Laws regarding misuse of emails? Help.

[veganred]

Hi,

Last week I received an email from my brother's email account. The information in the email was devastating to myself and my family. It was signed by "my brother". After a day of crying, I found out that the information was not only wrong but my brother did not send this information to me. Someone (have an idea of who) founded his password and send the email as a "payback" measure of a breakup.

I'm angry and I want this person to be accountable for the pain and suffering that myself and my family endured during this time.

I found a website that located the IP address which only told me that is was sent in the US. If I could define that information a bit more clearly, I could be certain of who sent it and possible take action.

Are there laws to help protect people from email fraud?

Thanks.

LN

[Solo_in_MD]

1. Not really

I am not a lawyer, but do see a fair amount of this...

With the IP address you should be able to get a pretty good location where the machine it was sent from. It will not necessairly get you the acutual sender. It may also have been a forged header. Thats easier than you think. Actual breaking of account password is fairly rare.

Claiming that someone broke into his computer/email account is called the "Hacker X" defense in the antispam circles and it subject ot much derision.

[veganred]

3. thanks

I have not been able to narrow down the info to a specific city, if I could do that it would narrow down at least our idea of who sent it for the family's sake. Any software or site you can tell me about to obtain those specifics?

I headed an organization nearly 10 years ago and had a visitor counter on our site and it provided details of viewers down to the service they used to get online. If I could just find out what service was used to get online or the phone (or area code) that would narrow it down for us.

Thanks for your help.

LN

[Solo_in_MD]

4. PM me

send the complete header, (I don't need/want to see the body) and I will see what I can do in terms of a geolocation.

[BlueJazz]

2. I think the most Cerebral, Intelligent way to solve the Incident is to use this:

[Geezus]

5. Anti-harassment laws include electronic forms of commuication

such as e-mail, Instant-messages, and messageboards. You would have to prove that the person whon sent it did it with malicious intent, which your oririnal message seemed to imply. The charge is still a misdemeanor, with probably a citation as punishment. If, however, this person is known to do this on a more regular basis, it is possible to get multiple counts which may result in jail time. These crimes are federal offenses (almost all internet crimes are), so you might want to contact a local FBI office.