Is hacking into someones email illegal?

Anne_Marie_2

Another thought.....is her ex-husband able to access her computer remotely? It's a possibility if he set the computer all up in the first place that he has given himself user access. This can be disabled in Control Panel, System, Remote, go advanced and uncheck boxes.

Cheesy peeps am 3 steps behind this morning, will have to drink more coffee!

Dan29

blue_monkey wrote:

Yes, I advised her on doing this. I was not sure if I could do something as he was getting me invoved by emailing and calling me. I told him I was taking it to the police anyway so maybe he will take heed and stop it. Nosy - Froot Loop is more the word for it with the stuff he e-mailed me when it is not really my business. I am just nervous with him having so many details about me now I guess and wanted to find out if there was anything I could do about that. I did email my friend this morning and told her that he had been accessing her account and to call me and change her password - I do think it is this way around to be honest, I would not even know how to change my password as it comes into my Outlook Express, but whether she will get the email or not is another thing. I also told her I was going to the police with it so if he read the email he would know I was serious.

Yes hopefully just the mention of the police will scare him off and stop him behaving so weirdly.

If you've made it clear that you do not want him to contact you further, and he continues to do so, perhaps you could report him for harrassment? However I'm sure it's his ex-wife that he's concerned with, not you.

Do you want to change your password? I'm sure there are people on here who will be able to help. I know that with my internet provider I'd have to go to their website and change the password for my e-mail, and then go into Outlook on my PC and change the password there so it was the same.

Ivrytwr3

tell her to get a yahoo or hotmail account (free) and email her there. Tell her to make sure she chooses a random password.

Dan29

blue_monkey wrote:

She set this up with a new account when it turned out he was accessing her first one, he has obviously guessed the passwork and is logging on that way.

Yes maybe she used a password that he was able to guess. It's good to have a password like h3l1087467jgp that would be impossible for a person to guess.

On the other hand, I don't think you've said whether he still has access to her house? It might be as simple as him switching on her PC while she's out?

thefirs

Try a bit of false chitchat- the sort of stuff that SOE would feed to suspected agents in WW2. You'd better make sure your friend is up for it beforehand. You could have enourmous fun feeding him duff information, such as saying that you are changing your phone number, but give the number as the local BT nuisance calls line etc...?

thedougster

Just a thought but do you and your 'friend' often click the reply button when replying to an email? This often leads to each email containing a 'log' of all the previous conversations. What could have happened is that she accidentally sent one of these to her ex-husband which is actually quite easy to do. This would give him an email that showed all the email conversations that were contained in one constant reply thread. I always advise people who live sneaky lifes (not that you do) to break the reply chain every couple of emails by opening and use a new blank email to reply.

Learn from my mistakes .....lol

ricksExpensive

thefirs wrote:

Try a bit of false chitchat- the sort of stuff that SOE would feed to suspected agents in WW2. You'd better make sure your friend is up for it beforehand. You could have enourmous fun feeding him duff information, such as saying that you are changing your phone number, but give the number as the local BT nuisance calls line etc...?

I actually laughed out loud at the BT nuisance calls line part!



In response, i would think its more of a case that he knows her password through guessing it, most people arent very security wise and use a child name or their maiden name etc. total jibberish is the best way forward!

Doubt there is anything to worry about, he sounds more nosey than anything!

blue_monkey_2

OK, I'll try and put it all here. My friend was on hotmail this is the account that being looked at, there was nothing on any of the emails that related to her old email address as I have not used that for a long time so I can't have sent a copy but he told her that he got a copy by mistake. I sent her an online birthday card and someone else read it as I did not get a thanks which was when I knew. She lives elsewhere and he can't get into the house so it is not think, I was wondering about accessing remotely as you can do this and this was my frst thought with my address. She is already using hotmail as the BT one he got into as well. I beleive my husband a password protected our PC because we thought our neighbour was using our wireless connection (tesco and argos deliveries, ect... which have since stopped since we password protected it!!) so I would not have thought he could get into ours - or maybe he could, I am not sure. I think she needs a very random password. What is more scry is having sent my bank details and the like so she can pay money into my account for the kids. it kind of all makes you think about things doesn't it.

On another note: Someone just called me, I said her name and she said yes and she said 'did you get my email' I said yes, did you get mine, no. I said, he has been hacking into your account, etc...... and waffled on for what felt like 15 minutes and she said 'what MY ex husbad' and I said who am Italking to...... and then it turned out this was an old customer of mine called the same name who I had not spoken to for and I nearly gave her kittens!! What a bizarre morning!! She must of thought I had a very good memory when I said her name, LOL!!

Llyllyll

If, as suggested, he is accessing her PC remotely then there may also be a key logger or other software on there that has compromised her system.

I would initially suggest:

1. A full audit or all software that she can see (in Add/Remove programs)
2. Thorough scans with AdAware, Spybot S & D (for Spyware/Adware) and The Cleaner (for Trojans)
3. Change Windows logon password and email application password

HTH

Might be worth doing yours at the same time :idea:.

NB - Just noticed it's a Hotmail account. Would it be too much hassle for her to ditch it completely and just setp up a new one (after doing the above of course)?

ReadyBet

Llyllyll has come up with the same answer as I did when reading through the thread, a stealth keylogger that e-mails him anything she types on her computer. So when she setup her new e-mail address he was able to get instant access to it. I work for an IT company and have seen it done more than once before.

Follow llyllyll advise and get her to run a good spyware detection tool. Then change her password on her hotmail account.