Need help from tech savvy folks!

OfAllTheNames

Hi everyone, I posted this in AH and was advised to post it here also:

I'm at my wits end here and don't know where to turn or what to do.

I have a social media outlet, a blog let's say, and a troll has been at me and at me for the past year or so. Always making snide comments which I can handle. I block the troll but they pop up again within hours with a new username.

In the past few weeks they've hugely stepped up their game. They've found my address. They've tweeted me saying they've found all my family's facebooks (they've given names) and they're signing me up for umpteen newsletters using my blog email in my local town. They've also scheduled meetings using my email online with random companies. It is unlikely that this person knows me personally.

I've reported them to Google but Google replied saying they are not violating any terms.

I'm almost in tears here. I fear for my family. I've always taken my personal security online quite seriously. I've never shared personal information, not even the county I live in, so I don't know how this has all happened.

The guards are aware and the investigating guard has done loads to help me. Google are being extremely uncooperative with the police, they are requesting report after report form the guard and the guard says it could take six months to a year for Google to give any information about the troll.

One of the girls is fairly techy and she tried to trace the IP address but it looks like they might be using some software that hides the true IP address? Is that possible?

What can I do? I'm so stressed out.

Jaden

To be honest, ignoring them is the best option. Without any feedback, trolls get bored - it's the attention they want. Any response at all is like a drug to them and they crave it.

Do not under any circumstances respond or acknowledge them. Without fuel, they soon burn out. As for your personal safety, don't worry about that at all. The only power this person has over you, is that which you give them. Remember that. You are far more likely to be hit by lightning than an anonymous troll on the Internet actually having the courage to go near you - it's not what they want.

Any troll worth their salt will obfuscate their identity easily enough. Anonymous Proxies will hide their true IP address, so logs of connections is the first place I'd search. If it's a proxy, that will be a dead end. There are other means, but ask yourself, is this person really worth the effort?

Oink

I agree with Jaden in that whatever you do to get this sorted, you must make sure not to give them any satisfaction whatsoever. Every case is different, but there were a couple of high profiles cases recently enough where the trolls said that they enjoyed getting any sort of reaction at all. They said that in their cases things would have stopped earlier if the victim had ignored them.

Good luck.

tnegun

I wouldn't even bother trying to get their IP. Even with their it you'll able to do very little other than report them to their ISP. When you say they've scheduled meetings have they accessed your email?

OfAllTheNames

tnegun wrote: »

I wouldn't even bother trying to get their IP. Even with their it you'll able to do very little other than report them to their ISP. When you say they've scheduled meetings have they accessed your email?

No, they're found my email on my blog, and used it to sign me up for and schedule meetings with my local weight watchers.

tnegun

ah ok that's not so bad I hate that these co's don't use any confirmation. On second thoughts the IP might not be that fruitless a few years ago I help someone trace the poster of a comment to their employer and a good guess at who was behind the posts was made and the person confronted. It took a good few attempt to get a non proxied or masked IP. They didn't stop straight away but soon after. Do a lookup of the IPs in question at www.ripe.net and see if you get anything useful.

OfAllTheNames

tnegun wrote: »

ah ok that's not so bad I hate that these co's don't use any confirmation. On second thoughts the IP might not be that fruitless a few years ago I help someone trace the poster of a comment to their employer and a good guess at who was behind the posts was made and the person confronted. It took a good few attempt to get a non proxied or masked IP. They didn't stop straight away but soon after. Do a lookup of the IPs in question at .. and see if you get anything useful.

I've done some tinkering myself with the IPs and they're coming back as untraceable because they're using a "reserved IP" does that make sense?

tnegun

OfAllTheNames wrote: »

I've done some tinkering myself with the IPs and they're coming back as untraceable because they're using a "reserved IP" does that make sense?

Do you want to pm me one and I'll take a look?

my3cents

OfAllTheNames wrote: »

I've done some tinkering myself with the IPs and they're coming back as untraceable because they're using a "reserved IP" does that make sense?

If its a reserved IP then you are looking at the wrong IP address. In an email header as you read it from the top you normally find the last IP address you read is the one that the email is sent from. Sometimes the last IP is a reserved address if the sender is on a local network (say work or a library) in which case the next IP address up (or the one after it if there is some local network internal routing) is the local servers IP address the mail has come from

Just google reserved IP address to see what it means. You can occasionally see it when there is a hand off from one server to another online but again the actual server that delivered the email should be traceable.

If all else fails do a who is of every IP address in the header to see the route and work out which is the originating IP.

If its Gmail forget it you can't trace it.