can you track somebody down by using only their IP address?

Question

somebody has used my credit card to purchase a subscription to an online vendor. i think i may know who the person is....however i am unsure. i want to be sure before i either a)accuse the person or b) contact some sort of authority.

i know i have to report this to my credit card company to prevent futher fraud--- but can they even do anything to find the person?

maybe the online vendor can track down the person using the IP address they used to access the website. i'm sure whoever did this isn't stupid---they probably created a fake email account and fake address too----so can they even track them down?

what if the person who used a laptop computer and fed off of somebody else's wireless internet?

besides telling my credit card company, i don't even know what else to do---i don't know anything about internet security. i'm so angry and feel so violated.

Answer 1

Most IP's are assigned to ISP's.
The ISP would have to go back through their logs to identify the person. They likely would only do this for law enforcement.

But, don't be to sure that they vendor tracks IP's.

I'd contact law enforcement, credit card co., and the vendor.
File complaints with each.

Answer 2

You can indeed trace it, but if it is not a permanent IP address like say DSL, then it will change every-time the person connects to the web. Either way I would report it. You need to do that to save you credit from years of harm from ID theft. Some people have fought for 20 years trying to straighten out their credit so do that first.

Answer 3

Yes use the program known as WHOIS or ULTIMA TRACEROUTE they are freeware available at following site.

Answer 4

someone with an I.P. forger tried to run ba packet through my computer,my zone alarm said it prevented it though

Answer 5

That sounds scary, i hope not