tracking email

[larich7]

I have been getting harrassing emails from a "mystery" person. I just got married and apperantly they have a problem with that. My husband and I are at a loss. They use yahoo, hotmail, and aol accounts. No one at yahoo, aol, etc can help. They told us to go to the police. We think we may know who it is, if we confront them with an "I know it;s you and here's my proof" we are confident it will stop. We just need proof. A detective said he could do it for $300. Did I mention we're newlyweds? broke broke
Can anyone help?
leigh-ann

[Mardi_Gras]

>They told us to go to the police.

Sounds like a good first step.

[engine]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld and congratulations on your recent marriage.

Tracking is one thing, proving an offence is another.

Whatever you do, I would recommend that you do not reply or respond, or acknowledge receipt in any way to the person directly, or to anyone else that might inadvertantly feed back your frustrations. That may add fuel to the fire.

With no reaction, some people may simply give up having found no satisfaction. You could also consider changing your e-mail address.

It depends upon the law in your area of the globe but, the police must be the first port of call.

I'd also keep all documents in your mail program as it's possible to identify header information from the messages. Even if it is AOL or Yahoo, it is an offence to use their services to break the law. It just needs to be proven the individual broke the law.

So, yes, it's a police matter.

This is not legal advice, just my point of view.

[NovaPhoenix]

Hi larich7!

As mardi_gras and engine have stated, the police should be your first port of call on any harrasing emails you receive.
This would come under the same banner as harrsing mail and phone calls and is illegal. Keep all the emails you have received from the person in question as these will be needed by the police if they decide to take this matter further.
The providers you have tried to contact unfortunately are not allowed to give you details about the harraser by law, however if the police do try and help you, then they can use the courts to order the providers to give them the information they need about the harraser details (if they are at all useful).

You should proceed with this as fast as possible, as the provider's information will be less relavent as time goes on. Server logs are overwritten in time, and will make tracing the person very difficult (most of these email services will log the IP number of the person registering their account, and this can be tracked to the the ISP that the person uses, and then maybe tracked back to the person themselves. The later it is left however, the less likely the provider or the ISP will still have the information.

Anyway, I hope that helps a little :)

David.