“It’s not a long list of alias considering the time frame.”
OK, that is computer stuff that I don’t know about, why does someone go through a long list of various identities when they are a member of a forum?
I know that most sites will send you a lost password if you forget yours, and you gave that explanation about her privacy concerns, but that doesn’t account for a long list of identities.
It’s a matter of looking past the user name and at the IP address. From there you can find out more about who some one is and where they are posting from. So if someone is banned and tries to create a new account under a different name, a glance at the IP address will help verify whether that person is the same person that was just banned.