Checking IP addresses for VPN and proxy usage is a key component of any online fraud detection system. It can help companies flag possible fraudulent activity and set protocols for handling these types of users differently, helping to mitigate risk and improve security.
Check IP addresses for VPN and proxy usage have a fixed set of IP addresses that they use, so visited websites ‘LEARN’ which IP addresses belong to VPN/Proxy services and can block connections from these addresses. However, some VPNs and proxies offer advanced obfuscation techniques to blend traffic data with real web traffic. This makes it difficult for network engineers to detect VPN/Proxy activity through brute force methods.
To tackle this issue, many online services and businesses leverage a number of different technologies to identify VPN and Proxy use. These range from simple mechanisms, like comparing the timezone reported by a user’s browser with the geolocation of their IP address, to more sophisticated methods, such as leveraging TCP/IP fingerprinting.
How fraudsters use VPNs to commit click and ad fraud
One common method for identifying VPN and proxy activity involves comparing the location of a given user with databases of blacklisted IP addresses that are known to be associated with VPN and proxy services. This approach can be effective, but it can be challenging because VPN and proxy providers regularly change their IP addresses, which means that a blacklisted IP can suddenly become unblacklisted. In addition, this method can also miss legitimate traffic from users who travel frequently and need to change their device’s timezone settings.
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