Anyone ever had their IP address cloned?

chrismorgan21

This one is certainly new to me.
Yesterday google directed me to a money saving expert forum . I tried to get onto the forum to take a look and found that my IP address was banned.
I emailed the site and was told that a range of IP addresses were banned and mine was one. When I questioned this I was told the following

"Hi Chris

To phrase it another way, the ONLY accounts that have been posting from your IP address have previously been abusive on our forum, and in particular abusive to Martin. Do you share your SPECIFIC IP with anyone else? Obviously you can see why we have concerns over it."
From Martins web team

Now this was a shock to me. I asked what kind of messages, and when they were sent and to date have not had a reply. So without any supporting evidence, my IP address has been banned. I don't know whether my ID has been cloned or whether my partner has turned into some insulting lunatic from Weybridge with a penchant for insulting Martin ( I doubt this ) or whether there is a terrible mix up.

I found that I had been on this site under the name "blue --" back in 2007, so quite a long time ago. For the last three years I have used Martins emails to good effect, come back to the site for help with utilities bills, tax and how to buy an Iphone. I have not spent 3 years, months, days or seconds spending my time abusing the forum, or even on the forum.

It is all very odd, and so if anyone else has had their IP address banned and wonders why, please let me know. I feel kind of grubby about the whole thing, like someone has taken my identity and messed around with it, turning me into the "nutter from Weybridge".

Martin if you ever read these posts, I think you are nice guy. Though your team lean to the "guilty until proven innocent". If however my dog ( no children ) is using my laptop whilst I am out to surf the net spreading bad karma and insulting you, then at least I have a worthwhile talented dog story for the News of the World!

If anyone is wondering how I got the post up here, then that's easy, it's through a proxy server. The money expert team told me that my IP address had been sending nasty posts and advised me to keep using my proxy server if I wanted to get onto the forums. All rather odd, I mean if I was this odd chap as they suggest, shouldn't I be insulting someone by now, and why would I be advised to on the forum through a proxy server if I was a bit "odd" and insulting.

If anyone knows the answer to a cloned or taken over IP address please let me know, as although no one had used my credit card for thousands of pounds in some obscure country, I do feel a bit odd that a few tech people in Martins team actualy can suggest that some weirdo has been sending in posts from my IP address.

Regards

Chris

spike7451

I came across cloned modems when I worked for NTL/VM in some customers houses but whether that would affect IP addresses I don't know.That's one of the reasons NTL/VM changed it's encryption software/firmware.

Edinburghlass_2

OP, I've reported this thread to abuse as what you have posted doesn't sound like anything any of the Team would post and they certainly don't use the phrase "Martins web team*.

I'll ask abuse to look into this for you.

chrismorgan21

You are indeed correct " Martins Web Team" was my description for anyone reading my post to describe whoever within Martins team was sending these emails were coming from. As no one has given their name, I used a generic title.

sIt would be helpful if I had a name rather than a Kafka esque email telling me I am banned with no evidence and no follow up. Please be assured this is completely genuine and does cause me a great deal of concern. I am not sure why someone resorted to capital letters to shout words out or provide emphasis, maybe it's someone in Martins team trying to be helpful. Imagine if you got this mail and were completely baffled and innocent. It's not pleasant and a bit worrying.

Here is the second email from someone in Martins employ ,in full below. Unedited and complete and I would be happy to forward this in its original form to anyone that wished to see it. Rather than just see this as cut an paste.

"Hi Chris

To phrase it another way, the ONLY accounts that have been posting from your IP address have previously been abusive on our forum, and in particular abusive to Martin. Do you share your SPECIFIC IP with anyone else? Obviously you can see why we have concerns over it."
- Show quoted text -

kwikbreaks

It makes little sense to block IPs when most UK ISPs use dynamic IP addresses so they can't normally be tied down to an individual except at some specific time.

In short if "Martin's web team" have blocked specific IPs he needs to sack them all and employ somebody who has a clue instead. Unless (oddly enough) they are anonymous proxy IPs.

There is a reasonable chance that if you reboot your router you'll get a different IP unless you specifically have a fixed IP or on an ISP that has "sticky" IPs which can remain the same indefinately(VM and O2 both do).

chrismorgan21

Really appreciated
I took your info to our IS dept at work and had a full chat about this matter.
You are absolutely correct in the info given and your thoughts that blocking an IP address is futile. I switched my router off overnight and I got an new IP address, losing the old one which someone had used previously, for unsavoury posts.

I cannot go as far as to suggest Martin sacks his team, but maybe some education and customer handling skills would not go amiss. They appear to be a sensitive and defensive bunch ( or is it one person ) from the emails I have, and fond of block capitals to shout out key words, perhaps to those people they consider not as bright as themselves.

Either way, job done and stress over. "My" ( as they put it ) IP address was not being used by me or my partner to act in an offensive manner, as it was never "mine" in the first place. Now only if they had added that info on their mails , but I guess they never thought about it.

So thank you so much for the pointer in the right direction.
And in the style of the emails I have from them

THANK YOU.

curiousgeorge1

Chris pointed me to this thread after he noticed that I was complaining of being IP banned over on the GIOL board. My IP has been banned since the 23rd and I haven't heard anything back from the messages I sent about it yet although the mod JobbingMusician says they know about my case. Because I have cable internet it seems I can't renew my IP simply by rebooting.

All I can do is agree with all the points Chris makes above. It all seems a bit pointless banning IPs when even I (computer illiterate as I am) have found a proxy that works for me.

JJ_Egan

One of the problems with copyright and downloading tacked via IP is that cloning of an IP address is not hard to do .

A proxy shows to a web site xxx IP but the originating IP traffic shows the correct IP address at the ISP end .
jje

foodster

hi.
a friend of mine had his ip cloned a while ago.you could always try using software such as peergaurdian which is free.this puts an extra few links in the chain to your ip.i use it most of the time, the only thing with it is it will stop you accesssing the odd page/website.eg, i coudn't register my tesco clubcard with it running and software like steam has trouble with it.all in all though its a usefull tool to hide your pc when your online, especially if you don't have a dynamic ip.