emails from a deleted account as evidence

[Fred001]

Can emails received from a Gmail (or Yahoo or Hotmail) account be considered as evidence in court if the account is found to be deleted or deactivated at the time of presenting the emails in court?

In fact, if the account had been deleted during the period between the date of the emails and the date of presenting the emails in court, can the alledged sender simply not claim that the account does not exist or never existed?

[cybercop]

What?

I read this question several times before it made any sense at all to me. I will break it down and hopefully I managed to figure out what you were actually asking.

1. Yes, emails can be used as evidence even if you have closed the account associated with the email. Closing an account does not "delete" the account or the fact that it existed in the first place and the data will still be archived on the servers of the host.

2. The sender can claim anything they want. It will however be quite easy to prove that the account did in fact exist (if it did exist), that the emails were in fact sent through the account (if they were sent through it), that the account was closed on whatever date it was closed on and whatever ip(s) each of these activities originated from.

[Fred001]

Thanks, that's what I thought.

My client has in his inbox a set of emails from a Gmail account, which is no longer active.

The tricky part for me is to now prove that this account ever existed. I have written to Gmail, but they did not even answer my query in this regard.

Any idea how to proceed?

[Fred001]

In fact, I have tried some "email exists verification" services, and when I ran the address, they all returned "Recipient unknown".

[cybercop]

Re: Email Verification Services. Of course they return as not existing if the account has been closed.

You will probably have to send them a subpoena for the information. They won't just send you account details due to privacy issues.

Here is some contact info

Contact Name: Google Legal Investigations Support
Online Service Address: 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
Phone Number: 650-253-3425
Fax Number: 650-649-2939
E-mail Address: legal-support (at) google.com
Note(s): Custodian of Records Fax: 650-249-3429

[Fred001]

Thanks a lot for the info!