Expert: Dan Pepper - 11/10/2008

Question
Yesterday my wife got a text message from her ex husband telling her that his email had been overloaded with her emails from her Hotmail account, suggesting that it was a virus.

When we looked at the account, it was evident that the password had been reset and an unknown email address was added as her alternative email.  Further, the folders that her emails were stored in, those she had received, had been moved to the inbox and the folders erased. Her sent messages folder was empty and many, but not all, of those were also in her inbox.  I have never heard of a virus doing anything like this.  

The timing of the occurrence is very questionable.  (They are engaged in a legal dispute over some financial matters and he threatened her only a few days before.)

Her ex sent a message saying that he had gotten over 300 of them, as he said "mysteriously" and he even sent one as an example.  The email in question was a private correspondence from my wife to myself while I was working overseas.  The email was originally sent over six months ago and it is obvious that the particular email was selected as a threat since it contained a very personal and private subject.

A few hours later, his new wife emailed a harassing message which indicated she had been reading the messages as well.

This is a gross invasion of my wife’s privacy!  How do I obtain records from MSN that I can use to at the very least put an end to the harassment / blackmail that she is enduring on top of the insult she has already endured?  We live in New Mexico and the email account was hacked from either here in New Mexico or from Texas.

Thank you for any advice you can give,
Marcus


Answer
Marcus,

You would not be able to get any logs or other records from Microsoft without a court order.  If they are currently involved in a legal dispute, her attorney may want to consider issuing a subpoena to Microsoft.  Short of that, Microsoft is under no obligation to release any information.