personal details

[bobtheduck]

i went on a web site a while back and considered becoming a member, when i read the conditions etc it said "do not attempt a fraudulant credit card transaction your ip number is *********** which means we can trace you" what is ip number and could they really get my address etc from this? is it allowed to have access to a persons details even though i gave them no info on myself?

[stevie21]

Every device that is connected to the internet is assigned a unique ip address consisting of 4 sets of numbers. Using this, the owners of the website can figure out which country you're in and which ISP you use. If you've committed a crime, ony then can the website (or the police, acting on their behalf) contact your ISP to say "gimme a name and address for ip : 123.123.123.99 ". At the moment you haven't given them anything that identifies you, just some info about your PC. By visiting their website you may inadvertently have told them which operating system you use and which browser etc. but that's another story

[Mattk]

but surely if your ip isnt static they have gained nothing ?

[TommyC]

No, not if the individual IP address of your machine is not static. But most people's home PC's are..!! :o) And even laptop connection ports can eventually be traced, and then each corporate port just whittled down easily to a smallish list of possible users. The moral of the tale is, contrary to popular belief, every major police law-enforcement authority across the world has divisions working on new and faster ways to trace IP addresses, so for better or worse the much-vaunted anonymity of the internet is rapidly becoming, at least as far as law-enforcement purposes, nothing more than a popular myth.

[smithy]

the address allocated by the ISP is logged by timestamp and userid. So the question isn't "gimme a name and address for 123.123.123.99" but "gimme a name and address for whoever was allocated address 123.123.123.99 on 23rd march 2003 @ 15:00"

[santhan]

HI,
1. IP stands for Internet protocol
2. IP number is nothing but an identity of a person where is actually connected from.
3. Doing fraudulent things is an offense by a person on internet which can be identified through IP numbers and can catch him/her.
4. Try this while you are online http://www.ip-details.com/ , on the first page you will see your IP number, your ISP provider and his address.
5. Through your ISP provider, can get your address because you they would have you id and address.