Investigating a Stalkers Email Address
Everyone has an email address, and many people use multiple email addresses to match different personas. Sometimes this is completely innocent. For example, one may be used to communicate with family, and a different one may be used to communicate with work colleagues. However, at times, people can create multiple email addresses in order to try and mask an identity, to further allow for crime, harassment, taking advantage of retailers, stalking, or other predatory behaviour.
In relation to stalkers, a huge number of people have experienced being stalked at some point in their lives (in the UK alone, 1.5 million people had stalkers in 2019/20 according to the Office for National Statistics) , and in many of these cases, the stalker is known from the initial contact. However, in some instances, the perpetrator is only known through their email address or phone number. Their contact with the victim could be through an anonymous email address that gives no indication of the owner e.g. abcdefg@gm***.com. This can give the impression of anonymity to the stalker, but if that email address has been used for any period of time, then there will be a digital footprint that can be unearthed in order to determine the owner. This evidence of cyberstalking can then be shared with the police if required.
These digital breadcrumbs scattered across the Internet allow us to piece together an identity, in some cases allowing us to determine a name, address or mobile number. Of course, there are examples where someone has simply created an email address the day before, in order to conduct the stalking. In these cases, only time and usage of the email address will allow us to piece together an identity. Without this history, it is sometimes the case that only law enforcement will be able to identify stalkers by opening direct investigations with the email provider e.g. Google. However, even with a new Gmail account, people often use their own name to register (or give clues about their name), thinking that it may never be seen - but Gmail regularly shares this as public information if a digital investigation takes place.
If we assume the email address has been in existence for more than a few months (which we can often determine), then finding out how the email address has been used in the past provides further leads to investigate. For example, has the email address been used to set up a domain name (such as xyz.com), then that may provide further information. If there is a web site too, then associating this website with other sites can then lead to the perpetrator. Similarly, we can investigate other services where the email address may have been used (e.g. has the email address been used to register for a fitness app etc). Before long, we can often compile a profile or an identity of the person conducting the stalking.
We can also look at data available on individuals that have used criminal marketplaces to source information on the stalking victim. These users of illegal marketplaces tend to have ‘just enough’ knowledge to acquire the information they need (e.g. passwords of their victims), but then fail to cover their tracks to the extent required to maintain complete anonymity - meaning we often find real names tied to email addresses that are assumed to be anonymous - frequently along with a home IP address - which then provides us with a general location of the person committing the stalking (an IP address is a unique identifier that refers to a particular device that connects to the wider internet e.g. your router at a point in time).
If we go deeper, we can look at the data being shared between potential stalkers on the unsavoury side of the internet. Frequently, this can lead to a positive result in the identification of a stalker with an unknown identity.
It is also worth looking at different aspects of the communications received. For example, which email address was the stalkers message sent to, and can we cross reference that email address to a service also used by the stalker. Similarly, if your workplace is known to the stalker, there is a strong possibility the stalker has communicated with that workplace via email, for example registering for newsletters or making customer service requests (probably using a different email address). Again, we can cross reference this data (assuming the stalker is outside of the workplace).
Essentially, stalkers often make mistakes with their use of technology, or they trust their data to individuals and places that they really shouldn’t. Those mistakes are what we identify in order to unmask a digital stalker.
Having a stalker will make anyone incredibly anxious, but the fear created by an anonymous person, who could be hiding within your inner circle of friends or workplace colleagues, is incredibly disconcerting.
Help for Victims of Stalking by Anonymous Stalkers:
If you are the victim of digital stalking by an unknown person, and have no new leads on their identity, please feel free to get in touch, and we can often offer assistance at no cost. Ideally, this request would come from your legal representative, and you will be required to firstly report the stalking to your local police force within the UK (we will need the police contact to liaise with).