Impossible travel
What is an impossible travel signal?
An impossible travel occurs when a user access your product from two or more locations from two different devices within an impossibly short amount of time.
That definition is very nuanced, so let's break it down:
- Two or more locations: The user must alternate between multiple locations.
- Two different devices: If the user uses one device from multiple locations, it is not an impossible travel signal, we assume it's some IP sharing or a VPN.
- Impossibly short amount of time: We define the average travel time between two locations based on the distance and fastest travel method between the two locations.
- No VPNs: If a VPN is detected, we ignore the location and travel time and never raise an impossible travel signal.
How does it work?
Based on the user's or device's travel history, we can calculate the average travel time between two locations. If a user or device travels from one location to another in a shorter time than the average travel time, it is considered an impossible travel signal.
How can I take action?
For automated impossible travel enforcement, you can challenge the account in question by enabling the environment setting for your project.
If you want to manually take action on an impossible travel signal, you can navigate to the account details page for the account in question and review the offending user or devices to determine if they are fraudulent or abusive.
Following your review, if you find that the user or devices are indeed fraudulent or abusive, you can take action by blocking the user or devices or by enforcing challenges on that account.
For more information on challenges, see the challenges documentation.