Do you REALLY want to know who someone is?

[Virus.]

So someone is e-mailing you and it's pissing you off. The reason you came here is because your sick of it and you want to get to them, am I right?

So really having their ip isn't enough, is it? You want to call them by their name, know their age, threaten to call their parents. and here's how:

Firstly I have to stress this is nowhere near fool-proof (I'd say only 50% to start with), in fact, the further you want to go, the smaller the chance of success.

The solution is deceptively simple: social networking.

YES! Most people use one account for everything (or their public, and who would get into an internet argument with their private email?) so you can simply take the persons given email, log on to facebook, myspace and do a search for their email (google, likely or popular forums might help too). Tadaa. You may now have their name, which is a good start but that may not be all you want, yes? Their location is most likely posted, but if it isn't, the chances are most of their friends are from the same place, and their information may not be so private. Unfortunately a lot of juicy information may be private so at this point it's a bit harder.

The solution? Add them. Not with your account, silly, make something, it can be anything from "1000 friends in 1000 days!" to a made up, normal name.

If they're lax about friends, they may accept you, if they don't, don't worry, find one of their friends with the MOST friends as they will be the most relaxed and add them. This is to get the "friends only" information (facebook posts are often friends only and these can be great if they post what they're up to).

Knowing that information can be pretty unnerving to any so-called anonymous e-hater. The next, less-full-proof method gets personal. This is for when you are REALLY pissed.

IF you're in luck the person may have their parents added, if so, BRILLIANT! Internet phonebook time! And there you have address, phone number etc. If not you might want to do a search, try narrow it down using friends etc and try the phonebook search. If that fails, oh well, google might have something for you.

So remember, Google is your friend, and not every anonymous e-mailer is quite as anonymous as they think.

Don't let them get to you, it's probably a twelve year old and there is no way they can discover who you are, unless your an idiot.

Good luck!

[clanmills]

Alternatively, you can use your email filter to mark their email as spam. Simply ignore such email.

[Virus.]

Yes, but that's not very fun. Is it?

[wimiadmin]

May not be very fun but retaliation in this manor probably isn't the best approach. What happens if they have your IP and they have masses of computers that can attack yours. Since you don't know what the sender is holding in their hand and with no one else sitting at the table, it's sometimes best to fold and the pot winner will move on and challenge someone else.

I definitely understand your desire to get revenge. I personally would love nothing more than to see every person who has created malicious software/viruses, etc. locked up, but that's not a reality.

These people that create these things thrive off of being one step ahead of the person/people that intend to 'attack'. I don't want to risk losing my data nor getting in to a battle with some little punk who has nothing better to do with their time than to try and waste mine. My time is more valuable so I'd rather do something productive. And in my opinion.....Junk mail.....delete.....move on.

Just my 2 cents.

steps off of soap box

[Virus.]

This isn't my desire to get back on anyone. It's just an idea.

I also wasn't intending for this to be used on hackers or people who make viruses. Simply idots who think they're funny or people who won't listen to reason on some kind of e-mail argument.

Just ignoring them wouldn't help them reason, and it would just lead to them doing it again to someone else. If you stop them there they might think twice before doing it again.

I'm not asking for YOU do do this and I can understand why you won't but this is for the people who don't want to just quit and let them be a dick without punishment.

[clanmills]

Hi V

Yes. I see what and why you're saying all of this. I guess my reaction to your first post was "I couldn't be bothered with all of this". However the title of the thread is "do you REALLY want to know". So you're right - that's a way to find out and give the culprit a damn good fright.

There's no doubt that spam is one of the downers of the internet. It's rather depressing that it exists. Years ago I thought email would branch into 'subscription, guaranteed delivery and knowledge of origin' and 'free and spam infested'. Digital certificates would be required for traffic on subscription-based services. I don't know if any business even tried to establish this, however we certainly live today in the world of 'free spam infested' email.

Robin

[AboveTheLogic]

There is a lot of information out there, even moreso than with social networking.

The person who had posession of my wife's stolen laptop emailed her one day. Using the header information and his full name (which was included in the email, and he used his ISP's email account), I was able to find him. I knew his address, phone number, where he worked, what kind of cars he drove, that he had 1 kid and the kid's name, and some other personal information.

That scared the bajeezus out of him, he went to the cops. Unfortunately for me, the police officer here recorded the MAC address in the report, while the officer out there looked up the serial number and they didn't match so we didn't get it back. Trying to straighten that out would have been more trouble than its worth so I let it go (we got the insurance money anyways).

I guess the point is to use good morals with this stuff or you become part of the problem more than anything.

[Virus.]

That's what I was intending and I hope it isn't misused.

May I ask how you got the information like is kids name?

[AboveTheLogic]

Some google result, it was an article or a school roster or something, I don't remember really.

[Virus.]

Did you say he also used his full name? Well with that kind of information platered on his email no wonder you found him easily.

[AboveTheLogic]

I didn't have his name at first, it took some persistence and luck. I don't remember the exact details but he had a roadrunner and a gmail account, and would only reply from one, but when he finally replied from the other, I had his first and last name.

[Virus.]

May I suggest you sticky this thread, I'd bet it contains the answers to the questions a lot of people come here for.

Last question(s?) Logic, how did replying from the other email account allow you to get his name? Through google? Do the ISPs themselves give away information on anyone just by knowing their associated email?

Sounds like some good detective work on your part.

[AboveTheLogic]

I want to say that he emailed me from gmail but CC'd his roadrunner acct, so I made sure to always reply to all with the hopes that he would reply from his roadrunner account and he eventually did.

Something like that, I might have it backwards, or completely wrong....

[Virus.]

Lol thanks for all the info. May come in handy...

[active]

How much time do you have and what do you value? If you enjoy stress and cortisol, well then get pissed and pick that fight. From my point of view I prefer to spend time with people and issues that reduce my stress level as much as possible.