Identifying the person behind the cyberbullying incident will not be an easy feat. However, some tricks could help you; The secret to this procedure is to use methods and tools that will help you reveal some critical information about your online basher. With the advent of social media and easy access to the internet connection, the digital landscape has become a platform where anyone can post anything-even damaging and false information. With our tips below, you could be able to uncover the attacker’s identity, even if they thought they did it anonymously.
Who Could Be Involved in Your Cyberbullying?
Trolls, bashers, and cyberbullies have become common in the online world. People can encounter false information about them, or their company posted online by a dummy user or an anonymous account. If you want to know the real identity of this person, you will be surprised that you are not alone. Companies are ready to spend thousands of cash to uncover their identity. Building our reputation is costly and takes a long time, only to be ruined by a random cyberbullying poster. It is simply unfair. It has been usual and convenient for people to post damaging statements anonymously. However, it will be relatively easy to uncover their identity if you know what you are doing.
Where Should I Find Cyberbullying Posts About Me?
If you are reading this article, there’s a high chance that you are a victim of this incident. However, if you are not, you could be wondering if there is damaging content about you circulating the internet. Usually, a simple Google search will produce a list of content related to your name. However, there are instances when the article will not show up on the search result. Aside from using search engine sites, here are some ways to spread malicious articles about you.
- Wikipedia Articles
- Emails to competitors, clients, and employees
- New URLs
- Internet Forum
These are just a few platforms where you can find damaging articles about you or your company. To try to avoid the cyberbullying law, these people will post stuff using a fake email address and name. However, they may not be aware that some of their information is accessible to the public.
How Do You Track the Cyberbullying Content?
Even if your attacker is trying to hide his deception using a fake email, there are methods that you can use to track them down and finally stop their cyberbullying online behavior. Online bullies may appear bold in the online world, but once you uncover their identity, they will act like the most behaved person.
Confirm the Email Address
The first thing that you must do is to verify who owns the email address. There are different tools that you can use to achieve this. We recommend Spokeo; it comes with a reverse email search feature. The function of this tool is to perform a deep search, which may include photo-sharing websites, blogsites, forum sites, and social networking channels, to determine whether the email address is active.
There are instances when the person involved in the cyberbullying incident is using an old email. They could also have some pseudo addresses that they use for their other accounts. There is a chance that an email address that is not anonymous could be associated with this account. By paying the required fee, you could quickly complete your search and reveal the person attacking you. One thing lacking about this tool is that it will not tell you about the IP address of the basher.
IP Address: What is It?
An IP address is best described as the unique identifier related to the electronic device using the local network or internet connection. IP or Internet Protocol could be the series of rules governing the data sent on your device. It is the digital fingerprint that the perpetrator will leave online. With this, you could determine the person’s geographical location. It can also uncover various information, like the internet service provider. By having the IP address of the people involved in a cyberbullying incident, you can determine their location with 81% accuracy, as long as they are within the 25-mile range.
Understanding Device Fingerprint
A device fingerprint is something that will let you identify the browser or device used by a person. It is done by collecting unique information, which is based on the configuration of the device. By paying attention to the information, you will develop the profile of the cyberbullying poster. Some of the information that you can gather include:
- MIME-type
- UA (User-Agent) String
- Silverlight Data
- Request Header
- Flash Access Data Files
- Timestamp
- Font Installed
- Time Zone
- Plugins Installed on Browsers
- IP Address
The digital fingerprint would be codes that gather and report these pieces of data and information. You can then put the pieces together to determine an individual’s identity who posted on various social media pages and websites. It is a far more advanced tracking method compared to what cookies can accomplish. Once you are done with this, you may not have the name of the person who committed the cyberbullying online incident, but you know everything about the device they are using.
How Should I Find the Person’s IP Address?
There are multiple ways on how you can track the IP address of a person. However, you should not always expect that it will be simple. There are instances when you will need the subpoena to get this. For example, you might be managing a Wikipedia page, and someone changed it anonymously. He could be posting defamatory statements that are damaging to you and your company. Your access to the person’s IP address will then depend on a couple of things.
Tracking Through Wikipedia
If the cyberbullying poster logged in on Wikipedia, the IP address would still be visible even though they used a fake account. However, you could only obtain this through a subpoena. On the other hand, if they decide not to log in on this platform and edit your page, the edit will remain anonymous, but their IP address will be visible to the public. Once you get a hold of their IP address, it can be pretty easy to create a profile of your attacker.
Snooping
If you managed to get a hold of their email address and need more information provided by the conventional tools, you should try ReadNotify. This tool is designed to monitor the person who will open the email address. It will then provide you a range of information, including the person’s IP address. Here are more pieces of information that you can collect using this tool.
- Forwarded or opened an email
- The number of times they checked the email
- Time spent reading the email
- Any URL clicks
- Map of the user’s location
- Location of their email recipient
- Time and date that they opened the email
When gathering info, the target does not have to click the link or read the whole email; the key is that they must open it. Therefore, be sure to create a subject line that will give the cyberbullies curiosity and encourage them to open the email. Make sure that it will be difficult for them to resist it. Be creative and think of ways to ensure a higher open rate. More than 50% of the recipient will open an email with the subject line “I know who you are.” It is how you can capture information about the person who violated the cyberbullying law.
Honeytrap Sites to Catch the Cyberbullying Poster
There is also a way to gather more information when using ReadNotify. For instance, you can add a link to a honeytrap site to the email. Another option would be to attach files and documents that prompt the recipient to click and download the attachment. So, what is a honeytrap website? It is a website used to lure or tempt the recipient by showing that it has something that they want. People use this to gather the information that will expose the identity of the person involved in the cyberbullying online incident. After the recipient has been directed to the link, different types of info will be available to you.
Comments to Locate the Person Involve in Cyberbullying
If you can’t entice the attacker to open your ReadNotify email, you can bait them by adding the link in the comment section of the defamatory post. We understand how some platforms will allow you to leave your comment while others will not. There could even be a couple of channels that will allow you to send a direct message to the cyberbullying poster. It will not be difficult for you to create a honeytrap website. Reputation Treatment has been doing this method for their clients. They will set up a website using a web-hosting site. Adding an IP tracking program to the website will gather more information for their site visitor.
Adding NoIndex Tag
Remember that you need to add the ”Noindex” tag on your honeytrap website to prevent the search engine spiders from crawling them. With this, you can control the number of people visiting your website. More importantly, you will be able to laser-target the only person who will visit your website. Since the identity of the person involved in breaking the cyberbullying law is your only target, you want to make sure that they will have the first access to your honeytrap website, so you don’t end up overwhelming your traffic. Therefore, you should find ways to send this privately, such as an email or a direct message. However, if you are not achieving success, you can leave it in a comment section.
What Should I Do with the IP Address?
As mentioned here, the IP Address of the perpetrator will not provide you with the exact address; it can only get you close to their location. So, you are probably wondering what’s the use of having their IP address when you can’t determine the precise home address. Well, it helps in narrowing down the places where you should look. For instance, you could be looking for a cyberbullying incident that is happening within your company. To determine this, you could implement your strategies during business hours. If they check their email during office hours, you can capture them doing the deed. Perhaps you will obtain an IP address that belongs to your company server. With this, you can guarantee that someone is attacking you within the office.
What If I Don’t Have the IP Address?
Determining the person involved in breaching the cyberbullying law would be a lot simpler if you had their IP address. However, there are times when the attacker can hide this. For instance, they can hide it using VPN, proxy server, or The Onion Router (TOR). With this, you will have to be more imaginative when trying to gather information about your attacker. You will need to encourage them to send you a document or to post it. Files (such as .ppt, .pps, .xls, .pdf. and .doc) will include a metadata that you can use in identifying and locating your target.
Cyberbullying and online defamation have become a typical incident nowadays. With a bit of patience, you will be able to uncover the attacker’s identity using the methods we mentioned here.