This is way off topic. I do not know of any computer message boards where I can ask this question. I know many here are knowledgeable in computers, so I thought I would give it a try. If you know of a computer board where I could get some help, please let me know. Or, if you can answer this, I appreciate the help. About six - eight months ago, I got totally ticked off at someone who was making my life miserable. Being a mature adult (yeah, right), I decided to send some anonymous hate email to this person. My provider is Comcast. I set up a Hotmail account with bogus info to use for the emails. I sent some emails to this person (hateful, but not illegal in any way), and felt better after blowing off steam. Then I forgot about it, thinking there is no way she could trace the emails. Now, I hear that she saved these on her computer and is making an serious effort to find the writer of the emails, even to the point of hiring an attorney and getting subpoenas. Is that possible she can trace these? Is it likely she can? How would she do it? If she traces them, I am in deep doo-doo. Any help is appreciated. I know now I should not have done this so I don't need any comments on that. But I did feel better afterwards. Any help is appreciated. I just ran spell check on this and they indicated doo-doo is not a word.
We have traced you down through your creditnet account, the authorities will be showing up at your place very soon now. Please do not resist or run, it will only make matters worse.
Seriously though, It all depends on what info you gave MSN when you signed up for your bogus Hotmail account, as to whether they can trace you that way ... .. but, when you started your Internet session, your ISP provided you with a temporary IP address and associated that with your ISP account and some info from your computer... if the ISP keep good logs, an investigation of that particular session can be traced, all by following the IP addresses. Your main concern should be this: what did you actually say in the email? Were you threatening or abusive? Depending on how a Court would see this, maybe even terrorism ... but I seriously doubt it. They may make a case of communicating a threat, depending on what you actually said. Just explain you were venting some steam, and at worst you may get admonished or slapped a little bit, but probably nothing too serious. If you visit enough chat rooms and discussion boards, yelling at each other and "flaming" has been around for years, and given the fact you used an anonymous email account, it's not like you were trying to intimidate someone based on who you are, etc ... Just be careful next time. And although they may trace this back to your computer, can they prove it was you, and not another family member, visitor, friend of a child, etc ... that sent the email?
Thanks. It was just venting. Nothing that could get me in trouble legally. But, it could cause problems with this person. Next time, I will use the library computer.
To get all of the session info from your ISP would require a subpoena. It takes more than going to an attorney to get that. Someone would have to show some criminal activity and take it to a judge. If you did nothing illegal, I wouldn't worry about it. Comcast shouldn't give out that info without a court order. I'm not a lawyer, but that's my understanding.
