Can someone obtain your IP address and post on a website from your IP?

Question

The cops just showed up at my house about a missing baby ad on Craigslist (cops said it looked like a joke). They contacted Craigslist about the IP, then asked Comcast who it belongs to, and they said it came from my house. So the cops came and asked each of us if we did it. Now, I doubt my parents would do that, I doubt my brothers would do that (they are both 18+), and I know I didn't do that. So is there a way that someone could have posted from our IP?

Answer 1

If you have unsecured WiFi (no password, or guessable/crackable), someone nearby might have used it, even from a parked car. Unless you have good logs in your router, you can't really tell. Even if you do have logs, the timestamps might be wrong unless you know the clock's right - can correlate things you know you did yourself with log entries for that time.



Craigslist or the cops or Comcast might have made a mistake, too. You usually get a different ip address every time you switch off the router or reset it, maybe more often. and to correlate logs you need the right time and timezone information on everything.



It's also not impossible that someone might have hacked into one of your computers and done this by remote control, just because they thought it was funny or as an attempt to SWAT you or your brothers. In which case I'd expect to see evidence of some kind of remote control program, which may or may not show up on a malware scan.

Answer 2

Yes it is very possible if someone knows what they are doing. Its called spoofing. Basically it would mainly be done with a hacked modem which the user can change the mac ID on along with the IPs that show up while they surf the web or what ever. These types of modems are highly illegal for obvious reasons but not hard to come by. Anyone live near you that doesn't like you or your family? Perhaps you pissed someone off online? Grabbing someones IP is very easy to do also as far as finding out what your current one is. With the hacked modem they don't even need to know your current IP as the modem when turned on will automatically pull an IP threw your ISP as every modem on most ISPs now days requires your modems mac address in their servers to gain access to the internet to cut down on people getting free internet. What can you do to stop it? Nothing, unless the police can figure out who is doing it. Comcast can find out faster by watching for the 2 identical mac addresses showing up trying to gain access to the web.

Answer 3

Someone could be inside your Internet or router or they could be spoofing their IP address

Answer 4

well, if your WiFi has no password, or if your password is easy to guess (or is the default), anybody with a wireless device could use it...and it would use YOUR IP

Answer 5

thats funny. but anyone who has acsess to internet over at your house, it can be traced back. use the ipconfig command in cmd.