Lead generation · 2 min read

Proxies for lead generation

Build B2B prospect lists at scale without your origin IP getting rate-limited or blocked. Route directory and registry scraping through metered datacenter proxies you can budget by the gigabyte.

Why route lead-gen scraping through proxies

Building a B2B prospect list means pulling data from public business directories, company registries, map listings, and industry portals — often thousands of pages per run. Send all of that from one office IP and you will hit rate limits, CAPTCHAs, and outright blocks within minutes. Routing requests through s4m datacenter proxies spreads traffic across many exit addresses so your origin IP stays hidden and a single block never stops the whole job.

Our proxies are authenticated datacenter endpoints (SOCKS5 and HTTP), billed pay-as-you-go by traffic. That model fits scraping well: you pay for the gigabytes you actually move, and you can cap spend with per-account usage limits so an overnight crawler never runs away with your budget.

Be honest about your targets. Datacenter IPs are fast and cheap, but some consumer platforms detect them more readily than residential ranges — so they are ideal for open directories and structured APIs, and less suited to sites that aggressively fingerprint. For a static footprint on a whitelisted source, add a dedicated personal IP and bind it to your proxy or VPN. New to the setup? Start with the guides, or see how metered proxies and flat VPN differ on the compare page.

What you get

Spread the crawl

Route requests through many datacenter exit IPs so one rate-limit or block never halts the whole job, and your office IP never appears in target logs.

Metered, not flat

SOCKS5 and HTTP proxies are billed pay-as-you-go by the gigabyte, so a one-off list build costs only the data it actually moves.

Per-account caps

Admin-tunable usage limits per account, per account-type, or per IP keep an overnight crawler from running away with your budget.

Authenticated access

Connect over SOCKS5 (1080) or HTTP (3128) with a USER:PASS pair — no IP whitelisting hassle, works from CI, containers, or a laptop.

No-logs by design

RAM-first infrastructure with no activity logging by design. Pay by card or crypto, and open an anonymous account if you prefer.

Static IP option

Add a dedicated personal IP for sources that whitelist a single address, and bind it to your proxy or VPN as needed.

Rotate a directory crawl through the proxy

Point your HTTP client at proxy.s4m.online, authenticate with USER:PASS, and throttle politely. Swap the placeholder host for HTTP (3128) or SOCKS5 (1080).

python
import time
import requests

# s4m datacenter proxy — authenticated, pay-as-you-go
PROXY = "http://USER:[email protected]:3128"        # HTTP
# PROXY = "socks5://USER:[email protected]:1080"    # SOCKS5 (needs requests[socks])

proxies = {"http": PROXY, "https": PROXY}
headers = {"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; s4m-research-bot)"}

directory_pages = [
    "https://example-directory.com/companies?page=1",
    "https://example-directory.com/companies?page=2",
]

for url in directory_pages:
    r = requests.get(url, proxies=proxies, headers=headers, timeout=30)
    print(url, r.status_code, len(r.text))
    # parse r.text for public business data here
    time.sleep(2)   # respect robots.txt + a sane request rate

Scrape ethically and stay GDPR-aware

Hiding your origin IP protects your infrastructure from blocks and abuse — it does not exempt you from the law. Only collect data that is genuinely public, honor each site's robots.txt and terms of service, and throttle your request rate so you do not degrade the source you depend on.

If your prospect list includes personal data on EU residents — names, work emails, phone numbers — the GDPR still applies no matter how the data was fetched: you need a lawful basis, you must honor deletion and objection requests, and cold-outreach rules vary by country. Proxies change the network path, not your legal obligations. Keep collection narrow, documented, and deletable, and consult counsel for your specific use case. Note too that scraping some platforms may violate their terms even when the data is public — weigh that risk before you target them.

FAQ

Questions, answered

Are these residential proxies?

No. s4m sells authenticated datacenter proxies. They are fast and cost-effective and work well for open directories and structured APIs, but some consumer sites detect datacenter ranges more easily than residential IPs, so choose your targets accordingly.

How do I control what a crawler spends?

Proxies are metered by traffic, and usage limits are admin-tunable per account, per account-type, or per IP. Set a cap and an overnight job cannot exceed it.

Can I keep the same IP for a whitelisted source?

Yes. Add the dedicated personal IP add-on for a static address and bind it to your proxy. It stays associated with your s4m account.

Is scraping lead data with proxies legal?

Proxies only hide your origin IP; they do not change your obligations. Collect only public data, respect robots.txt and site terms, and if you handle EU personal data comply with GDPR (lawful basis, deletion, objection). Consult counsel for your use case.

Should I use the free public proxy list for this?

You can test with the free public proxy list, but those are third-party, harvested, use-at-your-own-risk endpoints that are not validated for your workload. For reliable at-scale crawling, use paid authenticated proxies.

Start hiding your origin IP

Spin up authenticated datacenter proxies, pay only for the usage you use, and cap spend with per-account limits. Anonymous signup available.

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