In my last post “Finding IP address of fake Facebook users“, I had discussed, how you can trick the Facebook user into revealing his IP address. In that post, I had linked to an ‘IP tracking’ tool provided by “GeniusHackers”.
Unfortunately, the “GeniusHackers” website went down and now the tool is not accessible. So before I proceed with tracing Facebook user location with the help of his IP address and user-agent, I will list some alternate IP grabbing tools that you can use instead of “GeniusHackers“.
A few years back I had also posted about how to trace Facebook chat location, While it worked at that time, it no more works today. But I would advise you to read that post as well, just to improve your analytical and criminal mindset. Since you will need both if you want to successfully trace and catch the fake Facebook user red-handed.
List of IP grabbing/Tracking Tools
- Blasze IP logger
On the website enter any URL possibly Facebook.com and click ‘submit’. This URL will be shown to your target user once he clicks on the tracking link, i.e he will be redirected to Facebook.com homepage while his IP address and other details get logged by ‘blaze IP logger’. Once you click ‘submit’, you will get some information related to your tracking link. Note down your ‘access code’ and copy your ‘tracking link’ which you will need to send out to the Facebook user whose IP address you want to log.
Now go to the main page after some time and paste your ‘access code’ to check if the victim has clicked the tracking link. (Scroll down a bit to see access logs). Make sure you know your IP first to distinguish with that of target users IP, in case you click on the tracking link. - Grabify IP logger
Grabify is very similar to ‘blaze IP logger’ and provides tracking code just like access code above for you to see logs anytime you want. Just go to the website, enter any URL and click ‘create URL‘. Then you will get your tracking link along with stats link or tracking code. - IPlogger.org
This tool has one unique feature that lets you embed an Invisible picture into any HTML page or website that will automatically log the IP of the visitor without his knowledge. But unless you know HTML and how to host a website online, I would recommend not to use it and instead use a regular redirect URL method. But again if you can learn ‘How to make websites’ (you will find loads of tutorials), this is the best tool.
Once you get your tracking link, make sure you use another URL shorter like TinyURL or bit.ly before sending it to the target Facebook user. This will help mask the tracking URL since all of them have the domain name visible in the link.
There are many disadvantages in using these ‘IP loggers’, like the one I just said above. So it would be great if you could just create your own tracking tool or website. I will soon share the PHP script to do so.
Now let’s see how you can trace the location of a Facebook user using his IP Address and user-agent information.
Tracking Facebook user location
Now here comes the real pain, You have already done enough reconnaissance against the target Facebook user and now you have the IP address and other details of that user.
What Next? There is a 90% chance that the IP address you have just found out is of a proxy server or a person from a location that seems totally unrelated to you. And then there is an anonymous Proxy network called TOR and if in case the Facebook user whom you are trying to track is Using the TOR network, then the whole process of tracking his location will yield no fruit.
So, if the user is using a proxy or TOR network, the only way to trace him down is to engage with him on Facebook using another fake account and apply ‘social engineering‘ methods to extract information, I will discuss it next but before that, we will just assume that the user is not using any kind of anonymity software and is casually harming you using his computer system or mobile phone.
In this situation, it’s very easy to track his location.
In the process of getting an IP address, If you used Blasze or Grabify you must have noticed that in the access logs along with IP there is another set of information called USER-Agent. User-agent is nothing but the computer system which was used by the Facebook user when he clicked the tracking link. Here is the sample USER-agent data:
As you can see above we have two user-agents, the first user-agent is a ‘Windows machine (x64 bit)’ running Windows 8.1 (Windows NT 6.3) and the second one is an ‘Android device’ (Moto G XT-1032) running Android 4.4.4. It also contains information about the web browser used by the user. The Android device is using ‘Google Chrome’ while the former used ‘Firefox 38.0’.
Now that you have sufficient information about the Facebook user, you can compare it with any person you doubt. Just make a list of people you know using the said mobile phone or computer system. If you happen to know the person with the same device configurations, then you have successfully tracked that Facebook user’s location.
Sometimes you might have doubts about some people who might be behind the fake profile in question. But you have no idea about what computer system they are using. In this situation, you make a list of possible suspects and create separate ‘IP tracking’ links for each of them.
Now send the links to these people on their real Facebook profiles. Be careful about how you send the tracking links, make sure your message is well crafted. I recommend you read my previous article for tips.
Once these people click on their respective tracking links, list down their user agents and corresponding IP address. Now compare each of them with the fake Facebook users Information. If there is a match, You Win!. Note that in rare situations the IP address may not match since some internet providers register users with new IP every time they connect to the internet.
Many times you may not find the match that means the people you doubted are either using multiple devices with different internet connections or the culprit is not on your list. In this case, we will use the IP address lookup tool to track the location of the Facebook user.
Tool: https://www.ip2location.com/demo
Go to the above website and enter the Facebook user’s IP address and click ‘search. Once it traces the IP address, it will show you a list of information that will contain Location, Latitude & Longitude, ISP, Domain (ISP name), and other information which might not be relevant.
Important attributes to look up are the Domain that contains the Internet service provider’s name, Location (sometimes not correct). If you think the location is known then just copy the Latitude & Longitude details (Ex: 12°58’33″N 77°36’12″E) and paste it in Google to trace the location. But the most important attribute is the domain.
Once you know the ISP name, go back and match it with all the people you doubted. If any of the people has the same ISP provider, then he might be the possible culprit (IP addresses might not match since ISP provides dynamic IP these days).
In most cases, you should be able to track the location of a Facebook user. If nothing works and the matter is serious, then please approach the police with all your findings and register an FIR against the Facebook user who is bothering you. If you have any questions or doubts, feel free to contact us.
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