scammed

I am currently acting on behalf of a person. investigating the loss of up to $100,000. in what appears to be a advance fee fraud. have cross referenced a quantity of information in relation to scammers. fraudulent website claiming to be security and finance organisation operating out of malaysia. I do not understand why it is not possible to trace scammers via IP addresses, ISP and mobile phone service provder information. victim is still in contact with scammer.

Tracing someone via an IP address is not as simple as it seems. The vast majority of people do not have static IP addresses--every time they go online, they get a different IP address from the provider's pool. Can the provider trace the IP address to an account? Probably--but not without a warrant or government intervention. And, even then, if the scammer is using an internet cafe, which is also common, the IP may lead investigators to a computer, but it may be difficult, if not impossible, to establish who was using that particular computer when it was used for scamming. In the simpler scenario, in which the IP address is traced to a particular computer, evidence is still required to connect it to a particular user.

As far as cellular phones go, it's not too difficult to register a phone using false information, especially phones that allow users to buy minutes or credits. Most scammers are smart enough not to use a phone registered to themselves for scamming. So again, tracing the scammer is not a simple process, and it will likely require intervention from the authorities with warrants, etc.

In both cases, chances are you will not be able to trace the person without the assistance of the government of the country the scammer is in. Most governments are not going to respond to a request from a citizen of another country--requests for assistance have to go through formal channels. Those formal channels usually include your government and the other country's government, and lots of political red tape.

thankyou dotti. i will take everything you have said onboard. I have a question for you in relation to ip addreses. I have used the ip tracker to glean co-ordinates of the source of scam emails. the disturbing news is that the country of origin is reportedly Australia. This is strange considering that the emails contain contact information for a real existing address in malaysia. Could there be a reason why the IP tracker is not picking up on the real source? And do you know or understand why the co-ordinates given by the ip tracker are always or seem to be in unusual locations. ie: like in the middle of a paddock or vacant lot?

Hi grubdog,

There is a way to disguise the real location which some scammers use. Also some ISPs do not show the user's IP location. IPs are not exact, for the most part they will give a city, but not an address. Scammers do not want you to find their exact address, so they use these means to hide.

I hope this helps you. Getting legal action across country lines is a huge hurdle as Dotti said. Scammers know all of this and count on it to roam free.