Programs like IPghost and other 'scramblers' almost never work, minus the almost... there are some ways to mess with your IP but it's never an unlimited, it's usually extremely difficult and very illegal. You can't form a connection through TCP/IP while faking an IP. Hmm... well, certain proxies help hide IPs, although many 'leak it out' through footer standards like X-Forwarded-For or whatever, and programs that help hide the IP usually just mean that they avoid giving it away when it's not necessary, and it's always necessary to communicate between computers. ...If they're accessing the forum they're definitely doing it from or through somewhere/something, be it a public terminal, a proxy running on their best friend's computer, or just their own ISP registered internet connection. Most kiddies/lamers like this fake Nintendo rep don't know enough to use proxies well, and most who do won't go to the effort of extensively using them to 'fool' forum systems, so for the most part it's pretty safe.
(I guess these days so many small local ISPs are getting bought out more and more these days (mine used to easily indicate which general region of Mass I was in, now after getting bought out twice I'm apparently in multiple other states), so the subnet box is more likely to be far away. Sometimes big companies like AOL (and comcast, right? Or does it not do that anymore?) get all sorts of weird ranges and have bizzare systems to make it difficult to figure out where their customers are at (most people are familiar with AOL's anonymity in that regard). )
AW IP Locator sounds neat, I will look around for it!
~Pidgeot