Can police detect my location if I use Skype?

[prozvon]

Hey there,

Can FBI detect my location from which I make my calls using Skype? I use VPN and proxy service. Is it enough to hide my real IP from police?

Thanks a lot.

Prozvon.

[eric]

The Skype protocol is not published, so you would have to ask Skype for sure, but my guess is yes.

Skype is most likely tracking call information somewhere in their system and could determine where the call is coming from.

[humba3]

There was a story not so long ago... they caught a white collar criminal who fled to another county and thought it was safe to use skype...

[Cybertoy]

actually .. I think if you use VPN then that's the IP that the call with be traceable back to. Now this will depend on the place you do VPN with. If they can go back and figure out who the connection was with then it's traceable.

[hok]

I would agree with Cybertoy. I think you will be far safer if you connect to the Internet via an open Wi-Fi and use it for a short periold of time every time and from different locations that are far apart from each other. vbmenu_register("postmenu_93893", true);

[alexdds]

ok mr spy. one other thing you might want to think of to be safe. if you connect via laptop use one laptop for this particular purpose. In otherwords dont plug the same laptop at home on a static ip. the computer hardware such as the nic card has a mac address unique to it. you could be traced via this "serial number" and that can be used as evidence against you. Network scanners are capable of scanning the network for this information, what you do not know is if skype keeps a log of this, and if they do you may eventually be caught. Keep in mind skype is in the UK so the police will have to either be from the UK or work with interpol to find you and that will only happen if you are commiting a crime that is serious enough for them to persue you interntionally.
Aslo on your laptop dont use a domain when you name your computer,it should not have any identifiable info about you.
Finally another place you might want to consider using skype is a public library assuming you can talk loud enough. but don't use the same location twice since you could be found.

[Cybertoy]

you can change the mac address. So that's not a problem. With linux it's very easy to change your mac address.

[hok]

Basically most software based NIC, MAC can be changed easily regardless operating system.

[alexdds]

I wasn't aware of that. I thought all nic cards have the mac address hard coded. I'll have to look into that.

hok can you change the mac of a sipura spa 1001???

[alexdds]

here is some info I found on changing the mac address of the actual card. Spoofing the mac address is a lot easier than changing the hard coded address of the nic card.

[edit] Changing addresses

Although physical MAC addresses are permanent by design, several mechanisms allow modification, or " Spoofing_attack", of the MAC address that is reported by the operating system. This can be useful for Privacy reasons, for instance when connecting to a Wi-Fi hotspot, or to ensure interoperability. Some Internet_service_provider bind their service to a specific MAC address; if the user then changes their network card or intends to install a Router, the service won't work anymore. Changing the MAC address of the new interface will usually solve the problem. However, this action is generally frowned upon and if the service provider is able to detect that a MAC address is spoofed and prohibits spoofed MAC addresses, this method will not work. Similarly, some software licenses are bound to a specific MAC address. Software-based changes to the MAC address simply modify registry entries and are not permanent; after a reboot, the MAC address will revert to the MAC address physically stored in the card.
A hardware-based change to the MAC address, on the other hand, is permanent because it erases the MAC address physically stored in the card's EEPROM and overwrites it with a desired MAC address. Making this hardware-based modification is tricky, however, as it requires the user to operate Desoldering equipment and an EEPROM Programmer (hardware). A link below outlines the process involved in making a hardware-based change to the MAC address. Due to the difficulty involved, the risk of destroying the network card, and the risk of sustaining serious burns, this method IS NOT ADVISED.
As a MAC address can be changed, it can be unwise to rely on this as a single method of Authentication. IEEE 802.1x is an emerging standard better suited to authenticating devices at a low level

more details can be found here:
MAC_address