i.p adress tracking question

Let's say a person posts a picture on a forum which could bring about legal issues and or arrest. If the authorities choose to go after the suspect by first finding out from which forum the picture originally was posted from is there anyway for them to actually find this persons information by and I.p trace? Would the owner of the forum have to submit to giving the authorities the posters I.p adress or would they be able to find this on their own? How about if the poster was using someone elses wireless connection while posting?

 

I doubt highly that law enforcement would have problems tracing but if they needed they could simply get the ip from whomever owns the forum.

Quick story:

I fix pcs on the side. I post ads on craigslist offering services. Last may I post an ad on craigslist asking for a bike. Then I take in 2 MacBook pro laptops to repair from a repeat customer. Says they have passwords she needs off.

I get a call from someone replying to my ad saying I wanna buy a bike. He turns the conversation to "can we meet on the drip by a big hotel to show u said bike?" and I say yes.

BAM! it was a cop! The laptops had lowjack in them. They used this to find ,y ip address and searched that ip on craigslist. Instead of finding my pc repair ads that were not still posted they found the bike wanted ad and got me.

Cops are good at dojmg their jobs.

 

/tracert then contact ISP job done.

 

I'm confused. What did you do that was illegal?

 

I'm confused too. How did you resolve the problem with the police?

 

Sorry for saying WTF, but could I get that in plain understandable English ? or am I too thick to understand it ?

 

I'm confused. What did you do that was illegal?[/QUOTE]

Sorry, I was falling alseep when i typed that on my iPad... two things that make it worse than drunk typing.


i did nothing illiegal.
However i had two stolen laptops in my posession.
The minute that I connected them to the internet, they contacted whichever service that was being used and said "hey, these machines are at ip address xxx.xx.xx.xx!"

I wasnt charged with anything because I was found innocent of anything wrong.

My point was that the police used craigslist to find my ad, based on an IP address that these computers were broadcasting from my house, called me and set me up to catch me.

They collected the goods, and had me get one of the two computers that i had returned to the client back to my condo. When the person returned with the second laptop they sprang out and arrested her.

A few months later I get a letter from the DA (district attorney) saying she was charged with grand theft larceny and I may be called as a witness (or many not), but I never did appear in court.

The IP address is how they found me, and they either had a warrant to access craigslist las vegas to search for me, or they had a different means to sort through the ads and search for my IP.

Either way, the found me.

 

Presumably he was in possession of allegedly stolen goods.

 

That's some good police work, fair play. Shit that you got caught up in it, but you can't fault them for that.

 

I don't understand why the cops would use CL to find you. I would think they figure out who owns the the IP address and then contact the ISP to determine who it belongs to. Then they issue a subpoena to get your contact info. I don't understand the need to go looking for a Craigslist ad that has your IP address.

What did your CL ad say exactly? Did it say "looking for a bike, have to MacBooks to trade"? I think it's more likely that they had a sting and when you brought the MacBook, they found it to be stolen, no?

 

No it was far faster than having to go through my ISP and the courts.
It was quite ingenious if you ask me... If you are ever looking for someone, use CL and if you hit then you almost always have a phone number.

 

That still doesn't make sense. Where exactly was your IP address embedded in Craigslist? I pulled up a random ad and I don't see any IP information in it.

I understand that CL will have your IP address when you post an ad but it's not part of the ad. They would have to contact CL and say "did this IP address www.xxx.yyy.zzz" post an ad?

 

I think you answered your own question

 

All I can say is that las Vegas is a messed up town and there is A-LOT of crap that goes on.
If CL did cooperate with metro (the name of the police here) it would not surprise me.

Remember how CL caved on the adult ads last year. They have no reason to try and hide any user offering any service for free. In fact I think only paid ads have any sort of privacy control.

 

Well, now that you know their tactics, you have no excuse when you get caught in one of the CL sex ad stings.

 

Lol!

Yeah. I could document the cops out here. I really wish I had a good compact camera. My iPhone 3G doesn't do the right job and my giant canon is too big heh.

 

Ditto, tatsujin....

 

Hmm, I don't get the joke. Is it that this thread keeps getting opened and closed? Please explain for the humor-impaired.