Exclusive: How To Trace An IP Address
June 1, 2017 | Technology
Are you being stalked or harassed, blackmailed or antagonised online and need to know who is behind it? An IP Address Trace may be the answer.
Don’t despair, The Investigators might be able to help you. Identifying an IP address is the key to this type of investigation. Although rarely straightforward, there are several methods to track down the owner of an IP address.
An IP (“Internet Protocol”) address is simply the label assigned to a computer when it is connected to the Internet. If the IP address can be isolated then there is a very good chance that the person using the computer can also be identified with some good old fashioned detective work.
Unfortunately Facebook messages, Snapchat and tweets don’t show IP addresses. Some email clients such as Hotmail and others record the IP address of the sender, but we have found that most nefarious activity is conducted via Gmail. Emails passing through Gmail are stripped of header information and therefore the IP address is unavailable. This means that other methods are required to identify the IP address.
These methods are varied; but suffice to say are equally as cunning as the offender committing the crimes.
If you are suffering financially or emotionally and the harassment is serious enough to warrant investigation then we can assist in locating who is behind an IP address.
How do you do it?
The first thing we do is obtain the IP address of the offender. This is done by examining the header information from an email received from the offender.
In an e-mail, the body (content text) is always preceded by header lines that identify particular routing information of the message, including the sender, recipient, date and subject. Some headers are mandatory, such as the FROM, TO and DATE headers. Others are optional, but very commonly used, such as SUBJECT and CC.
To get a header information, open the email message by clicking on it. Click on Details (right above the To: and From: fields) and choose View Message Source. This is the header information. Users can copy and paste this into free tools online to trace the IP address.
Problems
However there are some problems with this. Many IP address are dynamic, or ever changing. When we ask our internet service provider (ISP) to connect us, whilst we are given an IP address it is only “leased” to us. These IP addresses typically expire quite quickly at which point it is renewed if you continue to want access, or it is given to someone else if we have disconnected. The next connection provides you with a completely different address.
Look up an address and it will usually only tell you who the ISP is, not who held the lease at a specific time.
Using free tools to trace IP addresses usually won’t be able to tell you exactly where they are, but can give you a reasonable idea what city they are in and what hosting provider they are using.
Rather than use IP addresses to justify searches and arrests, a recent white paper suggests that police and courts treat IP information as they would an anonymous tip. In such cases, the paper argues, police would use the IP address as a starting point and then seek additional evidence.
As with informants, the IP address information that police provide in warrant applications requires explaining the context and corroboration, including: where the address information was obtained, how that was mapped to a physical location or a person, and whether there are other facts that bear on its reliability, such as the listing of the IP address on a Tor server list.
What now?
As is the case with any investigation, it is important to realise that you are dealing with the unknown. The (relative) anonymity of the internet means that people are often able to get away with things online that otherwise would land them firmly in court.
If you feel that police are not doing enough to help you or taking the matter seriously enough; a Private Investigator with experience in Cyber Crime Investigations is a good choice when it comes to resolving your case.
Click here to learn more about our cyber crime services. Call us on 0800 747 633, or click here to email our team of experienced Private Investigators.
