Fugitive CEO Tracked Down After 1 Minute Skype Call

Chief executive Jacob “Kobi” Alexander, who turned fugitive, has been tracked down in Sri Lanka by a private investigator based on a one-minute Skype call he made from Columbo.

Alexander, aged 54, faces fraud charges over a stock options scandal involving the voicemail software firm he founded, Comverse. He became the target of a worldwide manhunt after he failed to answer securities fraud charges.

According to Israeli reports, Alexander was tracked down after a one-minute call made using the Skype IP Telephony service betrayed his presence in Sri Lanka to intelligence agencies. Following the call, made in the nation’s capital Columbo, a detective tracked him down to a villa in the town of Negombo. via BBC

If you think Skype provides anonymity, think again. Skype most likely logs IP addresses from where a call is made. Most likely the phone number of his associates were monitored and federal authorities tracked down the IP address from where the call was made from Skype’s logs. And then it’s child’s play.

BTW. I would think using a Tor network may have made it much harder to track him down.