Broken IP location on NA-only sweepstakes?

wilcoxon

Is it just me or is whatever method MMORPG uses to determine location based on IP address very flawed/broken?

I tried signing up for the LotRO sweepstakes and get the error that I must reside in North America and that my IP may be masked.  However, when I copy-and-paste the "bad" IP address (mine) from the error page and do a whois, it clearly comes back as owned by Comcast Cable Communications Holdings, Inc (a US company).

Taera

So to confirm, you are a NA resident?

wilcoxon

Yes.  Fortunately, in my case at least, I had also filed a support email and someone contacted the third-party company responsible for the IP location applet and it was corrected.

Generally, basing location checks on IP address is a bad idea (it's relatively easy to get an IP address from somewhere else).