4 ms·
That Twitter account 'documenting' his actions was actually mostly misdirection, except for very early posts - Evan confirmed this. As for this being like real
by socillion 17y ago
That Twitter account 'documenting' his actions was actually mostly misdirection, except for very early posts - Evan confirmed this.
As for this being like real life, he was specifically trying to have a semi-normal life which included using social networks. Also, the reason we caught him - glossed over in the articles - was that he 'added' a Facebook application following the contest. After that, the Twitter was easy to find. The fact that he visited the app each day meant it was possible to track him in real time, We knew he was at the Denver airport while he was still there.
Summary: he made a mistake on Facebook, which made everything unravel for him although he didn't know it at the time. Although the New Orleans people he followed on Twitter suggested he would go there, what confirmed it was an IP from the area. I agree though that the challenges he was given were the reason we caught him so fast. Without it, though, we would have found him within the next month or so.
The only way he could have avoided getting caught was with extreme paranoia - using a totally different username for each site and similar.
- sireat 17y agoI am not sure what it speaks about "new" real life, that using social networks is considered a necessity these days. I check the few social networks that I am on about 4 times a year(and would much rather not check them at all). IMHO, totally different username for each site would be very normal for someone trying to vanish. Personally, I am curious how they discovered the IP addresses, if he was using TOR.