Is it possible to sue a hacker based on his mail?
<p>Some friend of mine got his mailbox hacked yesterday, meaning his entire contactlist received mails from him saying something like:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>I'm in a bad period in my life, I really feel sad, please mail me back.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>So he got warned by some of his contacts, and therefore changed his password asap.</p>

<p>Today, he was surprised to receive no mail at all, even when specifically trying to send himself a mail from another mailbox.</p>

<p>I immediately suspected that the pirate could have redirected his mails to another mailbox, so I checked in his parameters and found that it was indeed the case.</p>

<p>So now we have a presumed adress of said pirate as it was written in clear in the redirection params, and the question comes:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Would this be sufficient to sue the pirate for intruding my friend's mailbox ? And if so, how should he do it ?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Yes you can sue for whatever damage has been suffered.</p>

<p>However, good luck identifying someone from an email address - they are effectively anonymous.</p>

<p>Your friend needs to change <strong>all</strong> of his passwords <strong>immediately</strong>. The hacker has probably used the day he had to change all the passwords he could think of. This may include your bank. The hacker almost certainly now has enough info to carry out an identity theft - make sure your friend protects his credit.</p>

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