Email tampering

It is possible for batterers to intercept or re-direct email to their account or they can program email software to place a copy of mail messages in other mailboxes. It is also easy to remotely check incoming email and leave the messages on the main email server without alerting the survivor at the home computer that the messages have already been read. Survivors may not be aware that their mail is being copied or they may not realize that the software program stores a copy of each message sent in the "Sent Items" folder. Survivors may feel they have deleted mail that has been sent or received, but have not realized that they must also empty their "deleted email folder" in order to erase any record of the correspondence.

For private correspondence, it might be safest to set up a separate email account using a web-based email service such as Yahoo Mail or Hotmail. As long as the password is kept private and the automatic login feature is disabled, it is difficult to hack into these sites. Note, however, that the web browser's History Log feature will show that the email site was visited, although it won't reveal the contents. Delete the History Log if this is a matter of concern. However, if a monitoring program is running on the computer (see below), web-based mail in addition to almost all computer use, can be viewed by the abuser even if the history and temporary files are cleared.

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