Influx of Bots crawling on my site from Venezuela daily!

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

A Shopify store owner is experiencing a surge of bot traffic—50+ daily visitors with active carts—originating primarily from Venezuela. The bots arrive and leave in coordinated waves, artificially inflating visitor counts and distorting conversion metrics. The issue persists even after pausing Facebook/Instagram ads.

Recommended mitigation strategies include:

  • Verifying Shopify’s built-in bot protection is enabled
  • Implementing CAPTCHA on forms and login pages
  • Analyzing traffic patterns via Shopify Analytics or Google Analytics to identify suspicious IP ranges
  • Blocking identified IP addresses through Shopify’s spam protection settings
  • Using third-party tools like Cloudflare or apps such as BotDefender and Blockify

Current status: Another user reports similar attacks from Venezuela over several months. After blocking Venezuela using the Blockify app, bot traffic shifted to Colombia, continuing to impact analytics and inventory tracking. The problem appears ongoing with no definitive resolution yet.

Summarized with AI on November 1. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Hi,

This year I’m getting TONS of bots crawling on my website daily 50+ visitors and active carts. The hits will come all at one time then leave all at once. It’s totally messing up my conversion. I don’t know how to stop this or where it’s coming from. I thought it was Facebook/ig ads so I stopped running ads and it’s still happening. Can someone please help?

1 Like
2

Hello,

I understand your problem. Here are some steps to help you identify and mitigate the issue:

  1. Shopify has built-in bot protection to handle known bad bots. Ensure it’s enabled by reaching out to Shopify Support if you’re unsure.

  2. Add CAPTCHA to any forms on your site, like contact forms or login pages. This can help block bots trying to interact with your store.

  3. Use Shopify’s analytics or a tool like Google Analytics to investigate the origin of the traffic. Bots often come from specific regions or use unusual user agents. If you notice patterns (all traffic from one IP range), you can block them.

  4. Shopify allows you to block IP addresses. Identify suspicious IP ranges from your analytics and block them in your admin settings under Online Store → Preferences → Spam Protection.

  5. Consider using an app like Cloudflare or Shopify apps like BotDefender to filter bot traffic. These tools can differentiate between human users and bots more effectively.

  6. Even though you’ve paused your ads, double-check your ad accounts to ensure you don’t have any rogue campaigns or retargeting pixels that could be driving bot traffic.

  7. Since you mentioned the bots hit all at once, this could indicate automated scripts. Set up server logs or use an app to detect spikes in activity and flag potential patterns.

This should help!

3

Same. Venezuela has been attacking my Shopify for months. I just installed an app, Blockify, and have blocked the country, but now seeing Colombia. It’s really messing with my analytics and stock availability.