E-mail address dilemma

[Dave_H]

Toadman

Why not post the e-mail address of your ISP
and ask the 5,000 members here to each write
a couple of notes telling them how wrong they were. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

"safety in numbers!" he he he

[topflite51]

Or if you don't get it back, post your old email address, and we can all send it letters of comdemnation for being a jerk.

[Toadman]

Good suggestions, but I wonder what the legal implications are if I spam him daily with *socially-redeeming* sites and jpegs until his mail server chokes.(I'd do it thru hotmail or yahoo mail, of course) http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif The ISP's hands are tied because the addressee refuses to give it up. I don't want to get you guys involved, just ideas. Thanks!

[Apostle 83]

Surely you could call a lawyer and have the account locked at least. If you had a contract with the IP, you could threaten legal action to, because they have destroyed your intellectual property.

Post your old email address and we'll flood the sucker and shut it down.

[socalgal]

I don't know, but it would seem to me that your ISP and/or email service has a duty to protect you and your email address from fraudulent use. Why can't they disable your email account or otherwise remove it from the public domain?

If it were me, from a legal standpoint I would say that I was incurring damages due to their error (note: I am not an attorney).

I would persistently (yet in a non-abusive manner) work up the chain-of-command at your ISP and/or mail service over the phone until you get some action. Keep notes of the names (and dates/times) of people with whom you speak. You may want to contact an attorney who has some experience with intellectual property or other type of Net/tech-orientated legal background.


My $0.02. (non-refundable)




[This message has been edited by socalgal (edited 12-07-1999).]

[alpha]

I'm with Apostle,
give us the address and we'll flood it!

[M1pilot]

Hey Toadman,

I e-mailed your friend to let him know what I thought of his action (not too nasty), but I think you should pursue this further with your ISP, and if they won't do anything, you might want to talk to a lawyer. The investment you have in contacts, business cards, letterhead, etc., not to mention the time factor involved over the years to establish yourself must have some protection through the rather exorbitant rates we are paying these cable companies.

-M1pilot

[SysOpt]

If you want to post the contact info for the ISP's, and/or your email address, I'm sure many people here (including myself) will be up to writing some letters.

And take a look at the contract you had with your ISP. I would definitely consult a lawyer - I can give you the name of a good one (handled the contracts and legal stuff for the SysOpt.com acquisition by EarthWeb) if you don't have one.

Scott

[This message has been edited by SysOpt (edited 12-03-1999).]

[Toadman]

Thanks everyone. I will consult with an IT attorney on my options and whether it is even worth pursuing the matter. I'm interested what reply you will get from him, M1pilot. My ISP (ok, it's @home) has thrown their hands up on this and are not willing to take legal action against this "gentlemen's" ISP over one e-mail account. There must be other court cases on this matter. I'll keep pushing up the food chain with @home for the time being.
Thanks again!

[pickel]

Is this guy anywhere near Mississippi?
Send me an email. There are ways......

[Apostle 83]

Pickel... tsk tsk.
Violence is not the answer! My dad grew up in Mississippi and knew older men in a 'club.' They lost!!!

Oh, by the way, I know you were just kidding, SO DON'T COME AFTER ME!

[Toadman]

Hi ya'all. I'm in desperate need of some advice and I hope you don't mind if I use this forum, socalgal. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

My cable ISP installed a new router in my area and accidentally dumped my IP, along with releasing my e-mail address out to public domain. My ISP tried to get my address back, but some clown took it and refuses to give it back! He's had it for 3 days now, and also refuses to forward my mail to me while I notify my contacts! The two ISP's are mediating but this jerk will not budge. Do I have any recourse? Should I spam his mailbox until his server chokes? I gotta re-do 6 years of website, business cards, letterhead, etc.. Any legal action I can take? Sorry for the whine ( who's got the cheese?), but it's really frustrating..
Any suggestions?

[reddog4629]

Ya got that right Pickle. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif




[This message has been edited by reddog4629 (edited 12-04-1999).]

[M1pilot]

Well, I don't know why this guy wants your old e-mail address so bad Toadman.....he apparently does'nt use it anways!! Have'nt
gotten anything back to my post. I still think he needs to be flooded to get the message.....hmmmm, a Mississippi flood!!

-M1pilot

[Toadman]

Going to search for him by e-mail address, if it's been updated in "whois?" Wish I could find his IP. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[chuckiechan]

If you have a law school near you, contact them. This is the kind of "new frontier" case that needs to appear to create case law and precedent. Your ISP owes you the effort of making in right, but there is no law but the lawless out here and we don't want a new sheriff in town!!

Just think: "Your Honor, in Toadman vs. Jerk, 1999, this case was settled by blah, blah,...."

[welsh wizard]

Just thinking Pickel one of your greatgrand uncles wasn't called Al by any chance http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif
As for this A.H. thats got your e-mail can't he be had for some kind of Fruad, after all if we had had a deal going down and suddenly I found out half way through I am talking to some one else and the whole deal fell through because of it, surely you would have some recourse to compensation and re instatement of you e-mail.
WW

[Toadman]

Hi Wiz, I really have no course of action available for the idiot, because he got the address free and clear from his ISP and he's gonna play turtle on it until his ISP tells him differently. I can imagine him smugly deleting my mail and snickering at the spam.
Grrrrr..... My ISP is still pressuring his ISP at this time. I'm almost ready to release the "Sysopt Hounds of Hell" on his mailbox. Get those AVI's and BMP's ready..;-)

[Apostle 83]

Lemme tell ya, just say the word, and I'll send him a 36 meg file..... three hundred times.

[Zotzmein]

Locked and Loaded, ready to rock and roll.

Waiting for the word, Captain.

[Dave_H]

I'm in.

Awaiting your command.

[socalgal]

Standing by - to write a letter of course...

[This message has been edited by socalgal (edited 12-07-1999).]

[Apostle 83]

We hafta make this how you say... workable.
Toad, does this guy have a cable modem?
If he does, it'd take a lot to shut him down, unless hes using outlook express er somethin.

[welsh wizard]

Any idea what size the e-mail he hyjacked can hold before overload, that way when you give word out I can send a garbage files thats 1k oversize from as many email account I can set up, if we freeze him every day maybe he'll give it up. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif
WW

[chipbgt]

duuude...give us the email addresss.....you know you want to. I woudlnt suggest signing the email address up for any "socially unredeeming" websites as you put it because if you do get it back, your in the same boat as him. Those things are hard to fget unsubscribed from.

........or so I have heard....yeah, thats it http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[reddog4629]

Come on man. Give us the green light.

[RobRich]

Post the address (or preferably an ip), you deserve some justice in this matter. Since this jerk just acquired the address, he should have no real problem with releasing it back to you.

[Toadman]

What would be good content of a Letter of Ultimatum? Or should I even give him the advanced warning? I'll cut/paste the best snippets of your suggestions and then we execute it, say, tomorrow night? We need an Operation Codename! Socalgal gets first dibs! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

FYI- My ISP has dropped the recall effort today.

[Apostle 83]

DO NOT-I REPEAT- DO NOT LET HIM KNOW IT IS COMING! DO NOT LET HIM KNOW OF THE BB! If he does, he can take preventative measures, he could even, how you say, use spam legislation against us.

If we are going to do this, we need someone with a highspeed connection to 1) recieve large files from all of us. 2) Get an anonymous email adress 3) send this guy to hell.

[M1pilot]

Hmmmmmm.........your ISP dropped their recall effort. Are they offering any compensation....like a couple months at no charge??

M1pilot

[Apostle 83]

Toad, have you contacted a lawyer? Dear God, everyone knows that they can tie **** up for years in court. GET ONE!!! LET THE OTHER ISP KNOW!!!! They will hafta release it back to you, or you will get their money (your lawyer will get more though) Heck, if you lost even they'de be screwed.

[alpha]

Toady,
I am 13, can't legaly be sued for breech of contract so I should be able to help. We should all set an other email account with angelfire.com (they allow 2mb attachments) under false names, etc., and spam this guy. A waiting your command...

[chipbgt]

cable modem armed and ready.

[reddog4629]

What if we all sent about 1 gazillion emails asking where you've been and why havent you contacted us? I don't know that you lost your email address, do I? He would think it was a legit request-huh? Wouldn't that cover our arsses? That would show that sob how many people are missing your email replies wouldn't it? Whomever sets this thing up,email me the "details".
My cable modem is locked and loaded. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif




[This message has been edited by reddog4629 (edited 12-09-1999).]

[Apostle 83]

Reddog4629 has hit it. Except for one thing, we can send things like, "Here are the images you wanted for that newsletter" and bam! hit him with everything one of you graphics specialists has on a jaz or orb disk! Mwuhahahahahahaahahahahaahaha!
Toad, while I wish, for your sake, that this had never happened, this has been a very fun thread, but the funnest part is yet to come!

[felix726]

Now I'm no lawyer but I think in order for e-mail to be considered spam you either have to be selling or promoting something. If we all send this guy mail saying what an idiot we think he is I don't think he has any legal recourse. On the same note I don't think it's illegal to bombard someone with several e-mails at a time as long as your intent is not to crash the server. However, I do think that if we go thruogh with this it would be a good idea to use some type of re-mailer in order to hide our true addrress' from this guy so he can't launch the same type of assault on one of us. Let's give this guy what he has coming to him.
-felix

[alpha]

Right,
this has to be carefully planned (no, not like Windows 98SE, that was made up as the programers went along). We need to set up new email accounts, false address, etc.. We then need to send multiple electronic greetings cards to Toady's hijacked account. This, with any luck, should make it look innocent. We could also send Toady some gifs, etc., that "we thought he might be intersted in". We need to email each other with the details. We all need to send the mails at roughly the same time, to maxamise effect. Lets get orgainised and NUKE THE SUCKER.

[bkehoe]

Maybe a few 2MB bitmaps. Send him a highly detailed map of the world in 600 2MB blocks? http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

He goes to his computer and suddenly it starts downloading 1.2GB of email.
LOL http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Brendan

[Dash]

Or you could get an account with one of those free web-servers, make a page with some of those monstrous java applets, that take like 30 minutes to load =), and send him an email that would somehow entice him to go to the site =). Or put the Java applets in the email, but im not sure if you can do that, i got a cable ill help bombard with =)

[Dave_H]

Toadman,
Please post the address of your isp and the name of the people you were in contact with. lets write some civilized letters
to them to demand that they not drop this issue. I really think that with more pressure they may do something. I know you have done your best, but I think they will be more likly to do something if they hear from more people.

You also said that there is another isp involved (the jerks isp) post that one to,
we will also need to know your first name or something so that they will know who we are talking about.

Toad, this is just an idea, I'm still with you in any "attack" if it comes to that.

Dave

P.S
Hey Toad, check out this 25meg movie trailer
I found! He He He

[awwall]

Give us the email address Toad. I think all are ready. I have a T3 system at work, so a few Meg will be no problems.

aw

[Toadman]

The other ISP has not been revealed to me due to some Information Privacy Act(?). This has been a very interesting thread, and it is now time to bring it to its climax. I have only three requests:

* For your own sakes, use a 3rd party emailer such as Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.

* Send no unlawful pornographic or solicitation/marketing mail.They will monitor his mailbox. The maps/movie trailers are good ideas.

* Lastly, I ask Socalgal to not contribute to this effort. It's not Sysopts battle,its mine, and I regret that I included all of you in it from the start, but a promise is a promise.

I made that promise that if this issue is not resolved by Thursday evening 12/09/99, I would share the mail address with you. I have received no response from his/my ISP nor the user. The address is no longer mine.
So it is written, so shall it be.

Here it is:

tlee@home.com (all lower-case)

And may God have mercy on his pitiful, selfish soul.......

(Please close this thread and turn out the lights)