Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network

Mr Badger · 27 Apr 2015 at 22:32

Doing a search for information about a restaurant in Crete and Google is blocking it with a CAPTCHA test and the following warning:

About this page

Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network. This page checks to see if it's really you sending the requests, and not a robot. Why did this happen?

This page appears when Google automatically detects requests coming from your computer network which appear to be in violation of the Terms of Service. The block will expire shortly after those requests stop. In the meantime, solving the above CAPTCHA will let you continue to use our services.

This traffic may have been sent by malicious software, a browser plug-in, or a script that sends automated requests. If you share your network connection, ask your administrator for help — a different computer using the same IP address may be responsible. Learn more

Sometimes you may be asked to solve the CAPTCHA if you are using advanced terms that robots are known to use, or sending requests very quickly.

Never seen this before, but tried the search a couple of times and the same thing happens. Is it really that suspicious to search for the name of a Greek restaurant?

Diddums x · 27 Apr 2015 at 22:48

Something tells me your pc is part of a botnet.

Gammawolf · 27 Apr 2015 at 22:51

If your IP is dynamic you could have one thats on various "black lists" from previous attacks/detections?

DaleTheWhale · 27 Apr 2015 at 22:51

Sounds like a botnet for sure.

mattyg · 27 Apr 2015 at 22:53

Happened to me too today. Not sure if using PIA had anything to do with it.

Zefan · 27 Apr 2015 at 22:55

Happens to me but only when I browse through TOR browser. As has been said, sounds like a botnet.

mattyg · 27 Apr 2015 at 23:05

Whats a botnet and do I need to do anything

Mr Badger · 27 Apr 2015 at 23:08

For peace of mind I ran some malware and virus checks and they came out clean.

Google didn't have a problem with any other word searches and removed the block after doing the CAPTCHA. Turns out the restaurant is closed anyway :rolleyes:

SonniLombardi · 28 Apr 2015 at 00:09

Zefan said:
Happens to me but only when I browse through TOR browser. As has been said, sounds like a botnet.

And why are you using TOR you naughty boy.

Them dodgy .onion links

It comes up on TOR because of the anonymity and Google gets a lot of requests from certain IP/Proxy's via TOR as lots of people are using the same host etc.

john_s · 28 Apr 2015 at 08:43

Sometime get CAPTCHAs on Google at work. I think it's down to a lot of traffic seeming to come from the same IP address.