How HARD is it to trace someone on bitcointalk?

[joeyjoe]

Say... some one Scams YOU and you want to file a Lawsuit against them I haven’t had this happen to me but just in case.   

Thanks

It will be likely that the admin have access to the IP address which the person log on to this forum. But if this person is a scammer, they most likely will be using Tor, so it will not be their real IP address.

Doesn't have to be tor. Could be a public wifi connection, could be on a proxy, could be using a VPN etc.

[joeyjoe]

You can easily post an image such as this:



hosted on your own website.

Then anyone who views that image, such as those that are viewing this thread, will have their IP address show up in your site logs.

You can then use those IP addresses as you wish to try to trace every viewer of that image.

You can then run hacking programs on each of those IP addresses to try to gain access to their computers.

Then once in the computer there is a wealth of information that can be found on each and every person who viewed that image.

Great stuff the Internet...

I thought that SMF neutralized IP tracking via images?

Nope, your browser loads that image from the remote site, which can log the downloads.

[Hippie Tech]

@gwedo Have you seen the Reputation and Scam Accusation sections ?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=8.0

Please don't mispell his nick. It is most likely this guy will take advantage of gweedo's rep to get a loan in a near future.

Ooops !

Fixed.

[sushi]

Depends on many factors.

1. Is the scamemer in the same country/state/providence as you?

2. Did the scammer make thing into more of the civil/common law situation rather than the applicable criminal code (It could be a crime  in Canada but may be a civil matter in Italy.

3. Are you willing to trace the scammer via legal (law abiding way) or with some use of the gray-zone tactics.  

4. How much resources are you willing to put into the scammer hunt?  (It may be possible to find the scammers to justice but the cost it may associated could be prohibitable for the average person)

5. Did the person use any black-hat technology while scamming you.  (may not be impossible but differently make things harder)

6. Are you willing to risk your reputation by possibly be in trouble with the local law.

7. Tor, Public Wifi, highjacked unsecured home wifi, restaurant wifi whatever the access is from, more than likely there might be some small mistakes made by the scammers.  We as average citizen can't access the recorded security camera footage from the local MacDonald even we traced the scammers to.  Paying off the store managers or local Lost Prevention guys to give up the store security footage can be very expensive.  Specially paying off the government officials or technicians who maintains Automated Vehicle License Plate Readers if the scammers were seen hopping into the vehicle.  Traffic Cams, train station cameras, general user's smartphone videos.  So many way to find the scammers but the resources it may take can stand in between

paying off your local wireless telephone customer service reps or legal compliance department reps to get the subscriber info for us average citizen is not so easy or cheap.  When it comes to the ISP subscribers info the same way.  

May be we can trace the scammers to the local cat-house wifi or the hotel's business center computers.  Kids can lift the latent prints and collect DNA evidence from the crime scene, however, we don't have access to the database to compare the latent or any of these CSI evidence against, not alone local driver's license or vehicle registration info or even the utility service account holder's info to track them down to.

If the scammers are dumb enough to meet you in person again, then you can bag him/her but we just never know

[LittleD]

Depends on many factors.

1. Is the scamemer in the same country/state/providence as you?

2. Did the scammer make thing into more of the civil/common law situation rather than the applicable criminal code (It could be a crime  in Canada but may be a civil matter in Italy.

3. Are you willing to trace the scammer via legal (law abiding way) or with some use of the gray-zone tactics.  

4. How much resources are you willing to put into the scammer hunt?  (It may be possible to find the scammers to justice but the cost it may associated could be prohibitable for the average person)

5. Did the person use any black-hat technology while scamming you.  (may not be impossible but differently make things harder)

6. Are you willing to risk your reputation by possibly be in trouble with the local law.

7. Tor, Public Wifi, highjacked unsecured home wifi, restaurant wifi whatever the access is from, more than likely there might be some small mistakes made by the scammers.  We as average citizen can't access the recorded security camera footage from the local MacDonald even we traced the scammers to.  Paying off the store managers or local Lost Prevention guys to give up the store security footage can be very expensive.  Specially paying off the government officials or technicians who maintains Automated Vehicle License Plate Readers if the scammers were seen hopping into the vehicle.  Traffic Cams, train station cameras, general user's smartphone videos.  So many way to find the scammers but the resources it may take can stand in between

paying off your local wireless telephone customer service reps or legal compliance department reps to get the subscriber info for us average citizen is not so easy or cheap.  When it comes to the ISP subscribers info the same way.  

May be we can trace the scammers to the local cat-house wifi or the hotel's business center computers.  Kids can lift the latent prints and collect DNA evidence from the crime scene, however, we don't have access to the database to compare the latent or any of these CSI evidence against, not alone local driver's license or vehicle registration info or even the utility service account holder's info to track them down to.

If the scammers are dumb enough to meet you in person again, then you can bag him/her but we just never know

Thanks good info ~