I was threatened with rape today, NSFW

[jeff47]

279. It's easiest to trace the IP address from which the post was made.

Email doesn't really prove that this person made that post. The person with that email can claim their account was hacked and someone else wrote it. As a result, it's usually better to use IP address.

IP address is your Internet "phone number". Your ISP gives you one. The ISPs have a range of IP addresses they hand out, and they keep a record of what address was given to what customer. So after the fact the police can come in and subpoena all the records and say "someone from this address made this post" because the number and the time matches.

There are ways around all of this. For example, if your neighbor doesn't bother to encrypt their WiFi, you can post from their IP address. They can post from a prepaid cell phone with a fake address. And there are more complex systems like TOR that can be used to hide identity.

Or even the problem that everyone at one physical address usually has the same IP address. The 13-year-old idiot who thinks threats make him cool will have the same address as everyone else in the house. Proving it was him gets tricky.