Thread: Evil people and my computer-help!!!!

I had to go to this website because an adult told me that it had information on it that was “injuring him”....don’t ask please. When I clicked on the site it said something like “you have to be invited to enter this site. Your IP address is xxx. xxxx.xxxxx and your email is xxxxxxx.com”. I immediately exited but the IP address and email address were mine and now these evil people have my email and IP address. I also have a Mac so I know they have my mac #. My email address has no personal identification in it.

I have received varying opinions on the following questions from people who may be ignorant. Does anyone here have answers to help?

Can these evil people identify who I am and where I live? Is it true that if I unplug my router overnight that I will get a new IP address tomorrow morning? Is it true that people can actually spoof an IP number and do bad things with it? Will it do any good to cancel this email address?

THANKS!

Client-side scripting can accomplish a lot of things, but to my knowledge, divining someone's email address is not one of them. XD If you're sure the person who told you to go to that site wasn't playing a joke on you, there's not much we can do without seeing the site.

Edit:

Originally Posted by Liz

Is it true that if I unplug my router overnight that I will get a new IP address tomorrow morning?

Resetting your router will only change your IP address if you have a dynamic one. Static IP addresses, as their name implies, don't change.

People knowing your IP address is not a problem
(as a moderator on this forum, I know your IP)

If you're tech savvy, it's possible to deduce a lot of stuff about people
I know your using a mobile 3G connection provided by Comcast

Your email address, however, is a different matter

Have you visited the site before?
Some sites will store information on *your* computer (called a cookie), so you don't have to re-enter all the info when you go back there

It's possible the site was just re-displaying info you'd previously entered?

Can you PM me the link to the site you went to?

Site uses OpenID

When logged into another OpenID service,
The website will attempt to automatically log you in with your OpenID

- Sign out of all OpenID sites (Google uses OpenID)
- Visit the site, your prompted for username and password
- Sign in to Google
- Visit the site, and the site will attempt to login using your OpenID information (but fails because the site is invite only)

This all happens client-side
The website does not know your email address
This is no cause for concern

I thank everyone for responding.

If they email you, forward the email to [email protected]. Most email clients recognize this action and will automatically block any other emails from this and the government will put the address in the database. They're supposed to fine the spammer, but I don't think that they do

Just for completeness,
the only people who can tie an IP address to personal information is your service provider

(personal information being name, postal address, contact details - they know these things, cause they bill you)

Short of a court order, no ISP will release these details to 3rd parties