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Anonymous On Craigslist? Maybe Not
David Utter
Staff Writer
2007-10-23
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
One security researcher found his interest in one particular post on Craigslist piqued so much, he decided to try and track down the poster.
 | | Anonymous On Craigslist? Maybe Not |  |
Kenneth Belva at BlogInfoSec said it only took him one step to figure out who posted a roommates request on Craigslist. Belva thought the bizarre request, by a man looking for two female roomies, merited more attention.
Belva cited human error in leading easily to the poster's identity:
The man's CL post linked to a domain that he owned but he forgot to privative the registration information. The registrar information contained is (sic) full name, his work address, his email address and his personal cell phone number. So, I essentially did it in one step!
Using an email address that has been indexed elsewhere online, or placing a photo of yourself, are the other two ways Belva noted as mistakes people make sometimes when posting anonymously.
He was able to use the email address in the domain registration information to make an educated guess about the poster having a page on MySpace, the social networking site. Though he isn't 100 percent certain, Belva thinks enough he found enough data about the poster on other sites to confirm his identity.
We've mentioned the dangers of posting too much personal information online. Criminals will eagerly grab whatever low-hanging fruit they can to commit identity theft. As this example showed, anonymity suffers from those same habits of posting personally identifiable details too.
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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