Can an IP address be reported ?

mary19

I hope I have put this in the right place, apologies if I have not.

2 years ago I started working from home online and a company I was working for went through 3 different bosses, the final boss (a sleeze) was the worlds worst nightmare and made life hell for me so I finally quit to relieve some of the tension I had taken on board.

Then I received an email from him the other day telling me that he was not finished ruining my life ???? I have no idea why he is holding such a grudge ? anyway, he said that he had my IP address and he was reporting me to some sort of Internet authorities ? and he was reporting me to my ISP and getting my connection disconnected and blackening my name, he said he was going to tell them that I was a spammer and that I was trying to ruin his business....


Now to be honest, I know a bit about computers but when it comes to things like this I have no clue, I have since gotten another job online which I so need presently so no connection would destroy me, is there any truth in what he is saying and can he do this to me ? also can I prevent this in any way ?

thanks in advance.

Jumpy

Get the email. Print it. Go to the Gardai.

You have left the realm of workplace bullying and are now in the realm of real life malicious harassment.

Even if it wasnt him, report it. Its not up to you to determine who sent it.

tricky D

Inform your ISP and his. Send the email's headers to abuse@yourisp and abuse@hisisp. His IP will be in there. Also report to Gardai and consider suing for harassment, defamation and constructive dismissal now that he has kindly supplied the evidence.

He can report you as much as he wants. Your ISP can review your online activities and determine your lack of guilt. They should sue him for wasting their time also.

Don't let it worry you much and Good Luck!

mary19

Thank you for the replies.

He has admitted that he is out to ruin my life or at the very least make it extremely difficult for me and I believe that he could do as he is a nasty piece of work.

I deleted his email as it was very upsetting now I realise I should have kept it. I don't have his IP address but I know he has mine, I am not sure if he knows who I am connected to, is there a way he can find out ?

Can my ISP see exactly what I have done online ? as my new job involves me entering alot of different sites and signing offers, I am hoping that they can see that I am signing with the companies name and not his..

tricky D

mary19 wrote: »

I deleted his email as it was very upsetting now I realise I should have kept it. I don't have his IP address but I know he has mine, I am not sure if he knows who I am connected to, is there a way he can find out ?

Your ISP will have some log details of the email, possibly the full email. Act quickly and get in touch with them. Also, might the email be in a Deleted Messages folder??

If he can see who your connected to, it's very unlikely that it's being one legally.

mary19 wrote: »

Can my ISP see exactly what I have done online ? as my new job involves me entering alot of different sites and signing offers, I am hoping that they can see that I am signing with the companies name and not his..

In a nutshell, yes, they have records of your activity.

mary19

Thank you so much for that, I did empty the trash so no email, but if my ISP can see it all then I have back up.

how likely are they to listen to me ? surely they get complaints like this every day...... I am wondering if he does take the route of trying to get my connection disconnected will they just disconnect me immediately or conduct an investigation where they will see my activities were normal ones.

tricky D

They should listen to you, but you never can tell with some ISPs. The likelihood of you being disconnected beforehand is practically zero.

The important thing is for you to get in touch with your and his ISPs now before he gets started, if he actually does. That's now, not in 5 mins.

Personally if I was in your shoes, I wouldn't have deleted the email and would be talking to my solicitor, my ISP, his ISP and the Gardai with a view to a nice settlement for malicious harassment, defamation and constructive dismissal. I'd have a smile about 10,000 euro wide, possibly wider.

mary19

I never thought of that LOL wish I had of, oh what an idiot he is.. thanks for all your help.:)

thebman

I'm sure they'll investigate it. Just ring back to find out more if they don't and in about a week it'll become more of a hassle to continue ignoring you than to pull out the email details.

mary19

I rang my provider and told them what happened, the guy told me that it would take absolute ages to go through my activity and up till now no complains have been logged, he said that they take spamming and accusations of spamming seriously and any reports are investigated, he made me feel guilty for something I haven't done.

He said he could not access the email sent to me by this man, he said that if a report comes through they will contact me to participate in an investigation.

jeeze I am about to give birth and this hassle is really freaking me out, I know I'm innocent but heck if they are snooty about checking out stuff now what'll they be like if a report goes through ?

My provider is not the most co operative, I am really scared if Ia m cut off, i know people have said it's practically zero but what if they take his word for it ???? can I get another connection ? oh this man is really getting his way and ruining my life..

thebman

I don't think they'll bother cutting you off, you pay them and they like being paid. If you explain the situation and it seems reasonable then you'll probably be alright.

From my experience, ISP's don't like going through logs. They will actually just tell you its too much hassle or it'll take too much time.

Most of the time, they aren't lying though. Like I said above, if you want them to do it, you'll probably have to make it more effort to not do it by annoying the crap out of them until they just do it to make you go away.

seamus

Your chances of being cut off based on a single report from one person are zero.

Make a statement to the Gardai at the very least so that it's on record. If you receive more emails or he attempts to make complaints to the Gardai, then your complaint is already there.

TBH, he just sounds like a complete wanker who's full of hot air. There are no "internet authorities" he can report you to. He doesn't have your IP address unless you specifically pay your ISP for a static IP address. If you have the same connection as 99% of the rest of the country, then you don't have a static IP address.

The guy is trying to freak you out, there is very very little he can do to affect your online activities. Even if the ISP do take him seriously, they will have to go through their logs to investigate. That investigation will show that you're a normal user.

If by some freak occurence you manage to get cut off, a simple phone call demanding to be escalated as high up the chain as you can possibly go, will get you reconnected in minutes.

tricky D

There's still no reason to worry, at all.

If he does make a complaint and your ISP investigates (if they bother) finding nothing wrong, he has defamed you at the very least and you could opt for legal action.

If your ISP is really stupid enough to cut you off, then you can take action against them too.

You're winning all the way unless you let him get to you. As seamus says, he's trying to freak you out - do not give this person the pleasure of that.

I relish the day someone tries this rubbish on me because that'll be 'free money from stupido day'.

daffy_duc

Would you mind saying who your ISP is?

_CreeD_

If he's that much of a jerk and he really thought he could get away with trying to blacken your online identity he would have(your IP is dynamic btw, yes it can be tracked based on time/date through those logs the ISPs hate trawling through but it's not yours and yours only). The fool is just trying to intimidate you. Also he doesn't know you deleted his email (...well I hope you didn't tell him), he can't tell from his side, so turn it around. Tell him you have sent it to your ISP and you have recorded it with the Gardai and they are awaiting your decision to investigate the harassment, give him some sleepless nights.

mary19

Oh guys thanks a million, you all have made me feel so much better now, I really was up the walls, with one thing and another, the little I earn online now is holding us together, like everyone, every cent counts now a days and I was terrified if I lost that little job I have now, also the Internet is a bit of a life line for me to my friends and family as I live so far away from them all.


I know very little about IP addresses but I do know that when I worked for him, when we signed a person to a job we could check their IP address, it showed us if they were already signed with us (complicated) but I would just click on their IP address and this big number would come up so I am 100% sure this is the number he has, I am not sure of a Static IP address ? but I do know I don't pay for one.

I haven't spoken to him since he sent me the email, when I got it I was truly shocked and I emailed him back telling him I had done nothing on him to make him be like this with me, I asked him to leave me alone and move on as I have done. I recon because I left on not so friendly terms and gave no notice that he was a bit freaked that he had to work a bit harder until he found a replacement for me.

My ISP provider is a well known one, I'd prefer not to mention their name as I really don't know how much this guy knows about my online activity and I would hate to give him more information than he has, but I am nearly sure he doesn't know who they are but like I said earlier I have no way of knowing if he has ways and means of finding this information out.

God you think life is hard enough and I know things are sent to test us but jeeze this guy is really testing me, all I wanted to do was earn some money and fill in a few hours and it's like a horror movie now, me trying to get away form him.

So a big thank you to you all for putting my mind at ease, of course if there is any more outcome I'll be sure tro seek all your advice again, (please god I am still connected), thanks for taking the time out to help me out, I really appreciate it.

daymobrew

mary19 wrote: »

I emailed him back telling him I had done nothing on him to make him be like this with me, I asked him to leave me alone and move on as I have done.

Did you do a 'Reply' to his email? Is the email you sent in your 'Sent' folder? If yes to both, the contents of his email might be in your reply.

This could be printed out and given to the Gardai or sent to his ISP and your ISP as mentioned earlier.

Cormic

Having the text of his email is the key to this. Check your sent items as daymobrew suggested and take that to the Gardai.

Then just ignore him. Just concentrate on having your baby and get on with that part of your life.

php-fox

Mary19, I did a lot of online work in the past 3 years and I was threatened with pretty much every possible punishment except death. If I were you I would've straight away replied with 'beap beap' and blacklisted his email. End of story, forget about it.
Cause this seems to become a very popular behaviour online nowadays. People threat other people and feel safe because they are not doing their dirty talks face to face.
And all of the advisers who mention Guards and Solicitors, is it really worth it? Spending your valuable time to report some obviously unwise guy? I would blacklist him and leave alone. Report only if he gets tooo aggressive.

My ISP provider is a well known one, I'd prefer not to mention their name as I really don't know how much this guy knows about my online activity and I would hate to give him more information than he has, but I am nearly sure he doesn't know who they are but like I said earlier I have no way of knowing if he has ways and means of finding this information out.

Ah, I can't really understand why people are afraid of putting simple info about themselves online. I have my phone number, name, address and picture on pretty much every 'messenger' profile and the people who contact me are the people who want to work with me. Idiots are always afraid to meet you in person or to mock you over the phone, because they are very afraid of being caught.

mary19

Thanks again for the replies, I checked my mail in all my folders and I deleted them all, I am terrible for clearing straight away.

I'm not sure how to blacklist his email, I never heard of that ? I did change my email but he got my new one ? how on earth did he get this ? I wonder has he got some sort of illegal device that can get my information.

I have had a few things told back to me from people still working for him and he's bent on getting revenge on me for whatever reason I have no idea, it turns out that someone is slagging him off on chat sites and signing him for subscriptions and he automatically thinks it's me and to be honest the amount of people that hate this guy is colossal I don't think he actually knows how hated he is LOL but of course I get blamed..

tv3

Why dont you make life hell for him by giving any details you have on him put up here??:rolleyes:

rmacm

tv3 wrote: »

Why dont you make life hell for him by giving any details you have on him put up here??:rolleyes:

Hahaha.....no you may have had a :rolleyes: after what you've suggested but I certainly won't tolerate that kind of behaviour on Nets & Comms.

BoB_BoT

php-fox wrote: »

And all of the advisers who mention Guards and Solicitors, is it really worth it? Spending your valuable time to report some obviously unwise guy? I would blacklist him and leave alone. Report only if he gets tooo aggressive.

Well it's harassment, not only is it unacceptable in society, it's certainly unacceptable within the workplace and the fact she quit because of him and his harassment gives good cause for going to a solicitor. Anyone threatening to make someones life hell usually doesn't just do it via email and can lead to something more malevolent. That's why you don't brush things like that off, you don't just ignore it. The other possibility is getting compensation from the harasser.

tricky D

Mary,



You need to be stronger and stop letting him get to you. He has already caused you enough distress through harrassment, bullying, defamation and possible constructive dismissal, all of which are unacceptable and illegal. Remember bullies are generally weak, he certainly is with his empty threats, red rage and not realising that he's giving you the upper hand.

You need to start a diary and also write out a detailed history of your dealings from day 1.

I would do nothing like trying to blacklist his email (however that blacklist would work). That's really bad advice because he can use a different email, he'll get a buzz from you reacting, you will lose a really good means of gathering evidence and he will continue using another unknown tactic which could be a lot more difficult to deal with. Instead I would hope he sends more emails and digs his own hole deeper. I would even consider baiting him with a weak sounding 'please leave alone' type of email. Once he has given enough proof, off to the Gardai and the solicitor, open and shut case, and a nice holiday in the sun which you deserve for the distress.

Remember you have the high ground, morally and legally and you are in the strong position. He's an idiot, a liar and a bully, and you're not going to let him away with more of it. Are you?

DenMan

mary19

Don't wait for any bulls*it from him and contact the Gardai. Give them your ISP and also give them his. This will put a stop to all this crap. Sounds like a complete idiot, and someone you have turned the page on. Best defense is a good offense. Be confident and firm. Do your best and remain calm.

mary19

Thanks everyone, I feel so much better reading your replies.

I haven't heard anything for a while and to be honest I think someone I was in communication with from the company was relaying back alot of information, I can't be sure but it was too much of a coincidence.

When I changed my email address she was the only one I sent it to, she is a terrible one for forwarding on those silly emails of poems etc so i am wondering if she sent him one of those emails and my address was listed ? or maybe she just gave it to him, but one thing is for sure no one else had it before her from the company.

This got me thinking and I used a few quotes from here LOL and I emailed her telling her that I was taking it further and then i didn't hear anything from him, mind you she's been quiet too.

I am hoping that maybe he'll just leave things alone and we both move on, I can't be doing going to the Garda or Solicitors, it's so time consuming and stressful and if he leaves me alone it's compensation enough for me.

Only problem is he has messed up more people since me and they are really holding a grudge against him and I hope he doesn't think it is me that is getting revenge.

thanks for all the help and advice again.

Solair

I really wouldn't worry about this guy. He sounds like a complete idiot!

Sending a false abuse report to your ISP wouldn't get him very far. It'd be a wasted e-mail.

Also, don't delete e-mails like that in future.

If he does contact you again, check the header information of the email for his IP address and record it, if necessary print the email.

Tell him that you have kept a record of his e-mail content and the originating IP address and that you will be taking these to the Gardaí and will be seeking legal advice.

If you happen to have his name and postal address, bring these to the gardai too together with printed copies of any communication from him.

MunsterCycling

Setup your e-mail client to archive your mail, if you a using this e-mail client for business then this should have been done as a matter of course to preserve the paper trail and save you the hassle of cleaning up yourself, are you using Outlook or Outlook Express or another e-mail client?

MC

mary19

MunsterCycling wrote: »

Setup your e-mail client to archive your mail, if you a using this e-mail client for business then this should have been done as a matter of course to preserve the paper trail and save you the hassle of cleaning up yourself, are you using Outlook or Outlook Express or another e-mail client?

MC

Wow forgive my ignorance but I don't really understand, I use a gmail account that I give to friends and family and we use it mainly for chatting to if we can't phone.

The business I did for him didn't involve me giving out my email address he had it to chat to me about different things, I changed it after I finished working for him and then he got the new one I set up.

I haven't heard from him, but I did receive a email from someone else from the company who has signed him to gay web sites and reported him to his advertisers !!! now this is something I know he'll think was me but now that I know there is a way of tracing my activities it is proof enough that it's not me, it's a pity that he has upset so many people some who are out to get revenge and it's more a pity that he assumes it's me.

Solair

Well, the gay website will have a record of the IP address used to sign him up. So, obviously you cannot be blamed for this.

Frankly, the whole thing sounds very immature. I would just ignore the e-mails and not do business with this person or organisation again. They sound like they're about 12!

If he continues harassing you take it up with the Gardaí, or if he is outside of the Republic of Ireland, contact the Gardai and his local police too.

Also, ensure that he does not have your actual postal address or home phone number.

MunsterCycling

ok, gmail has a feature to archive mail, select the mails you want to archive then push the archive button at the top of the mail list.

MC