Proxy Jumping

Overview

Proxy jumping is a malicious technique used by fraudsters to conceal their true location and identity. It involves rapidly rotating through a series of different proxy servers, changing IP addresses in quick succession. This method is specifically designed to bypass traditional security measures that rely on IP-based tracking and blocking, making it a significant challenge for fraud and abuse prevention teams. By creating a constantly moving target, attackers can appear as a crowd of distinct users, when in reality, it's a single entity orchestrating an attack.

How It Works

At its core, proxy jumping is an automated process. A bad actor uses a script or bot connected to a pool of proxy servers—which can range from compromised residential IPs to vast data center networks. With each new request or action, the bot discards its current IP address and "e;jumps"e; to a new one from the pool. This makes it incredibly difficult to link the malicious activities back to a single source, as each action appears to originate from a different geographical location and network. This rapid rotation effectively neutralizes IP blacklisting and rate limiting.

Why It Matters for Fraud Prevention

For businesses, proxy jumping is a direct enabler of large-scale automated fraud and abuse. Here's how it's used:

• Credential Stuffing: Attackers test millions of stolen username/password combinations, with each login attempt coming from a different IP. This allows them to bypass rules that would typically block an IP after a few failed attempts.
• Ad Fraud: Fraudsters use proxy jumping to simulate clicks and impressions on digital ads from thousands of seemingly unique "e;users,"e; siphoning money from advertising budgets.
• E-commerce Abuse: Scalper bots employ this technique to overwhelm online retailers during limited-edition product releases. By appearing as thousands of individual customers, they can bypass purchase limits and buy up inventory to resell at a markup.
• Account Takeover: After gaining initial access, fraudsters can use proxy jumping to hide their activity within a compromised account, making it harder to distinguish their actions from the legitimate user's.

Mitigating Proxy Jumping

Relying on IP addresses alone is no longer sufficient to combat this threat. A modern fraud prevention strategy must incorporate more sophisticated, multi-layered techniques:

• Advanced Device Fingerprinting: While the IP address changes constantly, the attacker's underlying device often remains the same. Device fingerprinting creates a unique identifier for a user's browser and device, allowing you to detect and block a malicious actor even as they jump between hundreds of IPs.
• Behavioral Analytics: Real users and bots behave differently. By analyzing on-site behavior—such as mouse movements, typing speed, and navigation patterns—systems can identify non-human activity characteristic of automated attacks, regardless of the IP address.
• Link Analysis: Connecting the dots between seemingly unrelated accounts that share the same device fingerprint is crucial. This allows you to identify and neutralize an entire network of fraudulent accounts controlled by a single actor.

Conclusion

Proxy jumping represents a significant evolution in evasion tactics used by sophisticated fraudsters. It demonstrates the inherent weakness of relying on IP-based security measures in today's threat landscape. To effectively protect your platform, it is essential to adopt a proactive and layered security approach. By combining advanced device fingerprinting with behavioral and link analysis, businesses can look beyond the ever-changing IP address to accurately identify and stop the malicious actor behind the attack.