India Broadband Forum

Luke Skywalker

First ,this article is a part & summary of my book which I intend to write. Whoever found to be engaged in plagiarism is liable under persecution.
If you want to post this article anywhere contact me.


NEVER BE HARASSED BY EMAILS AGAIN:

This article discuss what you should do on getting harassed by email. This issue is becoming common day by day. Some suicide cases have also come.

First advice: Never take email harassing lightly. Don't ignore the mails and put them in spam folder. It will only encourage him.


Take these steps if you are receiving such mails :-

1.Save the mail. Don't delete it.
2.Send a mail to harasser requesting him/her to stop doing that. Save it as well.
3.If he persists , contact his web email provider. They will delete that account or take appropriate action as it is violation of terms & conditions like in case of Yahoo!India Section 6. If he is using his own SMTP/ESMTP server folllow step 4.
4.What to do if he is sending from different accounts every time? Most probably he is sending from his own SMTP server. If he is using web email providers services contact them as I have mention they will give you the information like his IP and you can take action against him as I have mentioned in 5 and 6.

a1. First know his IP through these Steps

You can find out the sender IP using email header. It contain the path taken by email including the SMTP log. When you send an email it
transmit from one server to another until reaching your server then finally you. Open the email header .For different web mail providers and email Clients different option menu to enable you to see it.
Yahoo : you have option of 'Full Headers' at lower left corner.
GMail : you can see by clicking 'Show original' under 'reply'
tab.
Rediff : Upper right conner option 'Show full Headers'
Evolution client : by clicking 'message header' under view
option.
Other client or web mail user can consult the faqs/wiki
provided.
You will get something like this:-


Don't be afraid. I have made it simpler. But if you ever can't understand it follow a2. Read it from bottom. After Date you will see the Received. ( Not always in this simple way). I have put a dot. You can see the path it had taken to reach me. Note the IP of sender. Now follow step 5.


a2: You can use these email tracing sites where you have to give the header:-
Email Trace - Trace Email and Track Email tool
Trace email origin ip location - Enter email headers to find the sender


You will get his IP and whois information as well They will also give you location but it might be his ISP location.


5. Know his ISP: Get his whois info. His IP might be dynamic but his ISP will be same. Give his IP to whois tool. You can use tools like:-

Linux: Network Tools.( Graphical interface providing many utilities like Port Scan , LookUp.) There is a whois command also.

For all OS: GeekTools Whois Java Client , JnetTool( this provides many utilities)

You can use these websites providing online tool also :
Whois - IP Address - Domain Name Lookup
My IP Address Location: Find IP Address Search - IP Lookup Locator

6.Contact his ISP. They will terminate his service. If you want to sue him , you can also know about him from ISP as it is violation of Terms & Conditions.


I know that these method are not always applicable. But for these will help in majority of cases. Not all email harraser are hackers or crackers. I myself know of two way to avoid myself getting caught by these steps. But all methods have a loophole. So has mine. If these steps have not help you should file a report to police. Under India IT act 2000 who ever indulge in these can be fined 0.2 million rupees or 3 years in jail or both.




Contact me at IBF if you have any doubt .

Luke Skywalker ( a pseudonym)


Note: I have given this article for contest but I have pm admin requesting him not to published as I am copyrighting it.

It is second in series of article which I intends to write.

newprouser

Good post, I'll rep asap.

Thread rated !

Swifty

Nice post.
Rep++.

deepmohan

Nice info

Rep

Sid

Thanks for Sharing

Rep+

Luke Skywalker

Thanks all. Will write next one on proxies.

For what use they are intended & for what they are not.

meetdilip

Keep going

Dragon

Good post Luke. Thanks.

Rep++

Luke Skywalker

NPU can I use the header you gave? Your personal info. will be safe. I want to show that sometime when using email tracing site you will get local ip also when you want to know harasser IP assigned. It will help to show what to do then.

newprouser

As long my personal info is fine, its ok with me.

Luke Skywalker

O.K. will show you all on evening. I have work to do.

SledgeHammer

What if the person uses a Proxy + Free e-mail provider/Public SMTP/Free SMTP like Free SMTP Server ?

Luke Skywalker

SMTP log is there. Also I have said I know of many tricks which can't be detected but not everyone knows of them.

& I don't need to download anything to do them.

Using proxy for free email provider is dangerous I will expose that in new thread on proxies, Public SMTP create a SMTP log which record even IP from proxy.

SledgeHammer

What about using Free SMTP Server in your own PC ?

Luke Skywalker

Try sending mail through proxy from that & tell me the result. It is not working for me .

Not going to work as far as I know.

Only way you can send mail through proxy is using their port but in that program You are using your own port. It is not possible therefore. By the way who told you about this trick. It does not work like this there is another method & you don't need to install anything to use that.

SledgeHammer

Which is that method ?

Luke Skywalker

What ! to give a harasser new ideas. & get myself banned.