Chasing spammers: Using the Internet protocol address fordetection

Abstract

The proliferation of reviews evaluating different services on social networks andonline platforms and their importance in consumer decision‐making has led someunscrupulous individuals to take advantage of the anonymity offered by the Internetto manipulate these reviews and influence customers' decisions. The main objectivesof this study are: (1) to test whether spammers usually perform their misdemeanorsfrom the same IP address; (2) to explore whether there are differences betweenstated sexes in this regard; (3) to detect the main motivations for posting fraudulentreviews; and (4) to determine the motivations for doing so from the same IP address.These objectives were achieved by means of a quasi‐experiment with a sample of7,192,487 users, and a qualitative investigation in which 37 users who had falsifiedinformation were interviewed. The results show that spammers who tend to faketheir identity do so from the same IP address and that they tend to be male. Fourtypes of motivation are presented: revenge, entertainment, opportunity for profit,and self‐esteem; as well as a further three to explain the use of the same IP:convenience, limited resources, and complacency.