Can they trace you?

[SD Nihil]

I a couple years ago got out of a xbl clan and well the leader I think just as I was leaving was part of some cult or something. One time someone spoke bably about his faith and his house got burnt down. Another had people come to his house.

 

Well I got out of this clan. Last night I was e-mailing people in my address book a funny link not knowing one of the individuals was someone from that clan who then asked for me back. So I acted like I didn't know who he was talking about and he said sorry thought that was your tag. I'm not saying hwat my tag was.

 

My question is I know in the e-mail header contains an ip address. Can people or hackers somehow find out where you live, or no? I mean I heard it can tell you where city you are in, but any more than that?

 

I'm sory this is not a usual tech question. I just want to make sure that isn't a possibility. I am unlisted and when I throw away things tha might have sensitive info (numbers and such) I do shred them since I heard that is a good idea against identity theft. Am I okay?

 

P.S.: Lets say they wer to save the e0mail from me. When I get a new computer automatically you get a new ip address. On that e-mail they have will the ip address in the header change, or no? Also, I use Outlook Express 6. Should I change that personal e-mail address, or is changing an e-mail address you can't do in outlook express? For the life of me I don't remember how to do that if you can on an e-mail account, or if you have to do it through the ip provider? Its not like I have many contacts on there anyway. And I can easily back up the address book into a .WAB file or just save the addresses in a text file.

 

Should I go through that or no or how?

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

they can trace your ip to within a few blocks of where you live if you're in a city, it's usually less accurate in suburbs.

you don't automatically get assigned a new ip when you get a new computer and even if it did your old ip would prolly get assigned to someone else in your area.

changing your ip won't change the ip in the header they received.

get a gmail account.

stop using outlook express.

 

also this is the best thread in the tech forum

[SD Nihil]

I just hope this guy doesn't think I'm someone he knows. It went like this. I send a funny link to a bunch of people bccing it to everyone. I didn't know one of those was from that old clan. So it went like this:

 

The guy says: Did you want to come back to the clan?

I say: Who are you?

He says: Its me [name] you are [name], right?

I then say: What [name]

He says: Sorry, thought that's what your tag was

 

What do you think does that sound like to you? I was thinking I could say something like I gather random e-mail addreses from a sШpam mail or recipients from others and planed to when I had them send links when I had them to brighten people's day especially in this economy.

 

Does that sound convincing to say? Or should I say about my whole retina situation and that I no longer play online games. Or should I just let this go and say nothing? What do you guys think?

 

Ah so they have an old ip address on an e-mail. So if the ip provider issues a new one then ah so the old e-mail they have with the header will be an out of use ip address. Ah good. Well I'm not in city so yes that helps.

 

In conjunction to my house wheen I did a find ip on google the dot was off by about 300 miles. Well my ip is a static ip, I have a router, and do plan to have 2 computers. 1 game computer and another as a office computer. Wouldn't that constitute a new ip address? Cable static ip address.

[Jae Onasi]

If you don't want to talk to him at all, why would you send a reply?

[Det. Bart Lasiter]

If you don't want to talk to him at all, why would you send a reply?

he'd get suspicious if he didn't send a reply

[Astrotoy7]

also this is the best thread in the tech forum

 

Indeed. You and SD seem to have alot to talk about when it comes to network security

 

@SD

IP security is not my cup-o-tea so I'll let jmac handle this one. She and Ray(wherever he may be) are our resident networking wizards(and much better than the networking wizards in XP)

 

mtfbwya

[SD Nihil]

Turns out that time when I left the leader of the clan was playing a sick joke. According to a trusted friend who just rejoined said the clan is diong better, a angry bossy drill sergant of a member I knew is gone, and yeah it seems this scareing other members was just part of some sick joke the leader was doing to have fun. And they say don't take people seriously on the internet.

 

Egos heck I don't have one. What the heck do I know. Not much. I believe the things I believe, but I don't have problems with anyone.

 

Oh well. I can say this, I've had my fill of clans and people can be real sick with their jokes. Never mind.

[Astrotoy7]

clan, cult, posse, gang... you will do well to stay away from groups that use these words to describe themselves.

 

Harem, Bellydancer troupe, Ladies Beach Volleyball Team, now thats a different story

 

mtfbwya

[SD Nihil]

Too many things people would say that made you really wonder. But then again the leader now lives in Utah so yeah. He's Morman. Not that that's bad or anything. I couldn't see it coming. The clan never had a rules page or warning signs or nothing. I mean heck even the mafia has signs and thye I bet tell you what your getting into. This clan it was like oh the leader wants to make changes to things in a division. Oh the guy leading the division gets angry and gets kicked. Then I hear a story they came ot his house and he's back in. Then at the same time one of my friends who was in anohter clan simply joined the forum and is jst visiting. They tell him he's joined two clans because he by joining the forum that's like being a member. News to me as well. Again no rules list.

 

So they treat my friend like junk. One o the leaders close to the big leader of the clan often talked to me about that this leader was doing the wrong things being overdictatorish. And he spoke out saying action should be taken. So I confront him saying hey man lets get out of here to my friends clan. Then he tells me about one person that made fun of the leader's faith and got his house burnt down. Some guy's boss got sent some increminating pics, and another got their house burnt down so that's why he couldn't leave and that I should just leave quietly. I'd already yelled at one of the guys over me that had really treated my friend like junk before hearing this. So I was like oh man.

 

I get a strange message from him saying I have 2 days. Then on the 2nd day I get a mesage saying I will write a resignation, say I'm stupid, and leave. And if I don't do that they'll ban me. He also said you will not associate with the clan. Go and don't look back. So I had recieved the message at 11pm. So the next day I was going to write the resign message. But the next day he'd already banned me. So I had a couple times someone tried to hack me. Port 53 someone tried to send info from according to Zonealarm, but Zonarlm blocked it. Phew.

 

And now today I mean this week, I send a funny message to several people thinking the name that happened to be a clan member was someone from this forum. My stupid mistake. Then the guy asks if I wanted to come back to the clan and you know from there how I acted like I was not the guy he thougt I was.

 

And now one of my friends who left the clan for my friend's clan now is back with this clan and tells me to relax and tha that whole thing was just an ego driven joke the leader was doing having fun scaring people. When you look at the clan's history they had hackers. I only read the history after I left because then it mattered. It was long since this clan was started in 01. Yeah they got hackers and it "gave them advantage in all things war".

 

So I really hope that was true that it ws just a joke and that people besides the main leader were invoved and it was just a big scare I hope. The guy who told me to resign is no longer there, and my friend says dont' believe everything you hear online becaus they can't or won't do anything to you. Besides SD you don't have anything they want anyway. And they still wanted me back so I told my frined how I can't do clans now due to well you guys know about my retina and beig half blind and losing my sight.

 

And its been a couple days now. So I'm waintg my friends response on a few details of a couple questions. But mostly I jsut want that chapter to be over.

 

Yeah I never saw this coming. I mean how could you. That's why I was making sure about the ip thing. I'm unlisted, and shred important info that I throw away. Meaing stuff that has info on that is trash taht someone could find in the dumpster and steal your identity I shred.

 

I just never saw this coming. Even when you'd hear strange things that might have been warining signs you ignored them because oftne on xbox live people would say stuff like oh my uncle works at microsoft and yes they are working on the beta for this game and that. And oh yes my uncle is doing this and that and this is going to happen. Just uter bull. That's why I didn't believe any of this stuff till it came from a t top lader who scared the heck out of me and now I hear according to my frined that it was all a joke becaus th leader obvously don't care they scared people to death, if that is what the explanation really is. I wonder if they are pulling my frineds leg with that.

 

The point is I hope that they see that I'm just a visually impared guy who is not threat to anyone. There is nothing they want from me, and I hope that when my friend comes back he can say this is all okay. I just want to move on.

[Astrotoy7]

Thank for your sharing SD. It is an unusual experience

 

But please remember, this is a tech news and help forum - any post with alot of "I" in it means that it's probably better suited for your blog. The admins here have enabled them for this very purpose.

 

Nothing wrong with a bit of e-venting, as long as its on a blog. Works wonders for jmac

 

mtfbwya