Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

Re: IIlegal entry into others internet account

New criminal laws lag years behind technological conduct ... in this case, accessing a person's e-mail account, and sending a bogus message to make it appear that the account holder sent it.

Several new "identity theft" laws have been enacted, but they tend to focus on people using a victim's name/DOB/soc. sec. #/etc. to impersonate the victim and get money or property.

Here, there was no intent to get money ... just to embarrass you and gain an upper hand in a civil case by the implication that goes along with what was said in the e-mail.

One possible crime may be "Fraudulent Access" to a computer, a misdemeanor carrying up to 93 days in jail &/or $500 fine. MCL 752.794 essentially includes intentionally accessing a computer program, computer, computer system or computer network to commit an act of fraud, or to obtain money, property or a service by false or fraudulent pretense, representation or promise.

Your case is a stretch. The prosecutor would have to prove that this person (and that's sometimes the hardest element to prove!) gained access to your account and used your internet service by the false representaion to your relatives that she was you.

Usually, an e-mail message has critical routing information attached in its "header" that tells the exact date/time the message was sent, and the internet connection (IP address) from which it was sent. (The e-mail received by your relatives should have that. Make sure it is saved, so police can get all the informaiton! )If the internet connection was a phone call, AOL may be able to get info for the police that your user name (ID) logged onto AOL on the dat/time in the e-mail message from a certain phone number ... which might be your ex's. This narrows the list of suspects. But, AOL only keeps this info for a few months, so police must act quickly!