I have been receiving threatening messages on Myspace and want to know
how I can trace the user.  Years ago I lived a very different
lifestyle than I do today.  I did things that were against the law,
but decided to turn my life around.  I moved, got a job, and stopped
talking to all of my old "friends".  I thought that I had left that
chapter of my life behind me.  All of the sudden, 3 1/2 years after I
moved, I started to receive threatening messages.  This person is
trying to blackmail me.  It is obvious that this person was a former
acquaintance because they know very personal information about me.  I
don't want to contact the authorities because my family is well known
in my community.  I don't want hurt them or tarnish their reputation.
If I could find out who the person is and contact them, I'm sure that
they'd be to nervous to continue pursuing me.  So, my question is; is
there a way to trace messages sent on Myspace.com without involving
authorities?  The answer should include where and how this could be
done as well as contact information or links to places that could help
me trace this jerk.  Thank you.

Get rid of the MySpace, then if they want to continuing threatening
you they will have to chose a different method.

Hopefully you didn't put enough information on the MySpace for them to
find out where you are now.

:)

There's a couple things you can do.  Look into www.web-stat.com,
www.hitslink.com or www.createblog.com for what are called IP loggers.
 You can put them on your myspace page, and then if you continue a
dialogue with this person, you can usually match up their messages
with the IP that was collected when they viewed your page.  You can
then take it to various sites, including www.dnsstuff.com and put it
in the IP info box, and it can give you some information about where
they are located.  It's possible they are using what's called a proxy
server, in which case this would not work.

Then there's a more heavy duty route.  http://terikan.forumer.com

On that site, you can sign up for what's probably the only working
profile tracker at this time.  The standard version can get their
profile when they look at your page, which for your intents and
purposes would not be very effective by itself.  However, there is an
advanced version that can find their other myspace profiles (which I'm
betting your blackmailer has) as well as a solid match to their IP,
and other info like what browser they use.

Thank you for your help, it is very much appreciated.