"John Doe" suit

[galv]

West Virginia

I own an online business. A person who purchased one of my services and used it to commit denial of service (DoS) attacks on a third party server has breeched my company's acceptable use policy (which he or she agreed to upon signup) and caused damage to not only my company, but the third party server as well. I've demanded this person pay for damages at no avail. I would charge a breech of contract fee of $250 to this person's credit card, but he or she payed with PayPal (a third party merchant). I now intend to file suit against this individual in small claims court. However, it turns out this person committed identity fraud to purchase my services and the payment resulted in a chargeback. I am now not only out of the money I was supposed to get for providing my services to this individual, but I suffered from the illegal activities this individual committed as well.

This person isn't too bright, however, and his or her IP address was logged upon signup. After contacting his or her ISP abuse department to no avail, I am now at the stage of escalating this to a lawsuit. I plan to file a lawsuit against "John Doe" in small claims court and subpoena the ISP for this person's true identity in discovery.

What's ya'lls opinion on this matter - will the court grant my request?

 

[Paddy Reagan]

Candidly, I think you're chasing shadows and that your small claims suit would be a waste of time and money.

He/she is already guilty of identify theft so you know already that you're dealing with someone on the dark side. To sidestep the ISP issue, the culprit needs only to change service providers. With the cameleon-like capabilities of the Internet, it's almost impossible to track down a criminal. Hackers elude law enforcement agencies with virtually unlimited resources for years and, if they're operating off shore, probably forever.

Sadly, your John Doe suit would likely come to nothing except to increase your investment in a hopeless cause. Why would someone who used a false identity to defraud both you and PayPal be stupid enough to leave legitimate traces through an ISP? Obtaining a default judgement should be simple. Collecting it, almost impossible.