Wicked Cool PHP

#65: Using Email to Verify User Accounts

On sites that have user accounts, some people create accounts just to cause trouble. Perhaps someone will post a bunch of ridiculous comments to your bulletin board or try to overwhelm some other part of your system. A common problem with online stores is that someone may place an order and use a fake email address because he or she doesn't want to be spammed, making it difficult for you to reach that person if you need to ask a question about the order.

One fairly effective way to verify that your users are real is to force them to validate an email address. When you first create the user account, keep it disabled until the user clicks on a verification link in an email message. Accessing the link activates ...