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Feds obtain Gmail records after hate mail sent to NAACP
The FBI has requested - and obtained - records from Google pertaining to a Gmail account that was used to send threatening email to the NAACP. Information was requested of Google on June 22nd, 2006, after the email was sent to the NAACP one month earlier, on May 22nd. Through some digital sleuthing, the feds tracked the email to one Randall C. Ashby II of New York state.Some reports on this matter are incorrectly stating that the feds had to search Google's headquarters and obtain this information themselves. According to eWeek, this is not true; Google apparently cooperated and offered this information of their own accord in compliance with the law, as Mr. Ashby II's act was a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 875c (Interstate Communication of a Threat).
[via Gmail.pro]
Comments
7
Subscribe to commentsEd CJul 29th 2006 3:05PM
Well at least everything here sounds like it’s on the up-and-up. The NAACP reported a crime, the Feds investigated, GOT A SUBPOENA, and Google gave them the information about this email account.
I’m just glad it’s not one of these cases where the Feds are strong-arming the search engines for everyone’s records, before a crime has been committed.
rockoJul 29th 2006 5:08PM
freakin FBI, think they're above the law. Just because some guy sends a death threat to the leader of a major organization, the FBI just "HAS" to obtain his records.
freakin FBI
Night ElveJul 29th 2006 10:31PM
I complete agree with you rocko.
aJul 29th 2006 10:49PM
me too.
JotuxJul 30th 2006 12:42AM
The law is that you need a subpoena to obtain this information...they think they're above the law, by following the law?
David ChartierJul 30th 2006 2:29AM
Guys, death threats aren't cool. Especially when you receive threats from an organization that is known to follow through with them.
Also: the feds obtained a subpoena for the information. Google cooperated.
FabuloJul 31st 2006 3:03AM
Another tale to prove it is even more important to cover one's own tracks when perpetrating illegal acts. Then again, he may not have known that death threats (or statements that can be interpreted as death threats like "We will come out of the night and rise from the dirt to murder you in your sleep") are illegal to make.
In any case, it did not sound hard at all to get back to the source...