AIM tracking question

is it possible to track someone's IP and eventually, address and person just through a screename on AIM? i have having issues with an unknown person who keeps harassing me and attempting to send trojans and i am thinking of reporting this to the police. before i do, i just wanted to ask you guys if this is possible. i told the person that i would report to the police and he/she has never signed on again. so now i probably won't be able to get any other information other than the person's screen name. sorry if this is ridiciulous question, but i really want to know :(

Block the user, if it continues:
Document and report to AOL and your ISP, if it continues:
Contact law enforcement, though to be honest they won't do much.

Better off changing your screen name and/or start using a deny by default friends filter.

cheers,

catch

You could hack AOL's server and see from whcih IP the screen names signe on last :p

Nah you won't be able to track him with only having his screen name.

thanks for your advice so far, it is greatly appreciated! i was guessing, please correct me if i'm wrong, that if i contacted aol, they could see when and where the screename was created since after all, it is created within their own servers. but since this isn't a major assault in hacking, i guess they won't even bother?

Nop they won't. Unless you have a court order. But they wouldn't go through all that trouble for the public....

johndoe89,

Quote:

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and he/she has never signed on again

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if that's the case...why worry about it? If he/she comes back...say you reported it and they are in the process of trying to locate him/her...that should sufficiently scare the stuffing out of whoever.

Welcome to AO. 2 suggestions for you -

1. Report the offending screen name to AOL. You can do this by emailing them at [email protected] . They can ban whomever's doing it and report them directly to their ISP if it isn't AOL. They're quite good at their jobs of banning people from using their service, and they WILL investigate every report whether it came from the general public or from the authorities. Send what documentation you have in your email to them.

2. Search your thread topic before starting a new thread - you can do this from the start page of AO in the search blank. There was a thread along this line about a week ago explaining how AIM works and why you can't find out someone's IP. You can read that thread here:
http://www.antionline.com/showthread...hreadid=267105

Hope that helped!

AOL screen names are like hotmail accounts, they can be made without and real info. I have literally dozens of AIM screen names and none have my real info. SO the screen name it self leaves no claim as to who the user is. As far as tracing the IP, then the user was probably using DHCP, which means it could have changed several times over and if it was dial up it would be a new IP every time. even if you could fully provve it was from a certain IP, and that you knew the username was created by you cant prove they were on the computer at the time. The most you can do is report it to aol and they MIGHT deactivate the account, and then the person will create a new one and just be pissed becasue they lost their "ultra 1337 name"

XTC - think on this. Use the data I provided in this thread, and the data provided in the one I linked to. Add 2+2. You will find that:

A screenname links you to an IP address within AOL's systems. ALL screennames do because they're all unique. AOL routinely backtraces IP addresses to verify data within their CRIS system (which is accounts information.) It really matters not that you have hundreds of screennames which aren't yours - they're associated by IP, and if you decide to do something against AOL TOS, they'll bust you for it and you lose all. (TOS being 2 things - Terms of Service agreement, and the folks who enforce it.)

I understand that you can be traced to an IP but for 1) AOL will not give out that info without alot of legal pressure. 2) if its the IP for say a library it makes no difference becasue you have no idea who the user is/was 3) you cant prove who was at the keyboard even if it were a residential acount. It comes down to the little real information they have been nearly useless in this type of situation.

If it's an IP to say, a library, you're absolutely correct that they have nothing they can use. You seem to be presuming that AOL will be required to give out said information. The fact of the matter at hand is that AOL's AIM is the software in question - so their own people would be enforcing its usage. You're right on not being able to prove who was at the keyboard even on a residential account. AOL solves this by denying its services to the account and not the people at the keyboard. Nobody uses an AOL account once it's 'TOSsed' without contacting AOL directly and addressing the problem.

Yea, thats exactly what said in my other post. the most they will do it deactivate the account. If somone is harassing you they arent going to complain to AOL when their account gets shut down, unless of course they are absolute morons.

I know that when u send someone a file if u go into dos (or what they claim is dos now) and use netstat you get an ip address. I don't know if it is an aol ip or the actual computer ip but you can always look into it.

Anonymizer is what we use, they've been subpoenaed and they don't keep any records to subpoena. Aim> Direct connect > nestat -ano 4 > screenshot, that's all it takes.

Actually, the authorities can trace you back even if you have dial-up. Though the case was a murder not a simple online threat. ;) I watched as the FBI subpoenaed mapquest for records of IP addresses requesting map searches of a small town in Iowa before the time of the murders. Some they gave them were AOL accounts, AOL was subpoenaed to handover some history and other info which led them to the guy's mothers house where he did the original map search from another state.