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I have a friend who is being harassed and threatened semi-anonymously via Facebook. She knows *who* it is, but Facebook and Police are characteristically being uselss.

I am kinda useless at this side of deanonymization, but does anyone have advice or resources for deanonymizing enough to get cops to move?

#infosec #batsignal

#InfoSec #batsignal
Canadian Crone
Canadian Crone  
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My suggestion: Shut down FB. #Zuckerberg could care less about what happens there & will not help in any way, shape or form.
#Zuckerberg
silverwizard
silverwizard  
@Canadian Crone I am afraid she cannot do that, and it wont stop the threats.
@Canadian Crone
Canadian Crone
Canadian Crone  
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I shut down my FB account years ago. Curious as to why she can’t …….
Christoph Schmees
Christoph Schmees  
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"Facebook" -- find the error.

The only valid advice is:
LEAVE F.C.BOOK for good.

bjb :devuannew: :emacs:
bjb :devuannew: :emacs:  
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@PC_Fluesterer It might result in the threats being made in a more actionable forum, and then they can pursue legal action.
@Christoph Schmees
chiasm
chiasm  
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that sounds like a horrible situation. I'm a little confused how she could be being harassed on FB if she's made her account Friends Only and then unfriended anyone who is nasty, though. You don't have to be wide open to the public, there (unless you are trying to run a business).

Locking her account down only addresses stopping that avenue for the harasser, though. It doesn't address getting the cops to handle threats. But is her harasser using multiple FB accounts?

bjb :devuannew: :emacs:
bjb :devuannew: :emacs:  
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@chiasm
I don't know them.
But one scenario might be that their family, or friends of family, or others they can't avoid is harassing them. And they need to stay connected to other family members that won't leave facebook.
@chiasm
chiasm
chiasm  
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@bjb that's why I won't leave FB yet either. But there's too little detail given here to give useful advice, yet.
@bjb :devuannew: :emacs:
bjb :devuannew: :emacs:
bjb :devuannew: :emacs:  
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@chiasm I suppose we can only give various suggestions, with the knowledge that it might or might not be helpful in this specific case. But the person might appreciate the effort to help, and it might give others in similar situations some ideas.
@chiasm
silverwizard
silverwizard  
@chiasm the harasser is using one account under a fake name. But it's someone she knows and credibly can harm her. They're just keeping the threats under a fake name.
@chiasm
chiasm
chiasm  
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that's a toughie, for those of us not used to hacking the system like that. Can she screen shot the threats, with date and time and user name, then block that user and see if the same threats show up under another name? That should at least be a start for FB, to show there's a pattern. Proving who it is, though, that I'm not sure about. Can she explain why she thinks she knows who it is? That and the screen shots might be enough to have a conversation with a lawyer.
silverwizard
silverwizard  
@chiasm yeah, that's the steps she took on her own, but they all want *proof* not just "this is the person who threatened me in real life. and now a random facebook account with no other activity has escalated.
@chiasm
chiasm
chiasm  
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hmm. does she have the resources to talk to a lawyer IRL?
chiasm
chiasm  
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oh wait--what do they say constitutes "proof"? Push back on that.
silverwizard
silverwizard  
@chiasm yeah, they claim they need an IP, which someone below gave me an idea to collect
@chiasm
Hypolite Petovan
Hypolite Petovan  
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@silverwizard Facebook requires users to use their legal name, so you can report any account with pseudonym and they have a chance to be locked until the user submits a government ID and their display name will be changed to what’s written on it.

It won’t directly address the harassment but it might help with the identification part of the police process.

@silverwizard
silverwizard
silverwizard  
@Hypolite Petovan Yeah - I just worry they'll abandon the account and make another. It's already a burner. But thanks.
@Hypolite Petovan
silverwizard
silverwizard  

The hell about this is someone goes, "I have a credible threat from this person" and the police response is "Well, did you already do the investigation?"

And now I'm out here trying to be calm, rational, and legal because I don't want to ruin things.

Rivetgeek (He/Him)
Rivetgeek (He/Him)  
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I'm not sure if this is effective, but she might gather what evidence she has and file for a restraining order. Then she goes to the police with that if the harasser continues.
This entry was edited (3 days ago)
silverwizard
silverwizard  

@Rivetgeek (He/Him) Restraining orders suuuuuuck in Ontario - but it's possible. You kinda need to prove immediate harm - but that's hard and the system is saying that it can't prove who it is >.<

A rare time when US restraining orders are the good things.

@Rivetgeek (He/Him)
Jim Jones
Jim Jones  
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if you can host a file on a site where you can look at the access logs and then post a link to that file, you might be able to bait them into downloading the file which could give you their IP address in the access logs. A whois search for the IP address.could get you their ISP and geolocation information on the IP could get you the general area.

That's a lot of "ifs" and "coulds", though.

Jim Jones
Jim Jones  
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here is a Forbes article (that also points to more sources) on how to do it. Beware that it isn't a quick fix, but it can work if they are persistent (and it require some legal action, which isn't always affordable). https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/09/28/how-to-bait-and-catch-the-anonymous-person-harassing-you-on-the-internet/

How To Bait and Catch The Anonymous Person Harassing You On The Internet

Leo Traynor, an Internet user in Ireland, had a problem. More specifically, he had a troll, a very nasty troll.
Kashmir Hill (Forbes)
Jim Jones
Jim Jones  
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the method in the Forbes article uses a blog and site statistics apps to gather the IP information. Same principal.
Jim Jones
Jim Jones  
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from there, if the police still won't do something, it turns to filing court orders to get information from the IP holders about who had the IP at the time of access and harassment.

Good luck.

This entry was edited (3 days ago)
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