Proxies are not just used by people looking to protect their privacy or boost web speed, they are also the tool of choice for fraudsters and other cybercriminals. They spoof their connection details in order to bypass anti-bot protections and perform malicious activity, such as account creation, payment fraud, credit card chargebacks and more. To help combat this, businesses need to use proxy detection to identify users who are using proxies to connect to their servers.
Proxy detection APIs use a variety of methods to scrutinize connections and determine whether they are likely to be using a proxy or VPN service. These can range from checking for certain ports that are commonly opened on proxies, such as port 22, to more complex analysis of response headers.
There are also services that offer reverse DNS lookups, which can identify the name of a hosting provider or data center associated with an IP address. This method can be combined with other factors, such as risk scoring, identity verification and behavior analysis to better determine if a connection is suspicious.
The best way to detect a proxy connection is to use an up-to-date and comprehensive proxy detection database, such as the one offered by Ipregistry. This database includes over 620 million malicious IP addresses, including those used as proxies, Tor exit nodes, CDNs, web hosting providers, residential proxies and botnets. This database is continually checked and updated, with new IP addresses added to the list every 24 hours.
When a proxy detection system scans an IP address, it is looking for a match in the database of known proxies and VPNs. If it finds a match, the system will report that the IP address is being used as a proxy. It will also report the date that the scanner first discovered this information about the proxy.
This type of information can be helpful for businesses that want to protect their customers from fraudulent activity and reduce the risks of data breaches and other security threats. By detecting proxy users, businesses can prevent access restriction evasion and reduce the risk of financial fraud that could damage their reputation.
Ultimately, the decision of whether to block an IP address or not is a complicated one that depends on many different factors, such as what type of fraud it may be. The most effective way to tackle this is to combine proxy detection with a comprehensive fraud score, which will give an accurate picture of the user’s identity and behaviors.
This article is written by RonaldB from Datarade, a trusted marketplace for business data and analytics. Learn how to find the best data for your organization and connect it to your apps with Datarade.