Personal abusive e-mails, please help.

I am computer oriented, but not overly adept. My girlfriend began getting sexually explicit e-mails from someone who claims to know her( mentions her dogs name, etc., in e-mails). She has contacted her local PD, with no true help there. I have been attempting to use "whois" and "Arin" to help decipher the ISP and attempt to channel this on down to local server or provider. Is there anything else we could do to figure this episode out? She hasn't replied to the Perv and does not intend to. I know you Geeks can help, please do.
Thanks in advance, tom

 

That has to be pretty scary. I guess I do what Corp Pumishment suggested, and otherwise, block the e-mails, change the e-mail address. Is this an example of technology at its finest?

Willie

 

Yeah, we extended the messages and captured the ISP info, but, it is a bit of a battle of deciphering which is which and whose. Interestingly the cops basically had no interest nor ability to deal with cyber-stuff. We have a ways to go in this and I do appreciate all of the info I glean from everyone here. I am a nurse and my girl is a great gal, we are just a bit miffed at the audacity and the intimate info communicated by the perv. Thanks again ya'll~~tom

ps: please keep sending info , especially if it differs, and thanx again~

 

Be persistant.....I think everyone knows that cops dont like paper work....also is it yahoo mail? If so you can report it to them yahoo. If it is keep reporting it to them, they will take care of it if esp if you send something often ( like once or twice a day would do ).
Or find out what their ISP number and report them to their provider or yours. I see Tim suggested 1 way to find out up there ^^. With any luck maybe they just might lose their internet

 

I think I'd be tempted to contact the provider of the email service (if it's all from the same source), and point out that you have recieved abusive / threatening or alarming emails, and that you do not wish to receive any further emails from this person, and that if you do, legal action will be taken against the provider of the service.
In the UK, a letter like this may be enough to convince them to deal with it . . .

 

No isp should give you or a pi any customer linked data, if the police won't take the case, sadly theres not much that you can do, other then report to the abuse department of that senders isp and hope they do something. If you call an isp and even say hey i want to contact this person at x.x.x.x ip. They generaly won't work with you, just because of legal issues for them. I don't believe you can hold an isp responsible for what someone using there service sends via email, but i could be wrong. Best bet, is to change the address, have her visit the malware forums to make sure theres not any hidden monitering software installed, and make sure she has a firewall running. Its pretty sad that so little can be done, but with out an legal request from police your gonna have lots of trouble getting info. I do wish you the best of luck though.

 

Quick question that might help if any of the other geeks out there can anwser it.

Is there a program that can block emails by identifying the home IP address? That could be a way to block the person even if they change their email address.

The only other advice I can think of is similar to above, keep a record of any that you have so that you can give them to the police if you can get them involved.

If you're girlfriend is using Yahoo or an online email provider then report all emails and get in touch with their complaints/harassment people and if you're using Outlook or another email program on your PC then see if you can set rules that auto-forward the emails to a sperate folder ready to be reported to the authorities later without you/your girlfriend having to read them.

Finally something else that could help. Turn off all types of auto-reply, if the person is getting received receipts and/or read receipts then they know they're getting to you. If you block return receipts then they may lose interest since they have no way to know if the emails are even being read.

 

Mailwasher & all those that installs on the client pc (yours) will not work if it's web-based email like yahoo, hotmail, etc. cuz the server doesn't run your software. If they give you pop3 access (so you can use outlook to get emails), it will work to an extent.

Yahoo email has antispam, but you have to click each sender to block them. Too much work. I get about 200 spams a week.

Tracing ip won't work either if the perpetrator is internet-literate. He could be using a proxy (fake ip).

[perpetrator]==========[us isp]========[korea]=========[yahoo]

& there is multi proxy.

Unfortunately, the anti-cybercrime unit or whatever it is called won't be putting all the resources on one single case (yours).

So what do we do? Prevention. Tighten up your pc. Install & run security apps like firewall, antivirus, antitrojan, antispyware, antirootkit, etc.

What about after the fact? Your reporting to the LPD is a start, but it won't solve the cause. I suspect either your pc or her email (weak password) is hacked since the perpetrator knows the personal info. I suggest:

scan the pc for trojans (virus doesn't steal info)
install a firewall (zonealarm)
change her email & hand it out to close friends
get a work email for all work-related emails
change the email passwords regularly (i do that every month; you can pick a phrase out of a fave song & insert some special characters)

Also try these:

reboot pc
log in as admin
click start > run > enter "cmd" w/o the quotes > enter "netstat -an"
take a screenshot of each page & attach it here
enter "tracert mail.yahoo.com" (or whatever is in the address bar when she checks email)
take a screenshot of each page & attach it here

 

Geesh, you guys are Geeks!
Thanks so much for the continued replies.
Updates:
1.Cops are a dead end.
2.Continuing to use tracers and collect e-mails from friends/family that may have the Pervs emails themselves, esp. if this perv is a person close to my girlfriend.
3.Have resisted reporting the abuse ( other than cops) because we would like to id this Perv.
4. Can obviously block, but want to id, so we allow them(e-mails)to come in.
5. Perv has now used gf's childrens names in e-mails, so perv is aware or at least knows 'of' family.
6. Perv first fwd'd the originating e-mail to him/herself so, he obviously wasn't sure if he was cloaked. Also, he is not using a privoxy-like program. I have at least narrowed it down to geographics, but am continuing to be diligent and not mislead myself.
7. I need to put this to rest so my gf can go back to being the happy go lucky divine soul that she is. This perv hasn't changed her, but it hasn't helped her feelings of security. We all know or at least should know that women in general have to live at a heightened state of security compared to fellas. With that in mind, whether women or men like to admit it, it is a part of our duty as men to help maintain their security.

thanx again ya'll. I'll update as we go along.
tom

 

akhilles. cmd is working, but netstat-an doesn't compute. can you be clearer or reply yet again on the commands...thanx~~t

 

just do netstat

 

Great link, but i really think you need to let it go as hard as that may be. The isp really won't have any care, unless its brought by a police/fbi blah blah type service. I would definitaly visit the malware forum if you haven't to have our spyware experts make sure your machine is clean of any spyware/monitering software to prevent this from happening.

 

You don't type double quotes. Just the command & any parameters.