A proxy is a server that acts as an intermediary between your device and the websites you visit. Instead of connecting directly, your traffic is routed through the proxy server, which forwards your requests and returns the responses.
Proxies are used for many legitimate and questionable purposes:
At the same time, proxies are often used by bots, scrapers, and attackers to hide real location or identity, rotate IP addresses, and evade security measures.
X-Forwarded-For or ViaOn the free plan, BotBlocker detects basic proxy usage by scanning for suspicious HTTP headers commonly set by proxy servers, such as:
X-Forwarded-ForViaForwardedClient-IPIf these headers are present or abnormal, the connection may be flagged or blocked as a likely proxy.
On the Pro plan, BotBlocker uses an advanced proxy detection database that:
This approach catches not only basic proxies but also stealthy, high-anonymity, and residential proxies used by sophisticated bots.
When BotBlocker identifies a suspicious connection, it does not just block it and move on. The system logs the request, assigns a risk score, and lets you configure what action to take. You can choose to silently block the traffic, show a challenge page, or simply flag the visit for review. This gives website owners full control without disrupting real customers who might be using a corporate VPN or shared office network.
The risk scoring takes into account several signals at once: header anomalies, IP reputation from the database, behavioral patterns like request speed and navigation flow, and known datacenter IP ranges. Combining these signals reduces the chance of a false positive, which is important when a real user happens to connect through a gateway that shares characteristics with a proxy.
When a website has no proxy detection in place, the consequences go beyond just security. Scrapers can harvest pricing data and product catalogs, giving competitors an unfair advantage. Fraudsters can test stolen credit cards through rotating IPs without triggering rate limits. Ad fraud bots inflate click counts and drain advertising budgets. Each of these scenarios causes real financial damage that is easy to prevent with the right tools in place.
According to research from Imperva’s Bad Bot Report, automated bot traffic accounts for a significant share of all web traffic, and a large portion of it routes through proxy infrastructure. Businesses that do not address this problem are essentially leaving their data, their users, and their revenue exposed.
Can legitimate users be flagged as proxies?
Sometimes, especially with public Wi-Fi, VPNs, or corporate networks. BotBlocker minimizes false positives with smart analysis.
Is the advanced proxy database available in the free version?
No, the most powerful detection (with historical proxy analysis) is exclusive to the Pro version.
How to enable proxy detection?
Basic detection works out of the box. Pro features require activation of your license.
Does proxy detection slow down my website?
No. All checks run asynchronously in the background and do not add noticeable latency to page loads. The lookup against the IP database completes in milliseconds, and the result is cached for repeated requests from the same IP within a session.