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eshelon

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Illinois

To keep this confidential, I will use substitute names for the company's a people referenced.

In April of 2007, I was laid off from Company A, a company I had worked at for 4+ years with no issues. I was paid a severance and honored my non-compete for the full term of the agreement (1 year).

In June 2008, I accepted a sales position at Company B (a competing firm).

In January of 2009, I handed in my resignation to Company B effective immediately. I was offered a position back at Company A in a different role (pure sales) and accepted.

Shortly after leaving, I received a phone call from Rick, my new manager at Company A, stating that Eric, my previous manager at Company B, had been making numerous phone calls to my new company's HR department claiming that I "had a non-compete agreement" and that when I worked at Company B, I had "imported customer lists from Company A into Company B's corporate database of clients", which I did not. I did e-mail several former clients of Company A while at Company B but did not use a "list from their database" nor was it ever imported into Company B's database.

Fortunately, Company A really likes me and didn't believe any of this but I am still upset at the great lengths Eric took to try and slander my name and cause problems for me.

In addition, while this will be cross-posted in the internet law forum, Eric used my previous laptop to gain access to my personal hotmail account, changed the password and name, proceeded to read several of my personal e-mails, and sent an e-mail to Rick on my behalf insinuating that I cheated on a drug test to get the job I have now at Company A. How do I know it was Eric?

#1 I was locked out of my e-mail after handing in my laptop to Eric at Company B.

#2 I immediately contacted hotmail "live" services to remediate the issue.

#3 Upon proving my identity to hotmail, I regained access to my account to find that an alternative e-mail address was added as my old work e-mail from Company B (I never did this).

#4 I found a sent item that was sent to Rick from my account during the time I did not have access.

I asked Hotmail to provide me with the IP address of the user accessing the account while I was locked out, but they stated that due to their privacy statement, they will only provide that information when under a subpoena. I am confident that if pursued legally, Hotmail will reveal that the IP address either

A) Belongs to Company B's offices
or
B) Belongs to Eric's personal internet connection

My questions are as follows:

1) Do I have a case at all? If so, is it against Company B, or just Eric?

2) What next steps should I take?

3) How costly and time-consuming will the legal process be?

4) What other information should I know before pursuing this further?

I would appreciate any assistance that can be provided as this has left me extremely upset. Thank you.
 


quincy

Senior Member
First, defamation actions are extremely costly and, although you have certainly been defamed by Eric, you do not seem to have suffered any reputational injury from his defamatory comments. Company A, in other words, does not appear to believe what Eric has said about you, they hired you despite his emails and his comments, and you have a job.

Without demonstrable reputational injury, you could have a very difficult time winning any defamation lawsuit.

You may, however, want to pursue legal action against Eric for hacking into your Hotmail account. You would need to get a court order, first, ordering Hotmail to release the identifying information of your hacker. Prior to going to court for this, however, you should sit down with an attorney in Illinois to review all of the facts of your situation and to go over all of the costs involved in bringing suit. You may, or may not, find legal action worth pursuing.

Good luck.
 

cyjeff

Senior Member
Agreed.

Without damages, the first part is a tough way to spend a lot of money.

However, hacking an email account IS a crime... Take Quincy's advice... get that record.... and nail Eric to the wall... well, with the help of the nice DA's office..
 

eshelon

Junior Member
Thank you both for your responses

I figured that the first item at hand here would be more difficult pursue given the fact that no actual harm befell me as a result of his attempts.

However, for the second point, can I bring forth legal action via a lawsuit without actually pressing criminal charges or do the two go hand in hand?

In addition, if he did this on company property using a company provided laptop, can I pursue this only against him or the company as well?

Anyone know a good lawyer in the Western Suburbs of Illinois? ;-)
 

ecmst12

Senior Member
If he gained access to your email account because you had selected "keep me logged in" and did not delete your cookies from the laptop before handing it in, then he did NOT hack into your email account. He didn't use any subversive means to get your password, you left yourself logged in and handed the computer to him. I don't believe that would fall under any legal definition of "hacking". It might be a low level impersonation via email or something like that.
 

cyjeff

Senior Member
If he gained access to your email account because you had selected "keep me logged in" and did not delete your cookies from the laptop before handing it in, then he did NOT hack into your email account. He didn't use any subversive means to get your password, you left yourself logged in and handed the computer to him. I don't believe that would fall under any legal definition of "hacking". It might be a low level impersonation via email or something like that.
That is fine if he merely read them.

The moment that he changed the password to POST an email pretending to be the OP, the game changed.
 

ecmst12

Senior Member
There may have been a crime but it wasn't HACKING. Hacking involves subverting security measures. If the email was wide open, then nothing was subverted.
 

quincy

Senior Member
Eshelon, you may want to look over Illinois statute 720, section 5/16D-3 (computer tampering), section 5/16D-5 (computer fraud), and section 5/16D-7 (rebuttal presumption). Section 5/16D-7 is interesting in that it presumes a computer was accessed without authority if access requires a personal password or secret code and the computer was accessed by someone other than the person belonging to this password or code.

Hacking would be breaking into a computer system, usually for the purpose of altering or modifying an existing setting in some way, and ecmst is right that it would not necessarily be considered "hacking" if you did not log off your computer prior to turning it over.

In addition, if it was a company computer, it could very well be argued that anything on the computer is company-owned. Whether that argument would fly in the face of what Eric did with your email account, and his malevolent intent behind sending a defamatory email in your name from your account to your new employer, however, is anyone's guess.

At any rate, it could be considered unauthorized access if not hacking, as unauthorized access is presumed under Illinois law if access must be gained through a personal password or code.

Both computer tampering and computer fraud are Class 4 felonies in Illinois. It is potentially possible, then, to bring a civil action against Eric. It is also possible to recover as damages any reasonable attorney fees and litigation expenses.

If you want to locate an Illinois attorney, there is a handy "Find an Attorney" highlighted in blue right at the bottom of these posts, or you can call the Illinois State Bar for advice and direction. I recommend you speak with an attorney about the advisibility and expense of any action before proceeding.

Good luck.
 

cyjeff

Senior Member
Quincy, doesn't that again lead us down the road of damages?

Criminal, it would appear, would be a much easier road to follow... especially since the legal team would be paid by the state.
 

quincy

Senior Member
You are right, cyjeff. Proving damages is problematic.

Eshelon may be able to meet the "fraud, actual malice and/or willful or wanton disregard for the rights of others" standard necessary for punitive damages to be awarded in Illinois, however Illinois courts will not award punitive damages without an award of compensatory or actual damages, which eshelon does not appear to have.

In general, the Illinois courts have not found Plaintiffs damaged when it is their personal information alone that is accessed illegally. Courts require that the information be used fraudulently, and that actual damage has resulted.

I don't know. I think an Illinois attorney reviewing all of the facts can better tell eshelon what his options are and if there is any legal action available or any legal action worth pursuing.
 

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