Trace an email? Serious Problem Here.

[edro]

My friend's girlfriend received an email from a chic at school that threatened to kill her and her friends. It was probably just a scare tactic, but she is takin it seriously. She called the police, but they couldn't do anything....they said to "trace it".

It was a Yahoo email, sent to another Yahoo email address.

What can be done? Contact Yahoo and do what? All they could probably do is cancel that Yahoo account.

What's your suggestion?

Thanks!

 

[Wallydraigle]

Can't you look at the source for the message and gank the IP from the header?

 

[wbresson]

the source ip address will be in the header along with the computer name probably

 

[FoBoT]

if you know who sent it, what is the point to tracing it?

 

[brtspears2]

Look at headers, see where the orig-IP is...

Ask yahoo for help. I know they will comply after a police report is filed... And yes, I know....

 

[badluck]

E-mail is just another form of communication....if you know who sent it, tell the cops who did it and tell them you want them to go to this person's house and see what's up.

What would you do if someone called your telephone and made the same threat? You would call the cops. If they won't do anything, tell them that if something happens....it's their ass, and not yours because you tried to do something.

 

[bmacd]

what would tracing the IP do? It'll give him/her the genereal area of the sender's computer (remember, they could have sent it from a library or a friend's computer) and the ISP. ooOOoo...i just thought...you can call the ISP and try to get the customer info from the IP, but i don't think that's going to happen without a warrant. Contact the ISP either way as abuse.

-=bmacd=-

 

[SerraYX]

you can call the ISP and try to get the customer info from the IP, but i don't think that's going to happen without a warrant.

To my knowledge, ISPs are very....quick to comply with police requests when dealing with IPs.