Inappropriate personal emails sent to office

[Raekwon]

Good Morning,

I have someone in my office that had a bad end to a relationship and that person is now looking up the company directory and emailing inappropriate stuff to multiple people from new Hotmail accounts. Besides blocking the sending address what can we do as we can't block the domain?

Has anyone dealt with this before?

[psicodude]

Other than blocking the entire domain, there isn't much you can do to block the emails from coming in.

Never underestimate how dumb people are. If you have an internet access logging system, search through it for Hotmail website access. Typically, these people can't help themselves and will check their secret Hotmail email from a work computer.

[Hockeyguy15]

Isn't this something that the person needs to get the police involved on?

[Wormius]

I think maybe report these all to Hotmail? If the person is opening new accounts from the same IP, maybe they can stop them.

Also, is the material going to multiple people at the same time? Might be able to filter that way. Any emails going to multiple employees from a Hotmail account can be categorized as junk, at least temporarily until the ex-bf/gf gets bored and moves on.

If you don't do a lot of business with people using Hotmail, you could also just block it.

[killer_carlson]

Get a lawyer and file a civil injunction.

Have the fellow explain to the Court why he should be permitted to do this.

[Fuzz]

Do you have a company lawyer? I'm sure a finely crafted legal letter will be more successful than trying to play internet wack-a-mole.

[Galakanokis]

Went through this years ago and all it took was a friendly letter from a lawyer to get things to stop. Otherwise, I see no way technically to stop the emails from coming in.

[Stealth22]

Wait, so I'm having trouble understanding your post. Did the employee leave on not-so-good terms, and is doing this, or is it the employee's ex?

Either way, you know the identity of who is responsible, or at least, can get it easily. A letter from the company lawyer or a visit from the police will solve this pretty quickly.

From a technical standpoint, even if you block Hotmail, they'll use something else...there are plenty of free e-mail providers out there. And if you have the technical know-how, you don't even need your own account, you just need to find a mail relay that's open.

Like Fuzz said, there are easier ways than trying to play Internet Whack-a-Mole. (I'm stealing that phrase and filing it for safe-keeping, Fuzz! )

[Raekwon]

Thanks everyone, she knows who the person is and he was also dumb enough to send a blank email prior to the real one on his real email account. If it continues we will get our own lawyers involved but she will be dealing with this directly for now hopefully with police.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Do you have a company lawyer? I'm sure a finely crafted legal letter will be more successful than trying to play internet wack-a-mole.

Bingo. A lawyer pointing out that this is is not very intelligent behaviour and that the harasser may face legal issues for continuing will probably stop it at your end.

As a bonus, the existence of such a letter would be very useful in the victim's case for an injunction/restraining order.

[Hack&Lube]

you could filter and block based on keywords in the subject or body.

If he's creating brand new accounts and sending emails with no consistent wording or content it may be difficult.

Sounds more like a legal issue where your company's counsel should come into play.