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I have the biggest problem and I'm hoping you can shed some light on this. Until recently I used to work with a guy who has a web design company in UK. After a payment dispute which I'm not going to get into I decided to draw a bit of attention on him.
I sent emails to all the webmasters involved in link exchange with him and told them that he no longer links to them and that they are free to remove the links. Now all the emails were sent to sites that company X is indeed no longer linking to and who have the right to remove those links. The problem is I made the emails appear as coming from company X e.g From says Company X and return email says user@companyx.com where user is my first name. The mail server used was a private one I have always used
The guy now says he's gathered enough info from webmasters about fake emails to sue me. Can he do that? I know I shouldn't have made the emails appear as coming from me but still is it serious enough for legal action? I should mention I do not live in the UK.
Thanks
Sorry to say, but I don't think you should have sent the e-mails at all. Tempting as it may be, I have never found the seeking of revenge as a productive use of time.
In any event, welcome to WebmasterWorld icorgema.
You did do something really foolish (we'll welcome you here anyway :)) and I suspect at a minimum you are going to have some sleepless nights over it. My guess, though, is that he won't really bother suing you. In the meantime, and in the future, I would keep a very low profile with this guy. You have given him really good reasons to not like you.
As he has pointed out to you, there is a way to settle disputes - through the court systems, not through forged e-mails. Learn your lesson (I suspect you have), move on, and hope for the best.
