How to stop fake and duplicate accounts in referral programs, rewards and marketplaces
To stop fake and duplicate accounts, make each valuable payout depend on something harder to fake than an email address. Most programs layer phone verification, device and network signals, payment instrument checks and manual review. Those layers stop casual abuse, but phone numbers and devices can be bought in bulk, and AI now writes convincing fake profiles and survey answers at scale.
The Trust Identity Protocol (TIP) by The AI Lab adds a verified person to the check. Creating a TIP-ID requires a government ID and a live face check with an accredited Verification Provider, which makes mass-producing verified accounts slow and expensive. A program can ask for a TIP-ID only where the stakes justify it, such as a large referral bonus, a paid research session or a seller payout, and keep sign-up open for everyone else.
The problem
Where fake accounts cost money
| Where | What goes wrong |
|---|---|
| Referral and sign-up bonuses | One person creates many accounts to refer themselves and collect each bonus. |
| Reward campaigns and giveaways | Bots and account farms claim rewards meant for real participants. |
| Paid research and usability testing | Fake or duplicate participants take paid sessions and give made-up answers, which corrupts the data. |
| Marketplace sellers and freelancers | Banned sellers return under new accounts, and fake profiles sell counterfeit goods or services. |
Every option, honestly
What each option does, and where it stops
These work together. Use more than one, and read the last column for each, including ours.
| Option | What it does | Where it stops |
|---|---|---|
| Email and phone verification | Confirms a working address or number. | Numbers and inboxes are cheap to buy in bulk. |
| Device and network fingerprinting | Spots many accounts from one device or network. | Defeated by emulators, proxies and device farms. |
| KYC with ID and liveness | Verifies a real person with a government ID. | Costly to run for every program, and the user repeats it for every company. |
| Manual review | Catches patterns that automated rules miss. | Slow and expensive at volume. |
| Trust Identity Protocol (TIP) by The AI Lab | Lets a program accept a TIP-ID, issued after an accredited Verification Provider checks a government ID and a live face, as proof of a verified person. | Does not judge behavior or stop a real person from cheating. It raises the cost of fake accounts sharply. |
Step by step
How to put it in place, in order
- Find the payouts where fake accounts cost you most, such as large bonuses, paid sessions or seller payouts.
- Keep sign-up open, and ask for a TIP-ID only at those payout points.
- Record the TIP-ID with each payout, so repeat claims under the same identity are visible.
- Keep your device and behavior signals for everything else.
- Tell participants why you ask, and that checking a TIP-ID never shares their ID documents with you.
About TIP
What the Trust Identity Protocol is
The Trust Identity Protocol (TIP) is an open standard from The AI Lab for proving who made a piece of content and whether it has changed. A person or organization is verified once by an accredited Verification Provider and gets a TIP-ID. Each time they sign something, their own device signs it with a post-quantum signature (ML-DSA-65, NIST FIPS 204) after a fresh fingerprint or Face ID, and the TIP Network records the signature, the time, an origin label and a fingerprint of the content. Anyone can check a record for free, with no account.
TIP does not detect deepfakes, does not stop copying and does not decide whether content is true. It proves who stands behind a piece of content and whether a copy matches the original. It is governed in the open by the AI Trust Council, and the specification is public on GitHub. Signed content is called a Verifiable Asset.
Questions
Questions people ask
How do I stop referral fraud with fake accounts?
Pay valuable bonuses only after a check that is hard to repeat, such as a verified identity, and combine it with device signals and payout limits. Accepting a TIP-ID from the Trust Identity Protocol (TIP) by The AI Lab at the payout step means each claim is tied to a person verified with a government ID and a live face.
How do research teams stop fake participants?
Screen carefully, add attention checks, watch for duplicate devices and payment details, and verify identity before high-value paid sessions. A TIP-ID lets a participant prove they are a verified person without handing their ID documents to every study.
Does a program see my ID documents if I use a TIP-ID?
No. Your ID is checked by an accredited Verification Provider when you create your TIP-ID. A program checking your TIP-ID sees that you are verified, not your documents. Your face image is used once to confirm you match your ID, then deleted.
Can marketplaces use TIP for sellers?
Yes. A marketplace can offer a verified seller signal for sellers who link a TIP-ID, and sellers can sign their own product photos and listings to show they made them. It complements a marketplace's own seller verification rather than replacing it.
What is the Trust Identity Protocol?
The Trust Identity Protocol (TIP) is an open standard from The AI Lab for proving who made a piece of content and whether it has changed. A person or organization is verified once by an accredited Verification Provider and gets a TIP-ID. Each time they sign something, their own device signs it with a post-quantum signature, and the TIP Network records who signed it, when, how it was made (Original Human, AI-Assisted, AI-Generated or Mixed) and a fingerprint of the content. Anyone can check the record for free.
What does TIP cost an organization?
Checking any TIP record is free for everyone, with no account. Signing is free for individuals, nonprofits, schools and universities, government bodies, journalism organizations for editorial use and businesses under USD 100,000 in annual revenue. Larger businesses use a published commercial license, with every tier listed at theailab.org/tip-license.
Other use cases