IP Geolocation Is Wrong — Why VPN Detection Fails 90% Of Us
security, #api, #cybersecurity, #webdev Last Tuesday, a paying customer in Austin couldn't finish checkout. Our fraud engine had flagged her IP as a "high-risk VPN." She was on Spectrum. At home. Watching Netflix on the same connection. The blacklist we paid $400 a month for had her entire /24 range marked as "datacenter" because a hosting company once leased part of that range three years ago,…
A customer in Austin experienced checkout issues due to a flagged IP being labeled as a high-risk VPN. This arose from a false positive caused by a stale database that had incorrectly marked a /24 range as a datacenter. The mistake cost a $2,100 annual contract and highlighted the shortcomings of most VPN detection methods, which often rely on outdated geolocation databases.
Modern IP checks should provide richer context, such as reverse-IP discovery, VPN/proxy/Tor flags, and country metadata. A useful IP API should offer these features in a single response, rather than relying on outdated blacklists. The author tested an IP Geolocation API that provided these additional details and found it significantly more effective at distinguishing between legitimate users and fraudulent activity.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
