So my poor mother, who is basically frightened of technology, has been embroiled in a legal battle over the past year and is starting to show signs of losing her mind. She has become convinced that it is possible to alter an email attachment that has already been sent. No matter what I tell her, she remains unconvinced that this is basically not possible to do.
The details: A few weeks ago, someone on the other side of the case sent her a several-page .doc file. Two weeks ago, she asked me if it was possible for someone to know if you were, at any given time, looking at an attachment that they'd sent to you. I told her no and she said that she thought that something weird was going on because "the status bar looks active." Whatever she meant by "status bar," she wasn't able to describe. But anyway, then she said that she opened the attachment and some text was missing, but then when she closed it and opened it ten minutes later, it was back to normal. This happened again a few days later. She asked me if it was possible for someone to change an attachment that they've already sent you, and I said no, and she asked me to look at the file. The only thing I thought was weird was that under file properties, the document is marked as a different revision number when it's saved right to the hard drive then when it's opened and then saved. Also, she insists on using Hotmail, if that's somehow relevant.
So even after two weeks of explaining that what she's proposing would at least involve some kind of hacking, which is definitely not the case given who she thinks is doing this, she remains unconvinced and now she thinks "they have my ISP." Is there anything I can have her read or tell her to set her mind at ease?
The details: A few weeks ago, someone on the other side of the case sent her a several-page .doc file. Two weeks ago, she asked me if it was possible for someone to know if you were, at any given time, looking at an attachment that they'd sent to you. I told her no and she said that she thought that something weird was going on because "the status bar looks active." Whatever she meant by "status bar," she wasn't able to describe. But anyway, then she said that she opened the attachment and some text was missing, but then when she closed it and opened it ten minutes later, it was back to normal. This happened again a few days later. She asked me if it was possible for someone to change an attachment that they've already sent you, and I said no, and she asked me to look at the file. The only thing I thought was weird was that under file properties, the document is marked as a different revision number when it's saved right to the hard drive then when it's opened and then saved. Also, she insists on using Hotmail, if that's somehow relevant.
So even after two weeks of explaining that what she's proposing would at least involve some kind of hacking, which is definitely not the case given who she thinks is doing this, she remains unconvinced and now she thinks "they have my ISP." Is there anything I can have her read or tell her to set her mind at ease?
