It seems that I have a stalker on an internet forum.

[Worried]

At first he seemed harmless and he pretends to study the same profession that i practise(which is music ralated). He confessed to me a few days ago that he has actually followed me from this music forum, to a forum which is not music related and when i started reading his posts more carefully(he has almost hundred posts right now on this forum that is not music related), i noticed that he only seems to be interested in me and nothing else on the forum. He has also threatened me(whether this is a sick joke i don't know).

It is guite possible that this user is an alterego and a same person as one other user on the same forum, as he is known to have many usernames and alternative personalities on the same forum. If this is the case then these threats are harmless and this is this persons "humour".

I'm not interested in who this person or persons are in real life but I'm obviously interested whether i should be worried and take these "threats" seriously or not. So is there a way to know if these two usernames and forum personalities are in fact the same person or not? If these usernames have a same ip-address for example.

I have used internet quite a lot for many years but don't know much else than how to use email, or watch youtube videos for example. And also I have never encountered this kind of phenomenon before and I do take all kinds of threats very seriously, even on the internet.

 

[Spacehead]

Do you use the same username on both forums?
Off hand i'm not sure how someone would follow you to different forums unless you said you were a member at such-n-such forum, but it's probably possible.

If someone is threatening you i'd contact an administrator at one or both of the forums & see if they could help you out.

This isn't the correct forum for this situation, especially if AnandTech is one of the said forums. If so got to Moderator Discussions.

 

[Worried]

No not on this forum or anything like this.

I'm not a native english speaker so to make sure i'm being hopefully anonymous, i'm asking this in an english forum.

And yes I usually use the same username I use on every forum and generally don't try to hide my identity. Which has probably been a mistake. I'm pretty sure this person doesn't mean harm, but you never know. There are all kinds of people on the internet.

I'm not trying to ask how to do something that is considered a bad etiquette on an internet forum. But rather what I should do to know whether I should take this seriously or not. Because I have not encountered something like this before.

 

[JEDIYoda]

welcome to the internet!!

 

[John Connor]

I know of a way to nab his IP address, but I shouldn't post how to do it though. So long as he doesn't have your home address I wouldn't be too worried. Just be careful what Info. you release out there.

 

[Worried]

I know of a way to nab his IP address, but I shouldn't post how to do it though. So long as he doesn't have your home address I wouldn't be too worried. Just be careful what Info. you release out there.

The problem is that I live in a rather small country and I am a part of a music community, so I'm pretty easy to find. The only thing is that most people think this person is just an internet troll, but i would like to be sure.

I'm not asking anyone to give me advises that might be illegal or bad internet etiquette, but you also probably understand that I am a bit worried.

It's good to know that there is a way to get his ip address, I might look into that if things get too uncomfortable. I don't know if the police can find someone on the internet but I'm pretty sure they don't think this is serious enough to use their resources.

 

[John Connor]

The police can absolutely find someone on the Internet. All they would have to do is subpoena the ISP with their IP address and get all the Info.

 

[Worried]

As I suspected the situation has gotten worse. This forum where I sometimes "hang out" has gotten a lot of new usernames in very short time, which is unusual for that forum. These usernames have a few posts or zero posts. A few of them have threatened me again.

It is possible that these usernames are one person who is a known internet troll on that forum. I have asked about this person from other users from that forum privately and he is some elder guy who are in retirement and he thinks this kind of behaviour is funny. And people say that he's probably just toying with me.

But since the situation has gotten out of hand I would like to be sure if all these usernames come from the same ip-address. I don't want to know who this person is in real life or anything, but just to be sure that I don't have to be afraid.

Could some one direct me, or give me a link(or send me a private message) somewhere where I could read more about how to get someones ip-address. This situation has gotten out of hand.

 

[John Connor]

No, posting info. here on how you can obtain someones IP address is a bad idea, don't you think? What you need to do is go to a Mod or Admin on that forum and complain! If it's serious enough they could report that user's IP to the authorities. And besides, the mods and Admins should see if there is the same IP for all those users. In fact, any forum that gives a crap wouldn't allow multiple accounts.

 

[Spacehead]

I agree with John, especially these parts:

What you need to do is go to a Mod or Admin on that forum and complain!
...the mods and Admins should see if there is the same IP for all those users

 

[Worried]

What you need to do is go to a Mod or Admin on that forum and complain! If it's serious enough they could report that user's IP to the authorities. And besides, the mods and Admins should see if there is the same IP for all those users.

I'm going to try this as well, but I have understood that there are not much moderation in that forum. Still worth a try. Thanks for the advise!!

 

[1sikbITCH]

Make some fake accounts of your own. Use those accounts to spread hate about yourself. The other people will make friends with your fake accounts and then you will find out who they are.

 

[TheGardener]

Ya, creating fake accounts attacking yourself will help build or maintain credibility with the webmaster or moderator of the site.

Really you should ask for help on that website. Give them a chance. You'll have to judge whether you can get help from your local police.

 

[matricks]

Could some one direct me, or give me a link(or send me a private message) somewhere where I could read more about how to get someones ip-address. This situation has gotten out of hand.

You don't have the address, and you don't know how to get it. What do you think you could accomplish if you had it? Trolls have the same IP addresses as everyone else (as your primary goal seems to be to determine whether accounts belong to a troll or not), they don't have 192.202.TROLL.89.

You don't need the IP address of the user to report online harassment to the police. They might not even be able to make use of it, as they might need to retrieve the address from the source to prove the connection (the website hosting harassment posts).

I don't see anything legal you can achieve with the IP address that you can't achieve without it. Please enlighten me.