Initial contact with victims in case of cyber crime: suggested questions

E-mail related crimes
Ask the victim/complainant:
• Do you have the e-mail address of the person who sent 
the email, including the “reply to” element?
• Did you save the e-mail in your computer?
If so, request a copy on floppy disk, CD or USB Flash
Disk – including the extended headers (at the top
or bottom of the message - see Glossary). Or, if not,
do you have a printed copy of the e-mail?
• Is your e-mail software or web based?
Website related crimes
Ask the victim/complainant:
• What exactly happened?
• What is the website(s) address?
• Who is your Internet Service Provider?
• Do you have a copy of the web page you visited?
• What was the date and time you visited the website?
(note the time zone)

Chat room (IRC) related crime
Ask the victim/complainant:
• Who is your Internet Service Provider (ISP)?
• What is the chat channel name?
• Who is the chat channel operator?
• What is the name of the server?
• What is the offending party’s nickname and what
is your nickname?
• Did you save a copy of the conversation in your
computer? If so, request copy of it on floppy disk,
CD or USB Flash Disk.
• If not, did you save a printed version of it?

Internet related evidence is volatile and action needs to be taken to preserve it as soon as possible. 
Any delay will result in loss of evidence. Always ask for any passwords that you consider
may be relevant.

Internet service provider (ISP) chat related crimes
• Who is your Internet Service Provider?
• What is the chat room’s name?
• What is the offending party’s nickname?
• Did the chat room have an operator or moderator?
If so what name did they use?
• Did you save a copy of the conversation in your
computer? If so, request a digital copy of it.
• If not, did you save a printed version of it?
Newsgroup related crimes
• What is the name of the newsgroup?
• Do you access newsgroups via software or through
a website?
• Did you save the posting in your computer? If so, can
I have a copy of it on floppy disk, CD or USB Flash
Disk? If not, have you got a printed copy of the posting?
• Is this newsgroup available directly from your ISP?
If so who is your ISP?
• Which newsgroup service do you use?
• Which computer server did you use to access
this newsgroup?
• What is the name of the posting?
If in doubt, seek specialist advice.

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