Chat Danger

[sammyyummy]

Hi.
While waiting in yahoo messenger for my partner to come online, someone IMed me and struck up a conversation just to kill time.
Then he started askin specifics like what area I lived in and so. I ignored the questions and then he started telling me what state I was in and city.
I got frightened so i closed the program.


How was he able to do that?
My public profile is empty of any localizing information.
More importantly, how do I prevent him from doing that?


thanks guys...

 

[Paws]

Can your IP address be seen anywhere in this program?

 

[Corny]

^ probably not in the program, but it's easy to get the IP address from any 3rd party program or just by using standard network tools. most messengers rely on a direct end2end connection for chat. and most IP addresses easily reveal this kind of information.
the internet is not anonymous.

 

[sammyyummy]

thanks but how do i prevent such thing from happenin?
im spooked

 

[Corny]

http://www.torproject.org or similar.
huge loss in perfomance, much data loss and fault. but you are somewhat protected.
not worth the hassle for a simple innocent chat.

 

[Paws]

Here's a website for example that shows you all details that can be traced about you on the internet:
http://aruljohn.com/details.php

Though it makes me wonder how your chat partner got the region you live in? Is your ISP a local business?

 

[Corny]

Either a traceroute or a geodatabase can sometimes narrow -down your area a lot. especially if you are living in a bigger or remote city