I have my stalkers IP address...now what?

[keepingitcool]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York but just moved to New jersey

Ok, so my ex-wife and Family have taken it upon themselves to create multiple fake/anon pages and slander myself and lady. They have posted some pretty vile things and are doing so nearly everyday. We have tried to block and move on but it's starting to hurt our collective businesses. We're not wealthy/Rich folks but we're resourceful and have a large network. I hired a team of social media specialist to create a Fake Wordpress blog and they were able to move the conversation from Twitter/IG to our fake blog. In wordpress it gives you anyones IP address who comments and we were able to get that in under a week.

So, we're going to get a few more interactions and try to get this loser to confess that they started these terrible blogs about us. I have began talking to an attorney but I'm sure the fee's will be pretty intense. The IP logs are only relevant for a period of time and I want to take action. The person harassing us oddly enough is a young woman who runs a baby-sitting referral business. I know for a fact she cares about that business more than anything.

Question:
Do I move forward with subpoenaing Blogspot (Which is the WORST!) and Tumblr to get documented IP logs directly from these social media networks? I already have the IP address or can I bypass the subpoenas and present my case Pro se to the courts. I tracked the IP and its pretty accurate in terms of the location of where she lives.

I just moved to New Jersey which the laws are a little stricter for libel/defamation .

 

[single317dad]

You'll need to translate that IP address to a real person. This will require the ISP (internet provider for the user such as Comcast, Verizon, etc) providing the user account that was logged into that IP node at the time, and more importantly identifying exactly who was on that end of the connection posting these comments as IP address does not identify a particular computer. For example, if I were to park outside your house and use your WiFi to connect my laptop to the internet, my IP address would trace back to you, not me. So, while getting logs from the social media systems might be important, proving who was behind that IP address will be more important (and exponentially more difficult). A forensic examination of their computer's contents may help.

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York but just moved to New jersey

Ok, so my ex-wife and Family have taken it upon themselves to create multiple fake/anon pages and slander myself and lady. They have posted some pretty vile things and are doing so nearly everyday. We have tried to block and move on but it's starting to hurt our collective businesses. We're not wealthy/Rich folks but we're resourceful and have a large network. I hired a team of social media specialist to create a Fake Wordpress blog and they were able to move the conversation from Twitter/IG to our fake blog. In wordpress it gives you anyones IP address who comments and we were able to get that in under a week.

So, we're going to get a few more interactions and try to get this loser to confess that they started these terrible blogs about us. I have began talking to an attorney but I'm sure the fee's will be pretty intense. The IP logs are only relevant for a period of time and I want to take action. The person harassing us oddly enough is a young woman who runs a baby-sitting referral business. I know for a fact she cares about that business more than anything.

Question:
Do I move forward with subpoenaing Blogger (Which is the WORST!) and Tumblr to get documented IP logs directly from these social media networks. I already have the IP address or can I bypass the subpoenas and present my case Pro se to the courts. I tracked the IP and its pretty accurate in terms of the location of where she lives.

I just moved to New Jersey which the laws are a little stricter for libel/defamation .

What you do now is really up to you and what your end goal is.

Have you contacted the sites for removal of the defamatory material? Some sites will do this upon request - as defamatory material violates their terms of service. Others will require a court order.

If you have already identified the person defaming you, you can send a cease and desist letter to her, advising her that she should delete all of the defamatory material she created from its online locations, publish a retraction in those same locations, cease all further defamation, or face the possibility of a very costly lawsuit that, should she lose, could easily bankrupt her.

Or, you can file suit against her - probably in the state in which she resides (to avoid the additional costs you would probably incur with a jurisdictional fight).

I suggest you sit down with the attorney you have contacted, for at least an initial assessment. Defamation suits ARE costly actions and they will not REPAIR a reputation (either personal or business). All a defamation suit will do is compensate you monetarily for the harm you can prove you have already suffered. Because a defamation suit is public, it can create additional reputational injury. In other words, these suits are not something to jump into without a lot of thought beforehand as to what exactly can and cannot be accomplished by pursuing one.

Good luck.

 

[Ohiogal]

Do you have children with this person? What is being posted about you and your lady? Was said lady in your life before the divorce was final?

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York but just moved to New jersey

Ok, so my ex-wife and Family have taken it upon themselves to create multiple fake/anon pages and slander myself and lady. They have posted some pretty vile things and are doing so nearly everyday. ...

... The person harassing us oddly enough is a young woman who runs a baby-sitting referral business. I know for a fact she cares about that business more than anything.

... I already have the IP address or can I bypass the subpoenas and present my case Pro se to the courts. I tracked the IP and its pretty accurate in terms of the location of where she lives.[/B] ...

Ohiogal's post made me re-read your first post, keepingitcool, and now I have questions. I seem to have done some skipping over your words.

Is your ex-wife the same person as this "young woman who runs a baby-sitting referral business?"

You have an IP address tied to the defamatory postings but you have not yet made the necessary connection between this IP address and an identified person (the ex-wife/her family/the young woman)?

You can file a defamation lawsuit against a John Doe defendant, if you have not identified your defamer. This is generally the first step in obtaining the subpoena necessary for the account information of the person tied to the defamatory material. Or you can continue to try to find the identity of your defamer in the way you have been doing it, although I have some concern about you creating a fake blog in an attempt to get the right visitor to admit to the defamation. The first option, which admittedly stands to be more costly, is a better way to identify the person who has defamed you on the other sites.

Again, you really should have an attorney in your area review this. It is possible, even, that what has been published about you is not defamatory, as vile as you may think it is. Not all vile statements are defamatory.

 

[j_doyle]

Getting the name for an IP number is easy

I sympathize with your problem, but an IP address will not really help your cause. As painful as it is, the best solution would likely be to ignore all they do. After a while, it will no longer provide gratification to whoever is doing this to you, and they will stop. People say bad things and to give them the attention they want, is only feeding the 'troll.' Any number of threads here will show this to be true. If the OP goes away, the conversation will die quickly.

If you want here is a link that will help: IP whois search: cqcounter dot com/whois/

Enter the IP and get the answer

Dad is right, this will likely get you the name of a huge isp 'Verizon' or something similar.

Unless you pull the weight of the FBI or the like, an IP address is useless.

It is almost trivial to post from 30 different IP addresses in an hour.

It would be horrible for you to get the wrong person from the IP number you have, and think they were your stalker. I chose j_doyle as a name here, because it is my next door neighbors name, well .. chaos could insue

 

[quincy]

I sympathize with your problem, but an IP address will not really help your cause. As painful as it is, the best solution would likely be to ignore all they do. After a while, it will no longer provide gratification to whoever is doing this to you, and they will stop. People say bad things and to give them the attention they want, is only feeding the 'troll.' Any number of threads here will show this to be true. If the OP goes away, the conversation will die quickly.

I agree with some of what you are saying here, j_doyle. A lot of what is posted online should be ignored and, eventually, the person who takes glee in causing grief will wander off to wreak havoc elsewhere.

The situation changes a bit, however, when an identified or identifiable business is involved. A Harvard Business study showed that for every negative review of a business posted online, there can be a corresponding drop in revenue. Keepitcooling has indicated that there has already been harm to his business. He has more incentive, therefore, to seek out the identity of his defamer and put a stop to the "vile" statements.

If you want here is a link that will help: IP whois search: cqcounter dot com/whois/

Enter the IP and get the answer

Dad is right, this will likely get you the name of a huge isp 'Verizon' or something similar.

A whois search generally results in a finding like that. It is always worth a try, but I wouldn't hold out much hope of identifying anything other than the ISP.

Unless you pull the weight of the FBI or the like, an IP address is useless.

It is almost trivial to post from 30 different IP addresses in an hour.

The FBI has little interest in defamation suits. But you don't need the FBI to find an IP address useful. IP addresses have been used to support a court's issuance of a subpoena in many many legal actions. They are used with frequency, for example, in the identification of copyright infringers when the infringed material has been tracked.

It would be horrible for you to get the wrong person from the IP number you have, and think they were your stalker. I chose j_doyle as a name here, because it is my next door neighbors name, well .. chaos could insue

Yes, chaos could ensue.