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.