Why should I install the Anatoa service on my website?

Do you own or administer a website where users are allowed to sign up for accounts and interact with each other, send messages and upload images? Are you receiving complaints from your users about fake accounts created by scammers who are trying to harass or defraud your hard earned members? If this is the case, you might want to try out integrating our service with your website to automatically detect and remove these fake accounts.

What does collaborative fraud detection mean?

Scammers tend to move from website to website, creating similar fake accounts where they can. Our service allows participating websites to benefit from fraud detections made by other websites, effectively preventing scammers from establishing fake profiles on your site.

Is this a service for blocking spam?

The quick answer is no. We do not attempt to detect traditional spam, as there are already many good solutions for that available. We are concentrating on detection of fake user profiles.

What is the difference between your free and paid service?

The only difference at the moment is the number of allowed user profile checks against our system. The free service is capped at 1000 checks per month, which works out at about 33 new member signups per day on average. 

What does the service mean for the privacy of my members?

To effectively use our service, your website will have to start collecting IP addresses used by your members. In many countries your website's privacy policy document should be updated to reflect this. Any fake profiles detected or reported by you will have the following information reported to our database and shared with our other participating websites: email address, username, first name (optional), last name (optional), IP address, and any profile images. In addition, any images uploaded by your members, and comments or messages written by them, are checked against our central database.

Which data is collected from my members?

Our free CMS plugins, as found in our download section, will collect the following information from your members and use it in a profile check against our database: IP address, proxy IP address if used, email address or one way hash of email address (configurable), username, first name (optional), last name (optional), registration country (optional). In addition, any images uploaded by your members are compared against our database of pictures used in previous fraud attempts, and any comments and messages generated by your members are checked against our database of known phrases.

Which is the meaning of 'one way hash of email address'?

If you configure your plugin to use this feature, the Anatoa servers will not see the actual email address used by your member (keeping it private to your website). 

Will my members notice that the service is installed?

No, the only thing they would notice is if their account gets automatically suspended or deleted, if suspected fraudulent. All our checks run as background processes and will not affect your members' site navigation.

How does the service work from a technical perspective?

Our CMS plugins implement a SOAP client which communicates with our WebService. New member data is checked against our servers using this WebService, and a "fraud probability score" is calculated using our proprietary algorithms. The plugin will take action depending on this score and the "Fraud detection threshold" which you can configure individually on your website.

My CMS system is not on your list of supported systems, what can I do?

We currently have a list of plugins to implement, which we prioritise depending on popularity and demand. Please contact us if your CMS is on or off the list and we will definitely take your request into account.

I have a custom developed site. Can I use your service?

Yes you can, by using our SOAP WebServices API. We would be happy to help out with advice and technical support.

Do you have an affiliate program?

Yes we do - please sign up for a regular account to access our Affiliates section, where you can find your unique affiliate link. You will earn 20% of lifetime spending for the paid members you recruit!

How to contact us?

We are often available on chat using the chat window in the lower right corner of our website. Otherwise please contact us on email admin @ our domain.