Hello : Our daughter received a threatning e-mail from an unhappy customer, and is threatning to figure out by her e-mail address and website address the names and e-mails of her customers and then will e-mail them with slanderous statements about her business.

I am just sick about this. Our daughter has worked hard to build a good and honest business. She is a person of good ethics as well. This person is a nut case from my point of view, but still wondering if any one here knows if this is possible?? He is the first and only customer she has ever had to deal with that was this ugly and hateful.

Can some one tell me if there is somewhere she can report this threat to? He said his friend is a computer nut and can do anything and they both work for the government . This does not seem like an idle threat. Thanks Neb :sad:

Threats of this type go to the FBI (http://www.ic3.gov/). But there's no way he can "figure out" her customers just from her email address and web address.

I knew it would be you Doug to respond. THANK YOU!
She found this out today and sent the mails to them but they were blocked ?? She may have to call them first to let them know she wants to forward the mails to them. I am afraid this person is crazy and knows their name and address from her WEB PAGE. This kind of thing scares me!! Neb

They have a web page to file complaints:
http://www.ic3.gov/

Of all things going on in the world that one can expend negative energy about, I am sorry to hear that it is something like this on your daughter.

I learned one thing after being assaulted, best to have things reported ahead of time, that way if he EVER trys anything, email assault, slander anything, it is reported.

I am sending good digital energy your way. :D

glad you brought this up, and I hope others get to read and learn from this situation.

Regards,

Dane

Report it immediately (tto the police too...get a case file open) and remove all contact reference off the website (way too much personal info to be on the www). Can she have anyone stay with her so that she is seldom alone? Does she drive? Make sure she has some sort of baton in the car within easy reach as well as something like mace (something that is legal in yor state). Has she ever done any sort of self defence? If not get her to go...they will teach you how to use her keys as a weapon! Ensure she has mobile in her pocket (not her bag) within easy reach...even at home it must be by her side. These are all preventative measures and habits she must get into. Sorry...I don't mean to cause a panic but rather safe than sorry.

Woah there, I wouldnt go that far. !

Sounds like a lame empty threat to me. Just ignore it.

It is concievable (but unlikely) that they could hack into the e-mail server and read any e-mails currently on the server (they are only plain text files), and any old deleted e-mails, as they are not removed from the server until you compact your folders.

But your address book is kept in your e-mail client (on your computer), so is not accessible to them.

Get your daughter to compact her folders, and all old deleted e-mails will be removed from the server.

To do this in Outlook Express click File > Folder > Compact Folders in Thunderbird its File > Compact Folders

This just sounds like so much hot air though, particularly the government bit.

Sounds like someone with an overinflated sense of self-importance. Likely its nothing to worry about, just some immature idiot who thinks they can get their own way by sending threatening emails.
Make sure she has antivirus protection and a decent firewall. If its just some script kiddie who thinks he's 1337 then she's got nothing to worry about, ofcourse, if he and his 'friend' really do work for the governement then its perfectly possible that they could access all her past emails.
As much as I love the digital revolution, the anonymity and immediateness of the medium makes this sort of thing far too common.

In my mother language we have an expression that translates as: "barking dogs don't bite", which seems to apply here, neb. I'm with Doug, Nancy and aceman: don't worry too much*, keep good records and logs, don't respond to this idiot, and this will probably soon be history.

*In fact that huffin' and puffin' really is a quite hilarious demonstration of impotence... :lol:

We have similar expressions: 'his bark is worse than his bite' - and 'all mouth and no trousers', which I guess to a non-native english speaker, that makes no sense at all ;)

I would also report him immediately to his ISP, if you can resolve his service provider name from either his e-mail address (such as, bellsouth.net, etc.) or if your daughter tracks cookies using something like StatCounter.com from his last visit cookie. I'd also immediately change hosting, e-mail, paypal, etc. passwords and make them very strong, 12-16 character non-mnemonic ones. Lastly, I'd contact her website's hosting service and let them know about the threat to make sure he can't easily break through her defenses.

Good luck,

Lorenzo

Make sure she has antivirus protection and a decent firewall. If its just some script kiddie who thinks he's 1337 then she's got nothing to worry about, ofcourse, if he and his 'friend' really do work for the governement then its perfectly possible that they could access all her past emails.


The version of English I try to use has no mention of a "1337". Could you explain what that is?

Thanks! :)

This unhappy customer should be the one who is worried. If he is a customer, the person he threatened has his name, e-mail, paypal or credit card info. and perhaps his address. All the things the authorities need to find him.

The version of English I try to use has no mention of a "1337". Could you explain what that is?

Thanks! :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet

Out of interest neb, what is your daughter's url? Her personal info could be derived from the dns record.

Thank you all for the response to this situiation. There are so many options here for her to chose from. She is a smart girl and certainly will do all she can to prevent this from getting worse.
Gary , when one compresses e-mails do you lose good e-mails ? I have never heard of doing this. What does this action do?

Again thanks everyone!! Neb :rainbow:

We have similar expressions: 'his bark is worse than his bite' - and 'all mouth and no trousers', which I guess to a non-native english speaker, that makes no sense at all ;)
You guessed right.
You also imply it does make sense to a native one...
Sense? :lol:

Hi Neb,

No you don't lose good e-mails.

When you delete an e-mail, the server just changes a piece of data in the header for the file, it does not remove it from the server. Think of it like deleting a file, it goes to the recycle bin and can be retrieved.

By compacting the folders, it looks for messages with the altered header data and removes them permanently from the e-mail server, a bit like when you empty your recycle bin.

Its a good thing to do this periodically anyway, as it prevents a build up of the size of your e-mail file on the server.

'all mouth and no trousers'

Makes more sense than many other expressions. It's a bit of sexual innuendo -- one who is boastful about things which he is incapable of performing (think "empty" trousers i.e. 'no bulge'). ;)

I've only heard my UK friends use this expression.

Sounds like another fool shooting his mouth off to me Neb. Those that have the ability tend to keep quiet. Those that talk about what they will do, are just blowing hot air. I had a guy off one of the tech forums I'm on, and he made lots of threats about what he was going to do. He thought nobody knew who he was, and that he could do and say what he wanted. But once I had tracked him down and Emailed him a "Cease and Desist" warning, giving his full name and address, he soon shut up :tongue: .

Threats are like water off a ducks back to me, and I find most of them quite amusing. When they do go too far, a "Cease and Desist" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cease_and_desist) warning usually puts a stop to it. :wink:
Might be something she could consider doing :wink: .