Almost every time you connect to the internet, certain information is exchanged between your device and the websites you visit. That information includes the IP address that identifies the device and the geographic region where it is located at the moment you access a website.

Enterprise-grade email fraud defense and risk score involves looking up the physical location of an IP address to verify its authenticity and detect fraud. It can also help businesses deliver a more personalized experience for consumers.

Tools to Analyze IP Reputation for Threats Effectively

IP geolocation is used for content personalization, Geofencing, ad targeting and Digital Rights Management. It is a valuable tool for merchants to use in conjunction with a variety of other fraud screening tools.

The most common use of check IP geolocation is to verify that the consumer’s worldwide location matches up with their billing and shipping addresses, especially for card-not-present transactions. Many risk models and rules engines incorporate this as one of their components. If the IP geolocation has a large discrepancy with the “ship to” or “billing to” address, this could be a sign of fraudulent activity.

Another use for IP lookups is detecting if a consumer is using a proxy or VPN to mask their true location. This data can be incorporated into a risk score to detect fraud by assessing if the network has a history of being associated with fraud. This can help prevent cyber-attacks by throttling traffic from suspicious regions. It can also be incorporated into a database of blacklisted IPs to block hackers and spammers from gaining access to a company’s internal systems.