You can ban visitors so that they can't access the widget and chat with agents. Visitors can be added to the banned visitor list directly from a chat, or from the Chat dashboard. You can view, search, and add users to the Banned Visitors list through the Banned settings page.
This article contains the following topics:
Banning visitors
You can ban unlimited visitors, and up to 5,000 IP addresses. If the number of banned IP addresses exceeds 5,000, the oldest banned IP address is removed from the list and is no longer banned.
There are two ways to ban a visitor:
- Directly from a chat:
This
method prevents visitors from avoiding the ban with proxies or VPNs, but they
might still be able to get through it on another browser.
After selecting Ban Visitor from the chat, you also have the choice of banning the visitor's IP address at the same time, as described in the steps below.
-
Adding the IP address to the Banned Visitors list: This option stops banned visitors from gaining access just through another browser, but it also doesn't prevent them from using a proxy or VPN.
To ban a visitor directly from a chat
- From the chat window, select Ban Visitor from the Actions
drop-down menu.
- Optional: Enter a reason in the Reason field.
- Optional: If you want to also ban the visitor's IP address, select the Also ban visitor's IP address check box.
- Click Ban User.
To ban a visitor by IP address
- From the dashboard, select Settings > Banned.
- To add a visitor's IP to the list, click Add Visitor.
- Enter an IP address and a reason.
- Click Create Ban.
Viewing and managing banned visitors
Banned visitors are listed on the Banned settings page.
On the Banned settings page you can:
- View all banned visitors
- Search the banned visitors list
- Add visitors to the banned list by IP address (described in the previous section)
- Remove visitors from the banned list
By default, the banned visitors list displays 10,000 entries (5,000 each for visitors and IP addresses). Using the Chat API, you can extend this to display up to 5,000 banned IP addresses and unlimited banned visitors. See Bans in our developer documentation.
To access the Banned settings page and view banned visitors
- From the dashboard, select Settings > Banned.
A list of all banned visitors is displayed. The list includes the following columns:
- Visitor/IP address, the name of the banned user or banned IP address
- Reason, the description given for banning the user/IP address
- Date created, the date the user/IP address was banned
You can display only banned IP addresses, or only banned individual visitors, by using the Filter drop-down menu at the top of the page.
To search the banned visitors list
- Go to the Banned settings page.
- In the Search box, enter one or more keywords to search for.
- As you type, the list displays only banned IP addresses or visitors with the search terms in their name, IP address, or reason for banning.
To remove a visitor from the ban list
- From the Banned settings page, select the check box next to the visitor's name or IP address.
- Click the Delete Selected button that appears at the top of the list.
- Click Delete on the window that appears.
16 Comments
So after you banned a visitor by this Cookie method or by IP or both. What is the User experience when they come to the Chat Widget next time???
Does it tell them they are banned or will the widget never appear to them anymore?
Please post a screen capture example of what it looks like.
If it does communicate that they are banned can this text be changed?
Thanks.
I'm wondering the same as Ronald - how does the banned requester experience coming back after the ban?
We use the Web widget for chat, webform and self-help, will a ban hide the widget entirely or simply suppress their access to chat?
Thanks!
Hi Ronald and Jacob,
Good question. If you are using the Chat standalone widget/Web SDK/Mobile SDK and you ban the visitor or use country blacklist settings and the visitor is from a blacklisted country, the widget will not load on the website (no UI) and the Web SDK/Mobile SDK will fail to establish a connection.
The copy of the error in the Mobile SDK does not say they have been banned, just says there is an error connecting the visitor.
For the Web Widget when the contact form or help center is turned on along with Chat, the banned visitor will remain to see the Web Widget but will not see the Chat option in the contact options dropdown.
Hope that clarifies the product behaviour across the different widgets and SDKs. Let me know if you have any follow up questions.
Thanks,
Ramin
HI there, I have a question regarding banning a visitor.
How can I ban visitor post chat? NOT via API or IP?
Use case:
If I agents feel there is a visitor that needs to be reviewed, they pass the ticket over to our Fraud department.
The Fraud department will then review the visitor and take the necessary action. Suspend the user in Support, block the number in Talk ..... but how do they do it in Chat?
Thanks,
Lance
Hi Lance,
Currently, there is no way to do a visitor ID ban post chat. You can do an IP ban post chat and if you want to do a visitor ban instead, the only workaround is to use the REST API: https://developer.zendesk.com/rest_api/docs/chat/bans#create-ban
When you do a visitor ID, it bans the ID associated with the cookie in the browser. If the person uses another device or browser, the widget will appear for them. IP address bans are more permanent but might not be applicable if the IP address is shared with a building or institution.
If you need help using the REST APIs, I would recommend using a tool like Postman: https://www.getpostman.com/
You could in theory create a daily task to bulk add the visitor bans using the REST APIs with your fraud department.
-Ramin
Hi there Ramin
Thanks for the feedback. Is there any plan to develop this option?
Say if I go to setting > Banned > Add Visitor
From here I can select a drop-down menu with IP, Visitor ID or email address
and set a condition that reason is a mandatory field?
I would also be helpful to see the agent who requested the ban
I have attached what I am sure a number of ZD users would like to see.
Hi Lance,
Thanks for sharing your mocks. Currently, there are no plans to make changes to the banning feature but we are working on some bug fixes (like paging the list of bans better).
As Chat looks at adding and supporting other messaging channels, things like IP and email address bans might not be applicable.
For the current experience, the only solution I can think of would be triggering the ban via the History tab (since most people won't know the visitor's ID). If/when we update features for banning, we will let you know.
Regarding the audit log of which agent logged the ban, add your vote to the request here: https://chat.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/222347267-Agent-name-for-banning-visitors
-Ramin
Hi Ramin,
I would like to add my voice to requesting the exact feature Lance outlined. I would love to be able to ban by email. Since we can already do that during the chat, it seems like it would make sense to do that after the fact, as well.
In general, I would like to see Zendesk put more effort on making Zopim a seamless addition to the ZD suite. It still feels like it's someone else's product stapled onto the rest. Don't get me wrong, it's a great product! But it doesn't feel like a ZD product.
Thanks for your time,
-Rudolph
Hi Rudolph,
Your feedback has been noted and we have projects in the pipeline that should make you happier with the integration between the channels.
Specific to visitor banning, there is nothing in the roadmap for the next 6 months that would address this feature change.
Thanks,
Ramin
Thank you for the quick and honest reply!
Hi Ramin,
We're seeing that a chat transcript is still sent out after we ban the customer.
Is there an easy way to make sure that banned customers, and only banned customers, don't receive the chat transcript?
Thanks for your help!
Jared
Hi Jared,
I assume you are talking about the ticket created from the chat, correct? The banned state in Chat does not suspend the user in Support.
If you do not want the transcript to be created, you will need to add a tag to the chat and then create/edit the trigger in Support to not send the email for the ticket update that includes the transcript if the tag is present.
-Ramin
How do I unblock myself from a zendesk livechat from a website that scamed me to confront them?
Hello Tiago Lourenço,
I went ahead a created a ticket on your behalf so one of our advocates can assist. You should receive an email followed by a reply from our expert shorty.
Best regards.
I was trying to find out how do ban a user in the New Agent Workspace?
The image in the article above seems to shows the classic chat interface, and I've been unable to locate the area in the ticket or Dashboard that would allow us to ban a user specifically.
Thanks,
Sara
Hi there Sara Milton,
Can you confirm if this is what you are looking for the option to ban IP addresses in ZenDesk Support (not Chat)? You may also consider using the whitelist and blacklist to control access to Zendesk Support.
I hope this leads you in the right direction but if not, any additional information you can provide is appreciated. :)
Please sign in to leave a comment.