A client of mine recently used Pre-Paid Legal Services for an unusual purpose. He wanted to stop a cyber bully from filling his email box with junk messages.

This young man was receiving 100+ emails per day from a web development mailing list. He had never subscribed to this list nor was he able to unsubscribe after multiple attempts. It was not your normal spam as the messages had no intent to sell a product or service. The bully had targeted my client’s email account knowing that my client’s email account lacked a proper spam filter. The intent of the spam email was meant to choke off my client’s supply of sales leads for his business by overwhelming his inbox with emails that looked legitimate, forcing my client to view each email individually before determining if he should keep or erase the message.

He contacted the list moderator for the web development website who told my client to check the source of the email by clicking on “show original.” The source email was a Gmail address and the cyber bully who was spamming my client was using a Gmail account as his “ghost account” to permanently forward to my client’s email account. He contacted the list moderator to remove the ghost email address from the list, but oddly, the moderator ignored his request.

Since my client was not the owner of the Gmail address, he had no way to unsubscribe from the list. He reported the harassment to Google online but Google responded with a computer generated email response that they would investigate. He could not find a phone number for Google that was answered by a live human being. Months continued to go by without any solution from the List Moderator or Google.

I suggested to my friend that he end his troubles in two simple steps. First, look up the owner of the domain using Network Solutions. Once at Network Solutions, click on WHOIS Search under Resources. In the “Enter a search term” box, type the complete domain address. It will list website owner’s name, an address, phone number, fax number, and email address.

Second, since my client was a member of Pre-Paid Legal Services, he was entitled to a free letter from his provider law firm. His provider law firm wrote a cease and desist letter then mailed, faxed, and emailed the letter to the adminstrative contact of the list. Upon receiving the letter, the adminstrator immediately deleted the Gmail address from the list and the young man’s harassment stopped as quickly as you can say free.

Deborah Bravandt is a business owner and independent associate with Pre-Paid Legal Services in San Diego. To get or sell Pre-Paid Legal Services, check it out at www.bravandt.com.

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