IP Risk Scores and Fraud Prevention

An IP risk score is a measure of the likelihood that an internet protocol (IP) address is associated with malicious behavior or belongs to an abusive user. Businesses can use fraud detection tools to identify and assign IP risk scores based on a range of factors that minimize the chances of threat actors entering their websites.

The rise of ecommerce has brought with it an increased risk of payment fraud and other types of fraudulent activity that result in financial losses for businesses. With more and more people making purchases online, bad actors are constantly searching for new ways to commit fraud. That’s why it’s so important for organizations to have fraud prevention tools that detect suspicious activity and prevent financial losses.

One of the most valuable tools for preventing fraud is an IP risk score. An IP risk score is an indication of how likely it is that an IP address is connected to a malicious actor or may be associated with fraudulent activity. It takes into account various characteristics of the IP address, including whether it has been spoofed or anonymized, and the location of the user’s network. It also considers whether the IP address is a gateway for other devices, such as routers and switches.

A business’s IP risk score can be used to identify a variety of potential threats, from brute force attacks to DDoS and malware. It can also be used to detect unusual behavior, such as a high number of login attempts in short periods of time. In addition, a business’s IP risk score can be used as a proxy for identifying the source of a phishing email or determining the location of a bot.

While it’s possible to determine a lot about a user based on their IP address, it’s not always easy for a company to know whether the user is legitimate or a fraudster. Fraudsters can use VPNs to hide their true identity and nefarious intentions. An IP risk score can help a business understand the type of user they’re dealing with and make more informed decisions about how to handle them.

The best way to mitigate the risk of fraudsters and other malicious actors entering your website is to use a system that provides an accurate and up-to-date IP reputation score. This enables you to preemptively block users based on their reputation, which can save your team valuable time and resources.

Using a machine learning-based approach, an IP reputation service identifies patterns of behavior and assigns a score for each IP address. This score indicates the probability that an IP is a threat, as well as how often it has been a threat in the past. It also looks at other attributes, such as whether the IP is on a list of known malicious actors, and how frequently the IP has been blocked by a firewall or DNS blocklists.