922Proxy & LunaProxy Shut Down - 7 Safe Alternatives That Actually Work in 2026

By Marcus Reiner · 2026-07-19 · 11 min read · News

922Proxy and LunaProxy are gone - shut down by Google for botnet activity. Here are the 7 safest, fastest replacements that actually work in 2026, ranked by price and performance.

What happened - the full story

In January 2026, Google's Threat Intelligence Group took legal action against IPIDEA - a Chinese proxy vendor operating at least 13 brands simultaneously. The brands shut down overnight included 922Proxy, LunaProxy, ABC Proxy, Cherry Proxy, IP2World, IPidea.io, PIA S5 Proxy, PyProxy, TabProxy, 360Proxy, Door VPN, Galleon VPN and Radish VPN.

The reason was serious. Google found that IPIDEA had built its residential proxy pool by embedding software into millions of uncertified Android devices - phones, tablets and TV boxes - without the device owners' knowledge or consent. This infrastructure directly enabled three major botnets: BadBox 2.0, Aisuru and Kimwolf. During a single seven-day window in January 2026, Google observed over 550 tracked threat groups routing traffic through IPIDEA exit nodes.

Users who had active subscriptions with any of these providers woke up to dead accounts with no refunds offered. If you were one of them, here is exactly what to use instead - tested, ethical providers that will not get shut down tomorrow.

Why cheap Chinese proxies kept failing even before the shutdown

Multiple independent researchers discovered that lunaproxy.com, pyproxy.com, piaproxy.com, 922proxy.com, ipidea.net, ip2world.com, abcproxy.com and a dozen others were all routing through the exact same residential IP pool. This meant constant IP repeats across providers - if one provider's IP got blocked on a target site, every other brand's IP was likely blocked too.

The low prices that made these providers attractive were only possible because the IPs were harvested from compromised devices rather than sourced ethically. A $0.50/GB residential proxy from a Chinese reseller and a $2/GB residential proxy from an ethical provider are not the same product - one is built on stolen bandwidth, the other on consenting device owners.

The FBI published a bulletin warning about residential proxy networks in early 2026, specifically calling out botnet-sourced IPs as a risk for anyone using them - including the buyers, not just the operators.

The 7 best safe alternatives to 922Proxy and LunaProxy in 2026

1. IPRoyal - Best direct replacement for budget users. IPRoyal starts at $1.75/GB with non-expiring pay-as-you-go bandwidth - no monthly commitments, no surprise charges. The pool is ethically sourced through a consenting peer network. KYC verified. If you were using 922Proxy for the low price, IPRoyal gives you similar pricing without the botnet risk.

2. Decodo - Best overall replacement. 115M+ residential IPs at $2/GB with a Site Unblocker that handles Cloudflare and DataDome automatically. Decodo has won Proxyway's Best Value Provider award three consecutive years. If you need volume with reliability, this is the replacement.

3. Webshare - Best free tier replacement. 10 free datacenter IPs and 1GB free residential bandwidth monthly - no credit card required. If you were on 922Proxy's free plan, Webshare is the only legitimate free alternative.

4. Proxy-Cheap - Best for tight budgets. Residential proxies from $1.99/GB with multiple proxy types available. Smaller pool than Decodo but solid for most scraping workloads.

5. Rayobyte - Best US-focused replacement. Strong US residential and datacenter pool with a documented ethics program. If your workloads were US-focused on 922Proxy, Rayobyte is the cleanest replacement.

6. Bright Data - Best enterprise replacement. If your team was using 922Proxy at scale and needs guaranteed uptime and compliance, Bright Data is the only enterprise-grade option with SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certification. The price is higher but the risk is zero.

7. Infatica - Best mid-budget replacement. Ethically-sourced peer network at competitive pricing. Good for teams that need residential IPs at volume without enterprise pricing.

How to verify a proxy provider is safe before buying

Four things to check before giving any proxy provider your credit card in 2026. First - KYC process. Legitimate providers verify who their customers are. If you can buy 10GB of residential proxies with no identity verification and a throwaway email, the provider is likely not operating ethically.

Second - IP sourcing documentation. Ethical providers like Bright Data, IPRoyal and Decodo publicly document how IPs are sourced and what device owners are told. If a provider cannot answer 'where do your residential IPs come from', walk away.

Third - company transparency. Check who is behind the company. Hong Kong incorporation with no named founders is a red flag - it is the exact structure IPIDEA used across all 13 of its brands. Look for providers with a named team, a real HQ and a public legal entity.

Fourth - our Trust Score. Every provider on ToptierProxy.com receives a Trust Score from 0 to 100 covering 225+ criteria including sourcing ethics, compliance certifications and corporate transparency. Only use providers with a Trust Score above 70.

What to do if you lost money in the shutdown

If you had an active subscription with 922Proxy, LunaProxy or any other IPIDEA brand at the time of the shutdown and did not receive a refund, your options are limited but not zero.

Credit card chargeback - contact your bank and dispute the charge as 'services not rendered'. Most banks will process this within 7-14 days. This works for recent purchases made within the last 60-120 days depending on your card issuer.

PayPal dispute - if you paid via PayPal, open a dispute under 'item not received' or 'significantly not as described'. PayPal typically sides with buyers when a service goes offline permanently.

Document everything - take screenshots of your account balance, subscription status and any communications with the provider before the domains go fully dark. You will need these for the chargeback.

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