I had a problem with a very persistent hacker once. Constantly causing havoc to my systems. I would talk to him on IRC as he wanted to boast about his exploits. Made himself out to be a 24-year-old Russian living in London and had plenty of anecdotes which seemed authentic.
One day I was on IRC talking to him while at home in the evening. He said "Watch this." My wife's cellphone rang and someone screamed down the phone at her. That was the breaking point for me. I put it a €15,000 bounty out there for someone to ID him. A few weeks later I had leads and tracked him down to Germany.
I had German friends dig into it. They found he was a 15-year-old kid working at a video store. My friends called his boss first and gave him the details. Then they called his dear old mother at home and regaled her with the stories of her son's other life.
I ran a very large Internet community of mostly technical people, so I made it known that the money was there and passed on all the details I'd recorded on the guy.
One day I was on IRC talking to him while at home in the evening. He said "Watch this." My wife's cellphone rang and someone screamed down the phone at her. That was the breaking point for me. I put it a €15,000 bounty out there for someone to ID him. A few weeks later I had leads and tracked him down to Germany.
I had German friends dig into it. They found he was a 15-year-old kid working at a video store. My friends called his boss first and gave him the details. Then they called his dear old mother at home and regaled her with the stories of her son's other life.
Never had any trouble from him again after that.