How do I trace a harrassing e-mail w/o the person's real name& police can't help b/c no crime committed

Question

I already went to the police to file a complaint...they said they can't subpoena the carrier b/c no crime committed...JUST harrassment. I don't get it!

Answer 1

Actually, depending on whether or not they made a direct threat, you may be able to file criminal charges. We had an instance of a man threatening life and misc other things via icq, email and teamspeak and were told to contact the FBI. My husband works on computers so he somehow knew how to track them through the internet and the emails that we received. The man thought he was anonymous but fortunately he left a trail for him to follow. You could call and ask them if the harrassment you received qualifies for further investigation.

Even if you cannot file charges you can report the person to their internet service provider and it is likely that in harrassing you they violated their terms of service.

Answer 2

the best you can do is read the headers to find out who the sending ISP is. once you have that, you have to get a subpoena from court to make the ISP give up those records for when the email was sent to you through their servers.