Thread: Identity Theft via email....

What email program do you use, Lyndon?

With Outlook, you can right click on the message (no need to open it), select Options, then look at internet headers. It will look something like this:

Return-Path: <graymail@graysonline.com.au>
Received: from graysonline.com.au (graysonline.com.au [202.58.37.241] (may be forged))
by mail17.syd.optusnet.com.au (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id n0KLGL0X010869;
Wed, 21 Jan 2009 08:16:21 +1100
Received: from graysonline.com.au (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1])
by graysonline.com.au (Throo.To(R)) with ESMTP id 202AF306366;
Wed, 21 Jan 2009 08:16:21 +1100 (EST)
Received: (from graymail@localhost)
by graysonline.com.au (8.13.8/8.13.8/Submit) id n0KLGKLM030671;
Wed, 21 Jan 2009 08:16:20 +1100
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 08:16:20 +1100
Message-Id: <200901202116.n0KLGKLM030671@graysonline.com.au>
To:
From: "GrayMail" <graymail@graysonline.com.au>
Content-Type: text/html
Subject: Grill up a storm


I don't know if that will help.

Originally Posted by feral

After finding out what was going on, our daughter has been bullied by this person for about the last two years. We are devastated.

Bullying by girls is not uncommon. Our daughter was, too.

A girl at her school was also bullied and, one day, knelt down on the pedestrian crossing in front of an approaching train where I work. The driver had no chance....

Unfortunately, schools don't seem able to do anything about it.

As Ron says that should give you the IP address of the machine that sent it. where you go from there though I am not sure.

Do you or your daughter have access to an email sent from the bullier that you could compare the IP address from?

Hi Lyndon,

Firstly, sorry to hear what your daughter and your family are going through. This must be very dissapointing.

You can to a certain degree, do what you're asking. If you have an original copy of the message you should be able to view the email headers. This will show the originating IP number of the sender.

There is a problem though.

Hotmail, as a web based service, will only show you which of their servers sent the message (giving you only part of the trail). What you need to do is report the account abuse to Microsoft. This can be done by going to the following link, and searching for the term 'abuse' in the search box:

Windows Live ID and Account Management.

I would also strongly recommend that your daughter changes her account password asap. Using the above link, search for 'password' to do that.

In most cases, there is little chance of securing a prosecution for this sort of thing because of the complications of cross-boarder services, crimes etc. If you did want to go that way though, you would have to request access/session logs from Microsoft (who operate Hotmail/Windows Live) that would reveal the source IP of the user who sent the email. That information could then to cross referenced with ISP logs to identify the account holder who connected to their service and hacked your daughters account. This sort of information is typically only released under legal request.

Good luck,

Mark

First of all I would be changing your daughters pass word, then I would contact the school and make a report as more than likely the person doing this crap in some one from school. The school may not be able to do anything right now but they maybe able to in the future as this is probably not the first time this person has done this sort of thing. I would also be reporting this to the police because if this continues they have the best resources to track this person down. As Ron pointed out there is alot of kids that have taken there own lives over bullying and it needs to be stopped before it goes to far.

Jeff

I sympathise (my grand daughters have had to change schools because of bullying, although not internet), but the problem with hotmail and similar accounts is that the trail will not go back to the computer, but only to the server as suggested, and legal problems arise to go further, as stated.

However, as suggested, the culprit is almost certainly someone from the school and hence the incident should be reported to them - it may be the last straw to do something, as it is quite possible they may have a good idea who is responsible, even lacking any proof. Whether anything is done will depend on the school though.

John

depends how clued in the bully is.

hotmail is dead easy to hack but it is more likely your daughter used a simple password that they have guessed.

hotmail maybe able to find session logs if you can forward them the full headers of the original message etc to their abuse account.

but, if our hero is clued in he will have used an anon proxy site which will leave no trail of any use, i doubt that would be the case tho...

ditch hotmail, use another service.

make sure you always use a password that isnt a dictionary word, and ensure it contains letters and numbers with at least one capitol letter.

All very good advice.

I would report it as far & wide as you can to the appropriate people. This means the school, and police as a starting point.

If there is a record of the incident with them, it will certainly make it easier in the future should the need arise to take matters further.

Many a legal case has been won, (or lost) because someone was able to show that a particular event was not isolated, but was rather, a single event in a chain of many similar events.

Lets hope things don't go that far, but it is best to be on the safe side.


As far as the email goes, yep - change the password ASAP. But then use a different mail service, such as Yahoo or if using Vista, Windows Mail. If you have explained the circumstances of the original email to all of the recipients, then hopefully, they will be understanding and supportive of you & your daughter.