Title: Question about blocking usernames
Last modified: July 9, 2018

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# Question about blocking usernames

 *  Resolved [Ionna](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ionna/)
 * (@ionna)
 * [7 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/question-about-blocking-usernames/)
 * Quick, somewhat dumb question:
 * My site uses usernames to login which are not tied to my real name, but those
   usernames are tied to email accounts that *do* use my real name.
 * Thing is, I’ve been receiving notices of people trying to use my real name to
   log into my site, and Wordfence says they’ve registered 6 failed logins with 
   an “existing” username aka my email address. So the scenario is something like
   this:
 * Current WP login I use:
 * Username: Admin123
    Email: [real.name@emailprovider.com](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/question-about-blocking-usernames/real.name@emailprovider.com?output_format=md)
 * Failed logins:
    Invalid Username 1: real.name Invalid Username 2: [real.name@emailprovider.com](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/question-about-blocking-usernames/real.name@emailprovider.com?output_format=md)
 * If I set “Immediately block the IP of users who try to sign in as these usernames”
   for Invalid username 2, will I be blocking myself out? Thanks!
 * Edited: I am hosting a website with my real name on the same hosting, but this
   login scam is attacking the site that DOESN’T have my real name.
    -  This topic was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by [Ionna](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ionna/).
      Reason: clarification

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  Plugin Support [wfscott](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfscott/)
 * (@wfscott)
 * [7 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/question-about-blocking-usernames/#post-10480829)
 * Hello [@ionna](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ionna/),
 * In my personal tests, blocking an email address has no effect. From what I saw,
   you will need to block specific usernames in order to get results. (I.e. real.
   name rather than [real.name@emailprovider.com](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/question-about-blocking-usernames/real.name@emailprovider.com?output_format=md))
 * If you were to block “real.name”, you would block out any potential attacker 
   who tries to login using that string.
 * In any event, I believe that you would be safe in the scenario that you mentioned
   if you were to setup rules how you described, however, it seems you will only
   get results from the usernames.
 * Let me know if you need anything else!
 * -Scott
 *  Thread Starter [Ionna](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ionna/)
 * (@ionna)
 * [7 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/question-about-blocking-usernames/#post-10482028)
 * Thanks for the clarification, Scott! Yeah, I’ve blocked the username already,
   just wanted to ensure I wasn’t going to block myself out. xD

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

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## Tags

 * [login](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/login/)

 * 2 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Ionna](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ionna/)
 * Last activity: [7 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/question-about-blocking-usernames/#post-10482028)
 * Status: resolved