator decides
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Why alt accounts are a problem
An alt isn’t always malicious, but most often it’s used to dodge a sanction
- A banned member returns and resumes harassing
- A user votes twice, wins a giveaway twice or skews a poll
- A troublemaker uses a throwaway account to insult without risking their main account
- Staff waste time sanctioning the same person repeatedly
What Discord offers without a bot
Nothing. Discord doesn’t show that two accounts belong to the same person, and a banned user can come back with a new name and avatar. The mod only has their eye. A tool that compares accounts on arrival saves time, as long as it stays a decision aid
Turning on detection with Kotbo
Everything is set on dash.kotbo.fr, in the Suspect accounts page, under Protection
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Turn on automatic detection
Kotbo flags recent accounts on arrival and compares them to the server’s known members
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Set the threshold
The score from which an account is considered suspect. The lower it is, the more cases you’ll have to check
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Pick the roles
A validation role and a sanction role, which you tie to the detection depending on the staff’s decision
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Run a scan
A rescan analyzes members already on the server and shows how many were analyzed and how many suspected
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Handle each case
Open the detection report, read the signals, then confirm or reject the link
The signals Kotbo looks at
An account is never suspect for just one reason. Kotbo adds up signals grouped into families, each with its weight in the score
Creation and arrival
The account’s age on arrival and when it arrived relative to a departure or a sanction
Name and avatar
How much a new account’s name or avatar resembles a known account’s
Invites
Accounts that joined through the same invite, or were invited by the same person
Sanctions and other servers
An account already sanctioned or flagged elsewhere
Technical verification
Elements tied to the connection, when verification is on for the server
Behavior
Writing style, hours of presence and shared channels, only with fine detection
Fine detection, and what it requires
The most reliable clues come from messages: writing style, verbal tics, hours of presence, mention network. To analyze them, Kotbo needs message logging. Without it, only technical, network and timing signals remain. Fine detection is therefore a decision to make knowingly
- Messages are kept for the retention period you configured, then deleted
- You can turn logging off at any time in its settings
- Tell your members in your rules that messages are analyzed
Confirming, rejecting, keeping evidence
Each detection comes with a risk level (low under 30, medium from 30 to 59, high from 60) and a status: pending, validated or rejected
Confirm the link
The two accounts are linked. The linked-accounts graph shows the network and, by hovering a link, the reasons for suspicion
Reject
A false positive is marked as such, and the detection is ignored. It can be restored later
Open the record
The member’s record gathers their sanctions and signals, so you decide with context
Filter and find
Filter by risk, signal type, presence on the server or status, and search by name or ID