How to track duplicates by IP Address?

[Anonymous]

In continuation of this discussion about using custom fields to track duplicates, can someone suggest a workaround to track duplicate IP addresses? I've seen a lot of people come to our website and try to download content with fake emails. Upon realizing that content will be sent to their email, they then fill out the form again using the correct email. This is creating unnecessary clutter and I appreciate any suggested workarounds.

[Grégoire_Miche2 · Accepted solution]

Hi Christina,

Remember that IP addresses should not be used as a duplicate criteria. The IP addresses are public addresses, meaning that they are not the IP address of a single computer or mobile device but rather the IP address of the access point to in internet. This means that it will be the address of the internet gateway of the company if the person is navigating from the office (which even B2C customers do a lot) and the IP address of they internet box if they navigate from home (which even B2B customers do a lot too).

So, I would personally not try to identify duplicates from the IP address.

-Greg

[Anonymous]

Thanks, you're right I wouldn't automate any merge or deletion based on an IP address. I was just looking to perhaps build a smart list but I do see your point.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Like Greg says, deduping on IP is a very bad idea. 2 connections from the same 4G IP, residential cable IP, coffee shop IP, or business firewall IP must not be considered the same person!

The situation you describe is the exact one that's solved by real-time email validation; you can search LaunchPoint for solutions that will detect the use of nonexistent emails before the form is submitted.

Alternately, you can remove the Email field from the form and replace it with a proxy field (call it Email 2 or Proxy Email or whatever). Then all subsequent form posts will be joined to the same lead; there will not be new leads created after they change the email address. Then in a Flow, copy the proxy field value to the system Email field:

It should be noted that this approach is the only way to let leads change their email address from one (legit) address to another (legit) address. It should be in everybody's toolkit because changing email addresses is a real-world need.

[Anonymous]

Thank you Sanford. I agree that it's a bad idea to dedup based on an IP address. I guess I was really just looking to create a smart list to possibly get an idea of how many instances we have dual submissions with the same IP address. Do you have any recommendations for email and other type of validation tools?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Do you have any recommendations for email and other type of validation tools?

Not allowed to make specific product recommendations but if you search LaunchPoint...

[Anonymous]

Thanks.