Comments for How do I find out who's sending harassing email?

Comment from Justin on 2008-12-05

2008-12-05T18:48:31Z

So if someone lets say calls you dirty names or spreads your business around on facebook or myspace and they are not threatnign you but just causing you to look bad to others or make profiles of you but nothing bad then they can not be tracked?

I am not a lawyer, but as I understand it they can be tracked - maybe - only if they've done something illegal.

- Leo
06-Dec-2008

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A comment on: How do I find out who's sending harassing email?

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Comment from Jake Smith on 2008-03-28

2008-03-29T05:22:55Z

A simple solution is to change email address. Delete the old one, get a new one which does not include your name, and let only those from whom you wish to correspond know the new address. Also, use an address which has more than alphabet characters, such as knot232head45@isp.com

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A comment on: How do I find out who's sending harassing email?

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Comment from Mike Williams on 2008-03-28

2008-03-29T03:36:32Z

All of Leo's comments are true enough, when it comes to a typical email sent by a typical person. But it gets worse if the person has some expertise. There are all sorts of ways to edit the headers of the emails that you send so they appear to come from a totally different IP address, different source email address, etc. So even if the recipient could trace the IP address, he can't be sure that what he reads in the header is true in the first place. Also, even for people without the expertise to do this kind of misdirection on their own, there are plenty of web-based forwarding services that will hide your identity for you, and many of them don't keep any records so police involvement will be useless. So it really is a long shot to hope to trace emails back to the source.

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A comment on: How do I find out who's sending harassing email?

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Comment from Margaret Louk on 2008-03-28

2008-03-29T01:31:34Z

Hi: I would suggest that families that wish to get involved in social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace get a separate email address just for that purpose. That way if the email becomes offensive then close it and set up another. Also complain to the sites managers. We had a problem with MySpace when somebody set up an account in our name with false info. While I do not like the site, a number of relatives are on it so I set up a separate email account and then set up an account with no picture. I still get weird emails but it is manageable. Parents need to let their kids know that what they put out there can come back to them later.

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A comment on: How do I find out who's sending harassing email?

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Comment from Dan Ullman on 2008-03-27

2008-03-27T19:29:56Z

It has been years since I used Facebook but at one time you could not send a message to the user without being signed in yourself. If that is still the case sending a message to the folks who ride herd on the Acceptable Use Policy should result in some action.

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A comment on: How do I find out who's sending harassing email?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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