Impostor (spoofed agent)

A request that uses a trusted agent's name but fails verification. Usually a scraper trying to get past bot protection.

Why it matters

Impostors are usually scrapers that copy your prices and content, and they hide behind the names of agents you trust. Left unchecked, they inflate your agent numbers and can lead teams to block the real agent whose name they borrowed. Verifying requests separates them out, so you can block impostors without hurting genuine assistants.

More terms in getting in

• robots.txt A file at the root of your site that tells crawlers and agents which pages they may visit.
• Bot protection Services such as Cloudflare, Akamai or DataDome that block or challenge automated visitors.
• CDN Content delivery network: the service that sits in front of your site and delivers it quickly around the world.
• CAPTCHA or challenge A test that tries to tell people from bots, such as picking out images or waiting on a “checking your browser” page.
• Rate limit A cap on how many requests a visitor can make in a given time.
• Verification Checking that a visitor claiming to be a known agent really is, using the proof its operator publishes: IP ranges, reverse DNS or a signature.

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