The internet is not always as it seems. There are plenty of free proxies available to use and they often hide user data from website owners. While there are legitimate reasons to use a proxy, it can also be used by hackers for malicious activities such as logging keystrokes or distributing control software for botnets. It is important to understand the different types of proxies and how they work so you can protect your online identity and avoid falling victim to fraudsters and cybercriminals.

Many merchants use proxy detected online to identify suspicious transactions. This works by checking the IP address of an incoming connection against a list of known proxies, VPNs, and Tor exit nodes. If the IP matches one of these lists, it is likely that the visitor is using a proxy to hide their location and identity.

Is a Proxy Detected Online? Here’s How to Find Out

Proxies and VPNs can be categorized into residential, commercial, and mobile. Residential proxies skew towards home users and are more trustworthy, whereas commercial proxies tend to be more sophisticated and designed for high-volume traffic. Mobile proxies are typically small and dynamic, which makes them hard to detect by existing solutions.

Fraudsters who engage in account takeover activity or card testing often use proxies to disguise their locations and appear to be a different user. This can bypass rules or modeling features that look for consistency between an originating IP location, billing and shipping addresses, etc. Proper proxy detection services should not only include a list of known proxies, but also check for the X-Forwarded-For HTTP header field and analyze the response time of the incoming connection to detect the use of a proxy.