- Jurisdiction
- Texas
I recently was elected to our HOA board and there are a couple of people pissed off about it. 3 days after the election, I received an email from one of them with a strange message that appeared they were responding to an email from me. I had no idea what they were talking about because I hadn't send them an email. I looked further down in their email and there appeared to be an embedded email where someone had impersonated me, sending them an email from an email address that closely resembled mine. The email had been signed with my standard email "signature." I honestly can't tell if someone actually sent it to them or if they created it and just inserted it into their email. It bothered me and I decided to just wait to see what happened. I did tell them I didn't send the email though.
A few days later, another email was sent out to our entire HOA email distribution under an email address that again resembled a different email address I use. They "signed it" using my standard email signature again but with a note below that said I didn't approve the message. It was derogatory in nature.
A few days after that I received an email from an HOA member who was very open as to who they were, basically telling me to "pound sand" and to send any correspondence to some address in another state. Then they proceeded to send me no less than 8 vulgar messages in less than an hour. They put every HOA member on those emails. It was embarrassing as Hell!!!
Another message compared me to Hitler and being a Nazi. I kid you not!! I'm really a nice person and am not an extremist HOA person - not at all and haven't even had a chance to get my feet wet in the HOA.
I'm 65 years old and don't need this crap but I will not resign. I was just shy of being voted in unanimously so I know the neighborhood supports me. It's just these 3 individuals. I've turned over the anonymous emails to a computer expert and they feel confident they will be able to trace them back to who sent them.
I know that Texas does have harassment laws, including computer crimes. My questions are:
1. Should I call the police and if I do, will they do anything about it?
2. What do you think I should do? Seek a restraining order for the one person who sent all the excessive, vulgar messages?
3. Do I have any kind of case at all for impersonation if I find out who sent the anonymous emails?
This is so damned ridiculous! I can't believe how childish some people are. I would normally ignore it but honestly I'm beginning to wonder if I should fear for my physical safety. These people are nuts!
A few days later, another email was sent out to our entire HOA email distribution under an email address that again resembled a different email address I use. They "signed it" using my standard email signature again but with a note below that said I didn't approve the message. It was derogatory in nature.
A few days after that I received an email from an HOA member who was very open as to who they were, basically telling me to "pound sand" and to send any correspondence to some address in another state. Then they proceeded to send me no less than 8 vulgar messages in less than an hour. They put every HOA member on those emails. It was embarrassing as Hell!!!
Another message compared me to Hitler and being a Nazi. I kid you not!! I'm really a nice person and am not an extremist HOA person - not at all and haven't even had a chance to get my feet wet in the HOA.
I'm 65 years old and don't need this crap but I will not resign. I was just shy of being voted in unanimously so I know the neighborhood supports me. It's just these 3 individuals. I've turned over the anonymous emails to a computer expert and they feel confident they will be able to trace them back to who sent them.
I know that Texas does have harassment laws, including computer crimes. My questions are:
1. Should I call the police and if I do, will they do anything about it?
2. What do you think I should do? Seek a restraining order for the one person who sent all the excessive, vulgar messages?
3. Do I have any kind of case at all for impersonation if I find out who sent the anonymous emails?
This is so damned ridiculous! I can't believe how childish some people are. I would normally ignore it but honestly I'm beginning to wonder if I should fear for my physical safety. These people are nuts!