An ASN (autonomous system number) identifies a network that routes its own IP addresses on the internet: a broadband provider, a mobile carrier, a university, a cloud provider. For example, AS16509 is Amazon Web Services and AS15169 is Google.
Why it matters for fraud
The ASN tells you what kind of connection a visitor has:
- ISP networks (home, mobile, business broadband): real people.
- Cloud and hosting networks: servers, scripts, VPN exits and proxies.
That's often more useful than location. See which networks are servers in the network directory.