fake googlebot?

from a comcast IP address

[SumGuy]

Got this recently:

67.175.168.56 - 200 - GET - /default.html
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

That IP is this: c-67-175-168-56.hsd1.il.comcast.net

My IP blocking list is up to 630 million IPv4 addresses. I block some (not many) residential IP's. I rarely, rarely see hits from non-google IP's that claim to be googlebots. I don't believe I've ever seen one from a US-based residential / consumer ISP like comcast.

Although I am aware of the phenomena of some consumer ISP's selling or renting blocks of IP's to third parties...

[lucy24]

A few years back, claiming to be the Googlebot was a popular gimmick among robots who thought--erroneously--it would open more doors for them. But as more sites set up rules along the lines of

UA {Googlebot}
+
IP {not Google crawl range}
=
action DENY

you started seeing fewer fake Googlebots. But they'll never go out of fashion entirely.

[tangor]

...and keep in mind there's always a new crop of kiddies who think they are smarter than anyone else and end up DOING THE SAME OLD THINGS year on year simply because they are NOT looking at the actual big picture!

(They all think they are geniuses---and we are all stupid.)

Google range? Check, pass through.
Not Google range? Move along, kiddie!