What is considered harassment?

[Query1234]

What is the name of your state? CA

I'm not sure if I'm in the right forum but I have a quick question. I recently received a very unpleasant text message on my phone. I have a very good idea it's my hubby's ex that sent it but the message was sent as "anonymous". No return address listed, nor a phone number. It seems it was made on a carrier's website where you don't have to provide a return anything. I went on my phone carrier's website and sent a test message to myself and the set up looked exactly the same except that the IP address was that of my own workstation. So the only thing that can identify the person who sent the hateful message is the IP address. I did some checking over the net and found some "links" that point toward a certain ISP provider and her place of work but nothing that can concretely say it was from her very own computer at work.

Anyone know how one can do this without getting the authorities involved? This is the first text message I have received like this but I have previously gotten pages on my pager (when I had one) that were also hostile (things like "Go to hell" or "b**ch"). I do not want to confront her on this until I am absolutely sure and have concrete evidence to back it up. Plus, if she feels she is "safe" and that she got away with it and continues to send these messages to me, I want to keep a record of them so that if ever we go back to court I can provide the information as her going against court order to not make any derogatory remarks to the other party or other party's significant other. Anyone techy's out there that know how to do this? Would these type of messages be considered harassment? Thank you.

 

[Query1234]

anyone?

Someone out there has to know.....

 

[mastertek]

Try this...

Contact the ISP ivnolved and ask them if they can reasearch it. Tell them the story and they may be able to help you. At least they may be able to confirm who sent the message even if they themselves can't do anything. If there is a block of IP# assigned to a business, then you can contact the IT devision of that company and complain to them. Often times busineses will come down hard on anyone abusing the companies Internet access, not to mention the time she spent writing the message.

 

[nailtech]

are you able to forward these messages to your email?

and if so do you have a yahoo email or hotmail account?? or do you use outlook express or microsoft outlook??

 

[Query1234]

did that

are you able to forward these messages to your email?

and if so do you have a yahoo email or hotmail account?? or do you use outlook express or microsoft outlook??

Thank you both for your replies. I did all the above and got minimal results. I forwarded it to my outlook express email account and it basically looked like what it read on my cell phone. No headers, no way to track where it went, etc.. The IP address is all that I have. Unless I go to the authorities (someone mentioned FBI), not much more can be pinpointed. I guess I'll just have to wait for more "pleasant" messages. Thanks anyway.

 

[nailtech]

were there no headers or you dont know how to pull up the headers?? yahoo or outlook... if you dont know how I can explain how to pull them up...

 

[Query1234]

no headers

Nailtech, when I forwarded the message to my outlook account, it only showed the IP address with unknown@ attached in front of it. Nothing more. So there was no header. The header function is enabled on my email account so I could see that I emailed it from my phone to my outlook email but that particular header doesn't help me because it's not the one from the perpetrator. When the email comes from the cell phone carrier's website, you don't need to put a return address or anything. It just comes off as unknown@ with the IP address. I tried sending myself a couple of messages and got the same kind of messages but with my own IP address attached to it. Oh well....

 

[nailtech]

If you want to try this and see if it gives you more info then you already have ok.

Outlook Express:
click on message to highlight, then right click and go to properties then hit the Details tab, you might also want to try checking the Message Source button on that box as well..

Microsoft Outlook:
click message to highlight, right click on message and go to options that should pull up a box that gives message details...

to trace the IP address yourself using Windows:

go to your start button, click on RUN,.. hit ENTER,.... type in the word TRACERT and IP number,... click OK...

to get out of it, just X out of it from the top right corner..

hope that helps...

 

[blidiot]

If you don't want to go to the police, why are you bothering?

It sounds as if you might be trying to get the former person fired?

If they continue, then get the police involved, they'll contact the IT people where the person works and learn if the messages were sent from her workstation.

You generally cannot do that unless you have an attorney and have filed a civil case for harassment of some kind. Then the attorney can subpoena the company's IT records.

 

[Query1234]

Thank you Nailtech. But I have more questions.

I first wanted to say, thank you Nailtech for the information. It took me a while to get to this because I have a Mac at work and had to forward it to my home address where I have a PC and can "right click". LOL! It gave me additional information but unfortunately, I don't know what all those figures mean... especially when I do the TRACERT, it gives me a bunch of IP addresses. I'm assuming they are tracing the path of the original IP address on the text message to my cell phone. I was wondering, as I forwarded to the message to my home address from my cell phone, wouldn't it just list the most recent path and not the path from the original sender? (I'm mainly speaking about the message info section on the outlook express, not the tracert part.) Thank you for your knowledge. So far, no other messages....

Now in response to blidiot's post:

If you don't want to go to the police, why are you bothering?

<< This is the first text message that I have received on my cell phone so unless I have at least a couple more for "proof", I don't think they'd help me. Plus, if it is the person that I think it might be, it's better for me to keep the evidence for possible use in court (reason listed in orginal post)

It sounds as if you might be trying to get the former person fired?

<< No I am not trying to get the person fired. I have enough circumstantial evidence that could link the workplace to the message. And as there are no other people I know at the workplace, it wouldn't take too much for them to figure out who it could have been. Had I wanted to get the person fired, it would have been just a matter of calling the work place's IT person and having them investigate further. It would not help my anyone if this person was no longer working.

I just wanted to find out all that I can on my own and get more concrete evidence so that there could absolutely be no dispute as to where this message came from. If I continue to get messages, I'll keep compiling them as evidence should we go back to court.

I am the person who is the "victim" here. I just want to know for sure who's sending these messages. I think if someone had a problem with me s/he could talk to me in person. To do such an anonymous ugly thing is just an act of cowardice. Thank you for your input.

 

[raddadthomas]

Here's a great link

I was successful in tracing EXACTLY your same scenario.

My Xs boyfriend would sign me up to sex sites on the internet.
I contacted the sites and got the IP addresses used by this person.

I ran my own check on the link I'm going to provide you.
http://combat.uxn.com/

After receiving the Provider information I contacted them by phone to file a complaint. I was then referred to the police department to file a complaint. This gave the ISP provider no choice but to cooperate legally in disclosing the information

The police tracked it down EXACTLY to the terminal. The organization involved pulled the hard drive from the actual computer.

It turned out to be in a classroom at a college full of computers. The boyfriend was a part time student worker. Needless to say he was fired and all computer access was terminated. I don't think that will be to good on his acedemic record. LOL

 

[Query1234]

THANK YOU SO SO MUCH RADDADTHOMAS!

THANK YOU SO SO MUCH RADDADTHOMAS!

That site you gave me was absolutely AWESOME! I traced the IP address and it provided me with the address to the actual business that owns the IP address from the ISP provider. That address only CONFIRMED my circumstantial links to the person I suspected!! Now nobody can dispute that the message came from this person. Again, I do not want to get this person fired so I will not contact the IT tech at the business, but at least now I have proof that this person is harassing me against court order. Should this person continue to send me messages in the future, I will just keep on compiling more evidence and go to the police if need be. I don't mean to sound so cryptic but this has to do with a custody case and I'm not sure if the person "lurks" on law websites so I'm wary about all the stuff I write online.

BUT, I just wanted to say THANK YOU again. The information I had already just gave me faint links to the business but now I have non-disputable evidence! You just don't know how much this eases my nerves! I'm glad that you caught your perpetrator as well.

 

[raddadthomas]

Glad to help

Thank you query for the nice response. If you need any other asistance, don't hesitate to ask. You can visit my site for more helpful links. I have a FREE DETECTIVE listed on my site.

If you need more Investigations or criminal backgrounds, you can E-mail me direct from my site. I have many more links compiled on my own database NOT listed on my site. I have had 3 years of research and study.

I also have a NET DETECTIVE that I PAY for. I allow certain people access. If you need this E-mail me from my site to protect your privacy. I will send you a link along with my password and user name. All FREE to you! You must respect this priviledge and NOT abuse it by giving it out.

http://www.help4dads.com
My site. If your NOT a dad that's O.K. My site targets the male agenda but is really NON gender. I help everyone.

It was really nice to read your response.

Sincerely,
raddadthomas

 

[Query1234]

Married to a GREAT Daddy!

Thanks raddadthomas for the wealth of information. I think I've actually been to your website once before when reading some of your other posts but hadn't recently so I didn't even think about the link to tracing emails on your website. My heart goes out to you and your boys.

I am not a dad but am married to a GREAT dad who loves all his kids to death! I am a stepmom to two WONDERFUL kids and we have one together. Although his ex and your ex are similar in many ways (some of your ex's tactics seemed all too familiar - do they take a class or something? LOL!), I think yours outdoes my hubby's.

Thank you for providing a place for good dads to go to get tools to fight for their kids. Wish the courts weren't so biased towards moms simply because they bore the children. Not all women are good mothers. I always say women should have to get a license to have children before they ever conceive. In an ideal world, that would be true. (This would obviously also apply to men.) Personally, I take the title of "Mom" very seriously and NEVER take it for granted. And I can honestly say that over his ex, my husband is by far the better parent and has been the better parent since the day my stepkids were born. Fortunately he has a lawyer who's an advocate for dads now so that helps.

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks again and good luck in your struggles. If I ever need that detective, I will certainly remember you. =) You're awesome!