Does knowing my IP address allow someone to find my home address? [duplicate]
From answer to question Can a hacker, that knows my IP address, remotely access accounts I have left logged in on my computer? :
IP addresses are not very dangerous when a malicious user knows them. This is somewhat of a myth caused by script kiddies (especially of the video gaming variety) who ominously proclaim that they have your IP address and you better watch out, often with the implication that knowledge of an IP address amounts to full access to a network. The worst common scenario is that a malicious user mounts a denial of service attack on your router, causing your network connection to slow down or break. This can be irritating, but is not particularly dangerous.
If you are dealing with a bitter player for an online video game who you just beat (because that headshot totally didn't hit him) or a spiteful troll on IRC, they may mount a DoS attack against your network in vengeance. In this case, you may want to call your ISP. They may be able to change your IP address or protect you from the attack in order to restore your connection to the network. Even if that does not work, these types of attacks quickly subside. You should probably just avoid associating with the type of person who falls into this category.
There are also other such questions / answers in this site that say that knowing one's IP address is mostly harmless. However, they all focus on the safety of my computer. What about my physical safety?
I've just had the displeasure of meeting a player of the aforementioned sort in a video game. That player was making threats to everyone who scored a point on them in that game. They threatened to SWAT other players as well as drive to other players' homes and kill them irl.
How much of the above is possible?
- I'm not really buying the part about driving to other players' homes and killing them - at least not in the typical case of dynamic IP addresses. They may point to the general town someone lives in, but a random idiot in the internet cannot really obtain someone's physical address from their IP address, can they?
- I'm more concerned about threats to SWAT others. While the idiot might not be able to obtain someone's precise address, the police probably can link an IP address to a precise physical address? Can a well crafted letter to the police really cause a SWAT team to show up at my place if all that the attacker knows is my IP address?
