As the fraudsters are now becoming more sophisticated in bypassing the Geo-location controls by using proxies (Anonymous IPs) to spoof their IP address, it has become very much necessary to come up with a means for detecting the proxies so that the authenticity of the users can be verified. Using a proxy (web proxy) is the simplest and easiest way to conceal the IP address of an Internet user and maintain the online privacy. However proxies are more widely used by online fraudsters to engage in cyber crimes since it is the easiest way to hide their actual Geo-location such as city/country through a spoofed IP address. Following are some of the examples where fraudsters use the proxies to hide their actual IP.
1. Credit Card Frauds
For example, say a Nigerian fraudster tries to purchase goods online with a stolen credit card for which the billing address is associated with New York. Most credit card merchants use Geo-location to block orders from countries like Nigeria and other high risk countries. So in order to bypass this restriction the credit card fraudster uses a proxy to spoof his IP address so that it appears to have come from New York. The IP address location appears to be legitimate since it is in the same city as the billing address. A proxy check would be needed to flag this order.
2. Bypass Website Country Restrictions
Some website services are restricted to users form only a selected list of countries. For example, a paid survey may be restricted only to countries like United States and Canada. So a user from say China may use a proxy so as to make his IP appear to have come from U.S. so that he can earn from participating in the paid survey.

Proxy Detection Services

So in order to stop such online frauds, Proxy Detection has become a critical component. Today most companies, credit card merchants and websites that deal with e-commerce transactions make use of Proxy Detection Services like MaxMind and FraudLabs to detect the usage of proxy or spoofed IP from users participating online.
Proxy Detection web services allow instant detection of anonymous IP addresses. Even though the use of proxy address by users is not a direct indication of fraudulent behaviour, it can often indicate the intention of the user to hide his or her real IP. In fact, some of the most used ISPs like AOL and MSN are forms of proxies and are used by both good and bad consumers.
How Proxy Detection Works?
Proxy detection services often rely on IP addresses to determine whether or not the IP is a proxy. Merchants can obtain the IP address of the users from the HTTP header on the order that comes into their website. This IP address is sent to the proxy detecting service in real time to confirm it’s authenticity.
The proxy detection services on the other hand compare this IP against a known list of flagged IPs that belong to proxy services. If the IP is not on the list then it is authenticated and the confirmation is sent back to the merchant. Otherwise it is reported to be a suspected proxy. These proxy detection services work continuously to grab a list or range of IPs that are commonly used for proxy services. With this it is possible to tell whether or not a given IP address is a proxy or spoofed IP.
How to Tell Whether a given IP is Real or a Proxy?
There are a few free sites that help you determine whether or not a given IP is a proxy. You can use free services like WhatisMyIPAddress to detect proxy IPs. Just enter the suspected IP in the field and click on “Lookup IP Address” button to check the IP address. If it is a suspected proxy then you will see the results something as follows.
 So for all those who think that they can escape by using a spoofed IP, this post is the answer. I hope this information helps. Pass your comments.

Almost half of the Internet users across the globe use ADSL routers/modems to connect to the Internet however, most of them are unaware of the fact that it has a serious vulnerability which can easily be exploited even by a noob hacker just like you. In this post I will show you how to exploit a common vulnerability that lies in most ADSL routers so as to gain complete access to the router settings and ISP login details.
Every router comes with a username and password using which it is possible to gain access to the router settings and configure the device. The vulnerability actually lies in the Default username and password that comes with the factory settings. Usually the routers come preconfigured from the Internet Service provider and hence the users do not bother to change the password later. This makes it possible for the attackers to gain unauthorized access and modify the router settings using a common set of default usernames and passwords. Here is how you can do it.
Before you proceed, you need the following tool in the process
Angry IP Scanner
Here is a detailed information on how to exploit the vulnerability of an ADSL router.
Step-1: Go to www.whatismyipaddress.com. Once the page is loaded you will find your IP address. Note it down.
Step-2: Open Angry IP Scanner, here you will see an option called IP Range: where you need to enter the range of IP address to scan for.
Step-3: Go to Tools->Preferences and select the Ports tab. Under Port selection enter 80 (we need to scan for port 80). Now switch to the Display tab, select the option “Hosts with open ports only” and click on OK.

I have used Angry IP Scanner v3.0 beta-4. If you are using a different version, you need to Go to Options instead of Tools
Step-4: Now click on Start. After a few minutes, the IP scanner will show a list of IPs with Port 80 open as shown in the below image.

 
Step-5: Now copy any of the IP from the list, paste it in your browser’s address bar and hit enter. A window will popup asking for username and password. Since most users do not change the passwords, it should most likely work with the default username and password. For most routers the default username-password pair will be admin-admin or admin-password.
Just enter the username-password as specified above and hit enter. If you are lucky you should gain access to the router settings page where you can modify any of the router settings. The settings page can vary from router to router. A sample router settings page is shown below.



If you do not succeed to gain access, select another IP from the list and repeat the step-5. Atleast 1 out of 5 IPs will have a default password and hence you will surely be able to gain access.

What can an Attacker do by Gaining Access to the Router Settings?

By gaining access to the router settings, it is possible for an attacker to modify any of the router settings which results in the malfunction of the router. As a result the target user’s computer will be disconnected from the Internet. In the worst case the attacker can copy the ISP login details from the router to steal the Internet connection or play any kind of prank with the router settings. So the victim has to reconfigure the router in order to bring it back to action.

The Verdict:

If you are using an ADSL router to connect to the Internet, it is highly recommended that you immediately change your password to prevent any such attacks in the future. Who knows, you may be the next victim of such an attack.
Since the configuration varies from router to router, you need to contact your ISP for details on how to change the password for your model.