E-mail Harassment
Discussion
A friend of mine is receiving e-mails from a Hot-mail account. The first few were just a bit wired, but the last one has crossed the line and was rather unpleasant, it really upset and scared her.
She thinks it may be someone who works for her.
But has no proof other than the way the E-mail was worded.
I’m no computer expert so know nothing about this kind of thing,
So I’m asking the PH collective for a bit of computer advice.
Can you trace a Hot-mail account back to:
1) a person ?
2) a specific computer ?
3) another e-mail address ?
Or if you can get on to the “suspects” computer is there a way of knowing if they have sent the e-mails through Hot-mail ? (she suspects it’s a guy working for her, that she has had a few problems with before).
So any suggestions ?
I'm certain you can track to where the computer is via the IP address, or from where the mail address was registered etc. I'm sure the technical PH'ers will be able to shed some light, Ted probably knows too.
Tell her to get hard copies of the mails as well. always going to be helpful.
Tell her to get hard copies of the mails as well. always going to be helpful.
This is Hotmail though, everything is done via browsers on the server side - so any trace would lead to Microsoft I would've thought.
That would be why they're using Hotmail.
Best thing to do is to flood their hotmail account with 1000's of spam/mail rejects so he has to close the account down.
Or contact Microsoft/Hotmail and complain??
Or send an email to that address stating you're from Hotmail and you need some details to confirm the account??
Edited to add the last one would be my favourite, it's very easy to make the email look like its from somebody else, there's a site that can do it for you.
>> Edited by schueymcfee on Friday 2nd September 09:21
That would be why they're using Hotmail.
Best thing to do is to flood their hotmail account with 1000's of spam/mail rejects so he has to close the account down.
Or contact Microsoft/Hotmail and complain??
Or send an email to that address stating you're from Hotmail and you need some details to confirm the account??
Edited to add the last one would be my favourite, it's very easy to make the email look like its from somebody else, there's a site that can do it for you.
>> Edited by schueymcfee on Friday 2nd September 09:21
tiga84 said:
I'm certain you can track to where the computer is via the IP address, or from where the mail address was registered etc. I'm sure the technical PH'ers will be able to shed some light, Ted probably knows too.
Tell her to get hard copies of the mails as well. always going to be helpful.
I'm afraid not. When emails are sent the traditional way (using SMTP) then it is possible to trace them based on the mail header. However, Hotmail is more difficult as it's a web based system. All the headers will tell you is that the mail was sent from the Hotmail servers.
If the emails were sent during the day, then presumably the sender will have accessed the Internet at that time, possibly from work? If so, you could check the time that the emails were sent across the Internet Proxy log at work?
Failing that, there will be a complaints procedure at Microsoft for dealing with abuse of their mail system.
You should be able to find something on their web site on that. However, I'm not sure they will be able to release the details you need due to the data protection act, but will be able to stop it.
Darren
edited to add: Another way to check (assuming you have access to his PC at work) is to attempt to login to Hotmail from his account. The chances are, the website will have created a cookie and remembered his logon name which will identify him....
>> Edited by _DeeJay_ on Friday 2nd September 09:27
If you feel it is harrassment call the Police.
Then make it very clear in the office about the matter "some barsteward is sending me crank emails" and then tag on the end "oh well, i've called the Police because this is harrassment".
Then go through with the threat. The person concerned (if they are in the office) will get to hear about it, and may reconsider what they are doing.
One of the things i've found is that if someone thinks they can get away with it (whatever it is) then they rest easy. However, if their little plan is now attracting the attention of the Police, or for instance they will be discovered in X hours, or somehow the plan is beginning to unravel - it gives them real problems. Its something i call "
with their mind" 
Then make it very clear in the office about the matter "some barsteward is sending me crank emails" and then tag on the end "oh well, i've called the Police because this is harrassment".
Then go through with the threat. The person concerned (if they are in the office) will get to hear about it, and may reconsider what they are doing.
One of the things i've found is that if someone thinks they can get away with it (whatever it is) then they rest easy. However, if their little plan is now attracting the attention of the Police, or for instance they will be discovered in X hours, or somehow the plan is beginning to unravel - it gives them real problems. Its something i call "
with their mind" billb said:
if its hotmail it will have the ip address in the header of the network it was sent from so it is easy to see if it came from your work or not. It is then easy to see which computer it was sent from - we did a similar trace here mail me if u need more info / help
Can you explain this in really simple terms for me ? (hay its Friday)
Where do I look for the IP address in the e mail ?
is it in all that garbage at the bottom of the mail ?
If I can trace which PC it came from then she can Fire the sad git. (which is what were trying to achieve).
v8nrg said:
if its hotmail it will have the ip address in the header of the network it was sent from so it is easy to see if it came from your work or not. It is then easy to see which computer it was sent from - we did a similar trace here mail me if u need more info / help
Can you explain this in really simple terms for me ? (hay its Friday)
Where do I look for the IP address in the e mail ?
is it in all that garbage at the bottom of the mail ?
If I can trace which PC it came from then she can Fire the sad git. (which is what were trying to achieve).
if ure using outlook:
open the mail
go view options
at the bottom in the header bit will be the senders ip address. ure ict lot will know if its come from ure router or u can look it up on the net and it should be registered to a company which might help
An IP address is a unique reference on the Internet for you machine such that messages can be send around easily. Each "machine" has it's own IP, but sometimes networks only have one (i.e. at home here I have 2 machines connected to one router. the IP address the world sees is the router not the induvidual machines). As a result, given the IP address you might prove that the original messages came from your network, but probably not which machine.
A couple of options however assuming the messages are sent from the work place:
* Look at the traffic logs for the time the messages were sent (that'll be found in the email headers) - it will give you the internal IP which was accessing hotmail at the time and is easily traced.
* As mentioned, visit the website using his PC and see if it auto-fills a username/password in (some people are Rodneys and save p/words in a public environment).
* Contact Hotmail and see what they can offer
* Lie ("we have proof it came from your machine" and confront him/her, but it could and probably will backfire.
* Block access to Hotmail from your network - it's personal usage on company time anyway.
A couple of options however assuming the messages are sent from the work place:
* Look at the traffic logs for the time the messages were sent (that'll be found in the email headers) - it will give you the internal IP which was accessing hotmail at the time and is easily traced.
* As mentioned, visit the website using his PC and see if it auto-fills a username/password in (some people are Rodneys and save p/words in a public environment).
* Contact Hotmail and see what they can offer
* Lie ("we have proof it came from your machine"
and confront him/her, but it could and probably will backfire. * Block access to Hotmail from your network - it's personal usage on company time anyway.
Mr E said:
If I can trace which PC it came from then she can Fire the sad git. (which is what were trying to achieve).
I'm pretty sure you won't be able to, but take a look at the full headers (it'll be an option or a preference somewhere, depending on what mail software you use).
u can if u set a cunning trap like we did!!
personally i would forward the emails to hotmail customer support or equivilent and copy the sender in to them. i'm pretty sure when you sign up to hotmail you have to give an address and it might just be that they were daft enough to give their real one. at least they will know you are doing something about it. people like this get caught eventually because they are stupid and too immature to deal with life in a grown up manner hence carry out such childish bullying via a computer.
remember, Illegitimis nil carborundum (if you excuse my bad latin)
remember, Illegitimis nil carborundum (if you excuse my bad latin)
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