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THOSE who think they are safe hiding behind anonymous e-mail messages should now think again.
In what is the first reported anonymous e-mail defamation suit in recent times, a former shipping director last month paid $35,000 to a chief operating officer (COO) for defaming him in two anonymous e-mail messages earlier this year.
Mr Daniel Chui, a former director of V Ships (Asia Pacific), who made defamatory remarks in the e-mail messages about Mr Roy Charles Titchmarsh, the COO of V Ships Agency and Logistics Group, was tracked down by digital forensic experts and made to pay damages for the hurt.
Mr Chui, who also had to pay legal costs, left the group – which provides ship agency services on behalf of owners, operators, charterers and managers – last year.
He also apologised in writing for the hurt and embarrassment caused to Mr Titchmarsh by the e-mail messages – sent over three days earlier this year – to four of Mr Titchmarsh’s London-based superiors.
The settlement, which included costs, was reached out of court and Mr Chui acknowledged the allegations he had made were false.
Mr Titchmarsh had initially filed a High Court suit in May complaining that the e-mail messages sent to his superiors had disparaged him in his official capacity and that he had suffered distress and injury to his character.
The case, say industry experts, is game-changing as it underscores the increasing success of computer forensic sleuths in tracing anonymous e-mail messages, as more such libel cases surface in cyberspace. What used to be rare cases are now more actively pursued, thanks to technology.
Said Drew & Napier lawyer Adrian Tan: “We’ve seen an upsurge in Internet-related defamation.
“People think they can attack others with impunity through anonymous blogs and e-mail messages. But these people leave electronic fingerprints, which allow forensic IT experts to track them down.”
RP Digital Security’s chief technology officer Rob Phillips said the firm had seen a marked increase in such cases – 15 so far this year, an almost 50 per cent jump compared to the number of cases it handled in the whole of last year.
He said: “Such anonymous messages are sent out for various reasons, such as by disgruntled people unhappy with bosses, disgruntled suppliers unpaid for deals made, or others who mail out company data for their own use just when they are about to leave the firm.”
Mr Phillips, 38, added that e-mail messages do leave traces on the Internet “if you look deep enough”.
Service providers also keep records for a period of time, allowing computer forensic sleuths to piece together the clues, which ultimately leads to them being able to put a face to the anonymous sender.
Mr Phillips added that part of the effectiveness was regular training undertaken by cyber investigators to use the latest technology, including that from California-based Guidance Software, which makes forensic software tools used in digital probes.
Guidance Software is recognised by global industry analysts as a worldwide leader in digital probes. Among other things, it provides data discovery and computer forensics solutions for corporations and government agencies.
Harry Elias Partnership lawyer Jonathan Yuen, who has also seen a 30 per cent increase in such cases, points out that victims are bent on clearing their names despite the prospect of damages obtained being disproportionate to the money spent on the probe.
He cited an ongoing case of an executive who is suing a former expatriate boyfriend whom she alleges to be the source of defamatory e-mail messages sent about her.
The alleged culprit, who had returned to Britain, said the woman was a money launderer and tax cheat, among other things, in anonymous messages that were sent to relevant agencies last November.
Although a suit was initially filed here, the case has moved to London, where he is now based.
“The service provider for the mail is US-based and lawyers in the UK have to be briefed for the case. This piles up the costs, but clearing her name is the prime concern,” said Mr Yuen.
Best bet would still be those publicly shared internet PCs in some third-world hotel lobbies 
