{"id":59161,"date":"2024-09-25T12:28:34","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T11:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/proxidize.com\/?post_type=blog&p=59161"},"modified":"2025-11-28T16:11:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T16:11:15","slug":"ip-score","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/proxidize.com\/blog\/ip-score\/","title":{"rendered":"How IP Score Misleads You & Doesn’t Always Measure Your IP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If every website could have its way, it would only be visited by genuine customers. Among many other things, this means they seek to combat anyone from fraudsters \u2014 understandable \u2014 to bots and web scrapers from interacting with their site. Both impact their bottom line in various ways and, as a result, there is a market for services that are geared towards being able to distinguish an ordinary visitor from a risky or suspicious one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, people who want to engage in web scraping for myriad reasons also want to be able to test their IPs and setups to see whether they fit the mold of an \u201cordinary\u201d user. Say you\u2019ve just bought your first proxy from a provider and want to test it. Those same services offer proxy users a way to test themselves as well, either under the term \u201cIP score\u201d, \u201cIP fraud score\u201d, or \u201cproxy detector\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, we\u2019ll be exploring two key areas: The first topic we\u2019ll discuss is how IP scoring and proxy\/VPN detection work and to what degree these services are correctly communicating to their users what they\u2019re testing. Next, we\u2019ll take a look at the metrics and indicators these services use, which of these indicators are credible, and how credible indicators can sometimes be used to arrive at faulty conclusions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An IP score, at its core, is marketed as a simple and easy way for someone to determine whether an IP is associated with spam, fraud, botnets, hacking, or generally suspicious activity. Let\u2019s take a deeper look at what these services do, where they fit among services of their kind, what indicators they use to test your IP, and to what extent they\u2019re testing your IP at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What is IP Score?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An IP score is a way to express the likelihood that an IP address<\/a> is associated with fraudulent activity or malicious behavior. This quality score is usually rated on a scale of zero to 100. Websites use IP scoring services to test IPs and emails to identify bots and fraudsters, verify payment transactions, and combat fake registrations \u2014 even dating scams. Any incoming traffic that doesn\u2019t pass the sniff test gets blocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IP score services exist on a spectrum of digital identification services that start at IP lookup services and progress to increasingly broader \u2014 and more complicated \u2014 services like browser fingerprinting. As one moves from one end of the spectrum to the other, indicators move from being solely based on IP address to a wider range of non-IP-based indicators. This comes coupled with an increasing amount of contextual interpretation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital Identification Services<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The spectrum, for the purposes of this article, looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. IP Lookup<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    IP lookup services rely solely on your IP address to provide information on its geolocation, including country, region, and city; autonomous system number (ASN), which includes the name of the ISP; and basic additional information. They just provide identification of an IP without passing judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    1. IP Score<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      IP score services generally look at the same information as an IP lookup service and then test this data against blacklists, historical data, and other indicators. Each red flag is then subtracted from your score \u2014 or added up depending on the service. They assess the risk level of your IP based on their findings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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      1. Proxy Detectors & VPN Detectors<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        Services styling themselves as proxy detectors or VPN detectors go one step further than analyzing your IP. Alongside IP-based data, they also use browser-level indicators, like user agent strings, and perform open port scans. The purpose is to identify signs that you are trying to anonymize your online presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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        1. Browser Fingerprinting & Bot Detectors<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

          Browser fingerprinting services encompass the broadest analysis of a user, including network, device, and browser-related indicators. They use all the data a proxy detector does and go significantly further, collecting browsing fingerprints like plugins and fonts, device information like how your hardware renders graphics, and network information like ASN and geolocation details. The purpose is to create a unique profile to help track you across websites for marketing and fraud detection purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Most businesses started small and expanded their products or services as they evolved. A service that started as an IP lookup may start testing that data against blacklists; an IP score service might move to offer proxy detection services, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Problems arise when those shifts are not properly communicated and a service is actually performing one job within the terminology of another. By the end of this article, we hope you\u2019ll be able to see a service, determine what category it fits into, and whether it\u2019s doing a credible job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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          IP-Related Metrics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

          An IP score is a way for websites to determine the risk level of an IP. This is derived from the IP\u2019s geolocation, what ISP the IP is associated with, network characteristics, and whether the IP address is listed on any blacklists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Simply put, it\u2019s a very low-impact way to gauge whether a given user accessing their services is legitimate or a fraudster up to no good. This can impact whether or not the user is able to register a new account, make a payment, and more. If your IP is deemed to be risky, this might trigger additional levels of verification (two-factor authentication, for example) or be outright blocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Indicators used for IP quality scoring include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n