back to article Admin fishes dirty office chat from mistyped-email bin and then ...?

Welcome again to On-Call, our weekly (and preponderantly prurient) piece in which readers share horror stories from their workplaces. This week, we're going interactive, because the situation in which reader “Flash” found himself describes an ethical dilemma The Reg feels un-qualified to address. Flash once had a gig “ …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why is it any of your business? Either delete the email or forward it, as your conscience requires. You aren't the morality police.

    Why are you even reading the body of the emails if you're expecting they're for somebody else?

    1. Ken 16 Silver badge

      or auto delete the folder contents at regular intervals?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        The obvious solution is to just bounce invalid recipients, like everybody else.

        This isn't even an interesting story. It follows the standard formula of "found porn or similar at work". We've heard enough of these, surely.

        1. werdsmith Silver badge

          It's even less interesting than finding porn. It's just a personal email from one employee to another using their employers email system. Does the business allow personal email? If yes then nothing to see. The contents in this case are irrelevant.

          I sent an email to a friend today about Friday lunchtime pub time. No different.

          1. werdsmith Silver badge

            Hmmm, did they claim expenses for two hotel rooms and not use one of them? Wasteful.

            1. admiraljkb
              Joke

              "Hmmm, did they claim expenses for two hotel rooms and not use one of them? Wasteful."

              that brings us another option - forward to accounting for why they're getting two hotel rooms.

          2. Swarthy
            Joke

            @werdsmith

            You do that stuff at the pub?! During Lunch no less? You sick pervert.

            1. werdsmith Silver badge

              Re: @Swarthy

              Err, yes. Doesn't everyone?

              If not, you are missing out badly. Live a little.

          3. Obitim

            I hope you described in graphic detail what you are going to do in the pub

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          > The obvious solution is to just bounce invalid recipients, like everybody else.

          Yeah, and I've been bitched at and told to "fix that" by The Big Boss, regardless of how I implemented it or any other consequences. Despite being a tech company, they expected the computer to magically know where to send emails.

          In this situation, I would have have blackmailed the two, if the guy had been one of the people complaining about email resolution. Revenge is a dish best served very cold.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            If revenge is a dish best served very cold, and revenge is also sweet....is revenge ice cream?

            (yes, I shamelessly nicked that from a philosoraptor meme)

            Anyway, I've been asked to set up similar 'no bounce' systems, and I've simply told the client - in professional terms - that it's a staff competency problem, not an IT problem.

            If they aren't capable of using the address book of their email clients, then they probably shouldn't be trusted to handle a spoon without adult supervision due to the risk of injury.

            In this case? I'd have done the same. If the Big Boss wants me to compromise my professional ethics by intercepting staff email on the fly, they can go fuck themselves.

            1. Robert Helpmann??
              Childcatcher

              Sweet, Cold Revenge

              If revenge is a dish best served very cold, and revenge is also sweet....is revenge ice cream?

              Only if you milk it for all it is worth, otherwise it is sorbet.

              I ran into a similar situation at a previous job. I was asked to transfer archived emails archived on a machine for a coworker who had transferred out of state. The application and method I was given to do this displayed one of the emails in whichever folder was being processed. It happened to pull up one that made it very clear that my coworker was having an affair, that both parties were married, and that she would be working with her new love interest. All in two lines. I finished the transfer and said nothing about it to anyone at work.

              As far as I am concerned, the whole thing was an onion ("None ya business" for those not familiar with the term) despite the way Big Brother and Big Business would want us to buy into.

            2. Bloakey1

              <snip>

              "In this case? I'd have done the same. If the Big Boss wants me to compromise my professional ethics by intercepting staff email on the fly, they can go fuck themselves."

              I was once asked by a senior sales director of a large UK company if I could monitor an employees email. I said that I could but I would not do it under any circumstance but he could probably employ someone else who would. The director exited screaming and shouting at me, I just went back to work.

              1 hour later he came back to me and apologised saying that he had a think about it and with me on watch his emails were as safe as anyone else s and he thanked me for standing up to him.

        3. Peter Gathercole Silver badge

          ..bouncing incorrectly addressed mail

          This is a security issue, as it allows spammers to identify real email addresses in an organization. If it doesn't bounce, it's a real address.

          I know of many large organizations that just black-hole them for exactly this reason.

          1. Pascal

            Re: ..bouncing incorrectly addressed mail

            > This is a security issue, as it allows spammers to identify real email addresses in an organization. If it doesn't bounce, it's a real address.

            That's such a 1990s strategy.

            - So many email addresses at companies are publicly listed everywhere that this isn't a useful "secret" to protect (see "security through obscurity")

            - Anti spam systems are smart enough nowadays to block dictionary attacks - have been for a looong time

            - Anti spam systems are pretty good at actually stopping the spam too even if you know the adresses

            1. Speltier

              Re: ..bouncing incorrectly addressed mail

              The antique concept of denigrating 'security through obscurity' is so naughties. Private crypto keys are typically more obscure than keys under a doormat-- but both are obscure. Just to a different degree.

          2. Just Enough

            Re: ..bouncing incorrectly addressed mail

            "This is a security issue, as it allows spammers to identify real email addresses in an organization. If it doesn't bounce, it's a real address."

            This may have been the case 20 years ago, but not now. Spammers don't care what bounces. They don't care how many million duff email addresses they're using. There's much more work involved in removing the bad addresses from their spam list than in just leaving them in. Sending out the emails either cost minuscule amounts, or zero if you're hijacking someone else's email server. Bounces cost them nothing at all, because they're not coming back to them. So why should they care?

            A company has a black-hole for bad addresses simply to avoid the hassle of handling them. It's a valid strategy, but may result in the lose of emails that could have an actual value to your company.

        4. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Lived enough of these you mean.

        5. streaky

          The obvious solution is to just bounce invalid recipients, like everybody else

          This right here, is how email works. User gets bounce, user realises their mistake and everybody is happy.

          In this completely made up story the admin thought outside the box without reading any RFCs (as admins are prone to do) thought he was being clever and in the end not only snooped on other people's private lives (I mean using corp email for this stuff is begging for trouble but it's still essentially private) and also broke the entire global email system in the process.

          This stuff doesn't have to be difficult but people really so enjoy trying to make it so.

          Also if your boss has a problem with your email system working correctly go find yourself a new job and do it now because your company is probably going to go down in lawsuit and you're probably going to end up named as at best a witness and it's going to cost you a lot of money in legal fees.

    2. John G Imrie

      Why are you even reading the body of the emails ...

      Because sometimes that's the only way to find out which person to send it on to.

      1. Evil Auditor Silver badge

        Re: Why are you even reading the body of the emails ...

        > Because sometimes that's the only way to find out which person to send it on to.

        Which, just maybe..., the admin shouldn't be doing in the first place.

    3. Known Hero

      Devils advocate.

      @disgustedoftunbridgewells

      "You aren't the morality police."

      The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

      when does it become petty?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Devils advocate.

        My viewpoint is that there's no reason for the admin to be reading those emails in the first place - just bounce them. I'm guessing he set this up as a way of snooping, rather than to be helpful.

        Anyway, they aren't sharing trade secrets with the competition, the emails aren't illegal. He knows nothing of the details - this pair may have left their spouses which makes the email completely innocent, for example.

        It's not for him to judge. I was once told by a colleague that he gets sucked off every time he goes to Amsterdam. I didn't feel the need to tell anybody, especially his wife. None of my business.

        1. David Nash Silver badge

          Re: Devils advocate.

          "My viewpoint is that there's no reason for the admin to be reading those emails in the first place - just bounce them. I'm guessing he set this up as a way of snooping, rather than to be helpful"

          Actually I believe in the article he said that often customers emails would be mis-addressed and he was attempting to forward them to the appropriate recipient. Sounds like a reasonable thing to do for the business.

          It just happened that some internal mails were also mis-addressed.

          1. Darryl

            Re: Devils advocate.

            If he's set this up to check for mis-addressed customer emails, then why is he reading emails sent between two employees? I smell voyeurism

          2. Rasslin ' in the mud

            Re: Devils advocate.

            Obviously, the customer isn't always right. It is proper to let all misaddressed emails bounce. Otherwise, people are unaware of their addressing mistakes. Not only that, letting them bounce removes this ridiculous "morality dilemma."

        2. admiraljkb

          Re: Devils advocate.

          bounce is better. That way as an admin you don't get into a situation you aren't comfortable with. Lets face it, that's between them and their SO's unless it impacts the business, and then its up to their managers and HR to request logs. Whatever my personal feelings are on it, my business one pretty much ends up correcting it and letting it go since that is/was the policy. Of course, I'd then immediately change the policy next week to bounce typoed internal emails after that. I generally follow a don't ask, don't care policy regarding people's personal crap at work...

          I've accidentally ended up in similar situations myself on occasion due to monitoring the internet firewall for things like blocked legit sites that needed unblocked and run into someone surfing NSFW's. I'd typically just take them aside, QUIETLY, let them know they could get in trouble if another admin or the security guys saw that, and then let it drop. I generally wouldn't see their userid again pop up again, except for one of the night security guys... yeah, you don't wanna know...

      2. Triggerfish

        Re: Devils advocate. @Known Hero

        Yet rarely does anything good come of imposing your own morality on other people..

      3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
        Thumb Down

        Re: Devils advocate.

        "when does it become petty?"

        When it's a moral judgement based on your own standards?

        Two people making the beast with two backs who happen to be married but not to each other isn't necessarily wrong, let alone "evil"

      4. Sherrie Ludwig

        Re: Devils advocate.

        If the acts described in the email were illegal or likely to damage the company (industrial spying, for instance) forward it to the boss. If not, delete or forward, then forget about it. Such breast-beating over a trivial faux pas. Now, if one of the parties involved was the spouse of the original poster, I would understand the agita. Otherwise, you caught a co-worker doing something embarrassing, like dancing to music in their office or picking their nose.

    4. Skoorb

      Exactly.

      Generally, many employers will have either:

      - a policy on the use of work equipment/IT systems/communication during work time, or

      - some catch-all clause in the employment contract.

      Generally speaking, your response depends on the policies in question. However, internal IT processes and procedures need to be designed with these company policies in mind - if you don't want to be put in the position of reading misaddressed email, don't store or log the stuff!

    5. FuzzyWuzzys
      Pint

      Any email you send/receive from the company is the property of the company and therefore as an IT employee you're entitled to ensure the company's assets are being used in accordance company policy. Using company equipment for personal use is often allowed but within "reasonable use". In an ideal world you should report this email as abuse of company property and you should be able to remain anoymous as the problem should then be dealt with by the HR dept and the offender's manager as they see fit. It's not your job to pass moral judgements, just act within the bounds of company rules and policy.

      Suppose the emails contained evidence of some crime that was later committed? In the financial world everyone, including IT staff, have to take mandatory, annual anti-money laundering training and certification. If you know about potential ML then you're bound by law to report it to the correct company officer else you risk a spell in clinky.

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        "Suppose the emails contained evidence of some crime that was later committed?"

        I'll see your straw man and raise you. Suppose they contained confidential company information that would affect share prices? Difficult to avoid suspicion, even if innocent, if there were then suspicious share trades.

        The fact is that intra company email can contain all manner of confidential information. It could be customer or employee personal data. It could be product plans. It could be results of clinical trials. All sorts of things above a support desk pay grade and operation of the email system shouldn't depend on such an employee opening it to route it correctly. It should bounce and give the sender a chance to re-route it correctly, sight unseen by anyone else.

    6. toughluck

      As your conscience required // You aren't the morality police

      1. How do you make a judgment call based on conscience without applying morality?

      2. Both deleting and forwarding the e-mail will be seen as a judgment call based on morality.

      1. Rich 11

        2. Both deleting and forwarding the e-mail will be seen as a judgment call based on morality.

        Morality doesn't have to come into it. If part of Flash's job is to pass on the emails where the addressee can be identified, then he can act on that basis alone.

      2. Sherrie Ludwig

        2. Both deleting and forwarding the e-mail will be seen as a judgment call based on morality

        No, a judgment call is deleting the email. forwarding is what he was tasked with doing, no judgment required. And, if he is going to police the morals of his co-workers instead of just forwarding the d@mn emails, let him disclose every pen he has taken home, even inadvertently, every time he looked at a personal email on company time, etc., etc.

    7. CaitlinBestler

      you only read enough to identify that this was no work related - honest

      I believe the correct response is to return the email to the sender, indicating that you had only read

      enough to identify that this was not work related.

      Then remind the sender that personal messages should be sent using personal email.

      Nobody will believe that you didn't read the whole email, but the message that you don't

      appreciate having personal stuff like this get misdirected to you will have been delivered.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If it's not anything illegal, or dangerous for the company, forget it.

    In my country what he did would have been illegal (and once we had to identify and remove a mail admin who was monitoring the mail of a woman he got "too interested" in...)

    Anyway, what people do in their free time is up to them. As long as what they do is not illegal, nor is a true risk for the company, is not a problem of mine - unless, for some reason, I'm very close to one of the involved people and I can understand the situation fully.

    Did he sent it to the wrong address? It should have received the standard "cannot deliver" message. I received it by mistake? Delete it.

    Sure, it can deeply change the opinion I have about them for ever...

  3. Ken 16 Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    "Flash was left forever unable to look the woman in the eye"?

    I think I read recently that the Swedish Supreme Court ruled that posting sex tapes online wasn't defamation "because it is normal for adults to have sex".

    Consenting adult has consenting adultery, what's Flash's problem?

  4. Efros

    Using the company mail server

    was the problem here. Probably a disciplinary offense,

    Personally I would have done as he did, burn the email with fire and forget it ever happened.

    1. Peter Simpson 1
      Big Brother

      Re: Using the company mail server

      A true BOFH would have filed the email under the names of the two people involved. Just in case, sometime in the future, one of them happened to be in a position to do him a "favour".

      // Friday, innit?

      // yeah, he did the right thing

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Using the company mail server

        A true BOFH would have filed the email under the names of the two people involved. Just in case, sometime in the future, one of them happened to be in a position to do him a "favour".

        Given the sense of humour here and the fact that it's Friday I would have expected the "blackmail both" choice to top the poll. So yay for upstanding citizenship (pardon the contextual pun :) ), booh for not staying true to BOFH principles :).

        (and yes, I would have deleted it too - we're still human).

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Using the company mail server

          Blackmail them both. Cash off the man, sex from the woman (or whatever floats your boat).

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Delete and say nothing

    But I would have gone further and stopped providing the interception/redirection service. That way there would be no further ethical dilemmas.

    Actually I wouldn't have provided the service in the first place unless everyone knew I was doing it.

  6. Christopher Slater-Walker

    Did the company make this policy known to everyone?

    It seems to me that the company in question should have made this policy known to all employees (the one where undeliverable emails end up in a mailbox visible to admins) with a very strong warning that all such emails are liable to being read by people other than their addressees. And if you use company email for that kind of thing, you're an idiot anyway.

    1. phuzz Silver badge

      Re: Did the company make this policy known to everyone?

      Yes, and perhaps put a few hints in the warning that the two perpetrators would recognise, just to make sure they got the message.

      Mind you, I'm not subtle so it would probably have gone something like:

      "Please remember that the email system is provided by $COMPANY for company business only, not so you can arrange affairs on company time. Please also remember that IT have access to all your emails, especially the ones you don't address correctly and we'd really rather not have to read your home made porn anymore."

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Did the company make this policy known to everyone?

        Please also remember that IT have access to all your emails, especially the ones you don't address correctly and we'd really rather have you email us directly with such material to save time

        FIFY, BOFH style :)

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    He did the right thing IMO

    Its a hornets nest. Another problem is that you don't know if his e-mail would have been appreciated or could be filed as sexual harassment. One way or the other erotics has no place in the office, so this is definitely the best way to go: remove it, the guy will probably have gotten the hint and yeah...

    Then again: maybe because the e-mail got deleted the guy felt rejected by the woman and so he left the company? ;)

  8. clocKwize

    Invasion of privacy

    Nothing to do with the admin, he shouldn't be reading the emails, should just forward them on.

    Why even have a catch-all for misspelt emails? Let the user receive an undelivered mail message like every other mail server does.

    Sounds like an excuse to read other peoples mail.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Far to much time....

    ...if he has enough time to trawl through misdirected emails, he has one cushy job.

  10. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    False moral issue, and bad functionality setup

    Correcting recipient addresses does in no way imply that you can read the contents.

    What he should have done is set up an application that only shows the recipient list and hides the content. Anyone asking could therefor be shown the application and rest easy that their smutty secrets remain hidden. And he could have lived his life blissfully unaware of the rampant beast lurking below.

  11. Pete 2 Silver badge

    Missing option

    It sounds like the email "bucket" needs a little more functionality. After something has been undelivered for a set amount of time, simply knock it back to the sender as "undeliverable".

    That removes the need to actively do anything and the response can be made as "machine generated" as the admin likes. It depersonalises the situation and alerts the sender that something was amiss.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    first rule of email admin

    The first rule of email admin is that you don't read the content unless it's addressed to you.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: first rule of email admin

      "The first rule of email admin is that you don't read the content unless it's addressed to you."

      Best comment, so far. Have an upvote and a story from me. Anon, because.

      In this international company, the french branch of HR was the most perverse lot of fuckwits, and they, on some sites, would routinely come to the local mail admin to ask for access to staff mailboxes, on the ground of "wrongdoing" (that would never be explained). Nothing written, all verbal insinstant requests.

      Of course, the goal was to pressure people into leaving, for whatever reason. So much convenient than firing them (french contracts).

      As the corporate guy in charge of email in the whole company, I got so fed up to hear that mail admins were routinely complying with the requests that I sent all of them an email dismissing those requests as unethical, and illegal (they are in France) and urging the guys to ask for a written request.

      At the time, I got a lot of flack, from the mgr of one of the guys because my email had a bit savaged his little trade with HR.

      However, years after, when I had to investigate through the mailbox of the CEO of the company (this was serious stuff, with layers etc ...), the request came in all proper and written by the right VP.

      Ethics, unlike morals, always win out people's respect.

    2. Locky

      Re: first rule of email admin

      O'Really?

    3. Frumious Bandersnatch

      Re: first rule of email admin

      Probably the second rule is something like "even though I have no interest in reading your mail, each and every host it goes through does have the capability of reading it: assume that I'm the exception among these admins and if you want privacy, encrypt the mail or don't use email at all".

      Not using email at all would have been the smart thing to do in this case, since the recipient metadata is still in the clear. But then, the sender probably wasn't the sharpest tool in the box and no amount of explaining would have led him to do the sensible thing.

      Best course for this admin would have been to refuse to scan the emails in the first place. Or only set up filtering with the policy that all misaddressed mail will go directly to a public (office-wide) noticeboard. Either that, or refuse to look at the content and base redirections solely on the To: field. I prefer the more dramatic option, though.

  13. WraithCadmus

    My preferred option

    In person (no e-mail trail) take one of them aside and suggest they should switch to a non-work e-mail for personal correspondence.

    It's none of my business what they get up to, but if they're using a network I have control over then someone could make me make it my business, and I don't want to be in that position.

    1. Evil Auditor Silver badge

      Re: My preferred option

      And let them know that you're a snooping peeping Tom?

      1. WraithCadmus

        Re: My preferred option

        And let them know that you're a snooping peeping Tom?

        God no, I don't go looking for people's correspondence or web traffic. I'm only thinking of the scenario where I saw it in the course of my normal work. Like HR leaving someone's firing papers on the printer, the very act of trying to figure out what to do ("Who's is this? I should return it to them") leads you to learn things you didn't want to.

  14. Chris King

    Catch-alls are a bad idea...

    Catch-all addresses attract spam, and you're either going to get fried for snooping, or fried for passing mail on to the wrong address. Even if you survive a potential frying, you've made an open-ended commitment to sorting out typos for users who won't bother to check where they're sending stuff.

    They are useful as diagnostic tools though, especially when rogue users start setting up shadow IT systems and misconfigure them... Yeah yeah, this is an ancient example, so shoot me...

    Me: Please shut down your Netscape Collabra server, your "intranet" is not officially sanctioned and is insecure.

    Him: This matter does not concern you.

    Me: Security of the campus network IS my concern. It's actually part of MY job.

    Him: I still don't see why it's any of your business.

    Me: Do you admit that you are running an unauthorised server on personal equipment ?

    Him: I refuse to incriminate myself.

    At this point, I hold up a print-out of a bounced e-mail from the offending machine, because he cocked up the configuration.

    Me: Are... You... Run-ning... A... Net-scape... Coll-ab-ra... Ser-ver ?

    It's a bit like that scene from Red Dwarf where Captain Hollister asks Lister about Frankenstein, but I was determined that this guy and the intranet weren't going to have a baby intranet.

    1. Version 1.0 Silver badge

      Re: Catch-alls are a bad idea...

      Our system policy is to keep a copy of everything that goes in or out - this is a requirement in some environments and a lot more common than you might think. The backups are deleted automatically (also policy) after 90 days and very occasionally I have to look through the backups to retrieve a specific message based on Subject and Time.

      So I could look at a lot of stuff but I don't - it's none of my business unless there is some requirement to do so - I sleep well at night.

      Catch-alls, backups and network traps are legion - have we not learned that yet? If you are doing anything that you don't want published - then don't leave a record.

  15. Jonathon Green

    The real lesson...

    ....which I'm pretty sure everybody here is already aware of is:

    Never put anything in an unencrypted email which you wouldn't be happy to write on a postcard and send through the post in plain sight of the postmen, sorting office workers, that nice young lady who works in the post room at work, the trecent school leaver trainee who actually drops stuff at your desk, and all your colleagues who might casually glance at your in-tray as they walk past your desk.

    Because that's pretty much what you're doing if you send an email without end-to-end encryption...

    1. Custard Fridge

      Re: The real lesson...

      Or as a legal director said to me many, many years ago - 'never put anything in an email that you are not prepared to stand up in court and read out word for word.' Works for me.

    2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: The real lesson...

      "write on a postcard"

      Yeah, that's the lesson that users need to learn and re-learn and re-learn ad nauseum. Most users still think of email as being like a letter sealed in an envelope and it will still get to the correct destination even with a typo or two because the nice friendly postman will recognise the typo and still deliver it to the right address because s/he knows all the customers on the route personally.

  16. <shakes head>

    I found one in a mail loop between one or our systems saying that IT were a bunch of wankers and that the new policy of not sending personal emails was useless as they would never know, the down side of that one was it was a student on the last week of his uni work experience required for his qualifications, when he was escorted off the premises, I passed it on to his boss.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Nice, fuck up his life. Way to go.

      1. Chris King

        I've been called FAR worse things over the years by users.

        I would have taken chummy aside and "had words", maybe go as far as a scare-the-bugger-half-to-death, but dobbing him in like that ? That's just cold.

        Anyway, I have room to talk about bad behaviour on placements - I was blind drunk by 10am on the day I was supposed to meet my placement supervisor for the first time. Okay, it was my 21st birthday, and yes, THAT was my "present" !

    2. Mike Shepherd

      "I found one in a mail loop between one or..."

      Is there an English version of your post, split into sentences and making sense?

      1. regadpellagru

        Re: "I found one in a mail loop between one or..."

        "Is there an English version of your post, split into sentences and making sense?"

        And, shall I add, with punctuation enabled ?

        Like, you know, "Shall we eat Grandma ?" versus "Shall we eat, Grandma ?".

        Punctuation saves life.

    3. BurnT'offering

      Re: IT were a bunch of wankers

      Enquiring minds need to know - was the email accurate?

      1. werdsmith Silver badge

        Re: IT were a bunch of wankers

        Of course it was accurate. In a lot of years I've never worked at a place, where the core business was not IT, that didn't hold the opinion that IT are a bunch of killjoy obstructing wankers.

  17. Andraž 'ruskie' Levstik

    Bounce...

    Simple as that... don't do catch-alls but handle it appropriately... let stuff tat is wrong bounce and let the originator deal with it properly.

  18. petur

    Make them doubt forever

    Send a global email that you've set up a system to catch mail errors, and if somebody has mail missing they can contact you to have a look for it...

    Leaves them wondering if the mail is in there and if you saw it ;)

    They'll switch to private mail the same day...

  19. chivo243 Silver badge

    correct the addy

    and let the system deliver the message.

    Yes, yes, the Futurama saying applies... You've seen it, you can't un-see it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: correct the addy

      That's what I would have done too. If illegal delete else forward. Just because you can enforce your morals on your users does not mean you should.

      Of course, in bigger companies the bosses can do exactly that with codes of conduct and the like which you have to factor into your decisions.

    2. Brian Miller
      Devil

      Re: correct the addy

      Correct the address, but in a way that it will go to a different recipient!

      Of course, this only works if the original recipient's address is close to someone else. But since they can't type the address correctly, why not get that email on its merry way? "Gee, I see that email didn't go to its intended recipient. Too bad you typed in someone else's address..."

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Windows

        Re: correct the addy

        I'm an evil sod, I would have corrected the address to the right person - but "accidentally" CC'ed everyone on the internal email list to get a copy.

  20. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Meh

    Alternatively...

    While I agree that catch-alls can be a problem, in small service companies they can be a life (company) saver.

    A small business I still do occasional work for has a catch-all for anything that hits the server. This is frequently hit by potential customers that (for example) spell 'accounts' with only one 'c'. If these emails aren't picked up that's a business loss small companies simply can't afford these days.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Alternatively...

      Just bounce the mail. Set the bounce message to "dunno who you wanted, email mail@the.firm"

    2. Soruk

      Re: Alternatively...

      From there you can find the common mistakes, thus configure "acounts" as an alias to "accounts" etc. Once these are identified the catch-all can be shut down.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Alternatively...

        Catch-all can also be a useful canary for people setting up accounts in your company name/using your domain.

      2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Alternatively...

        "From there you can find the common mistakes, thus configure "acounts" as an alias to "accounts" etc. Once these are identified the catch-all can be shut down."

        You mean make it "idiot proof"?

        We all know what that results in. It's an arms race!

        1. Will Godfrey Silver badge

          Re: Alternatively...

          Sorry to come back on this, but a bounce is absolutely the worst thing you can do as a small service company. The original sender won't read the message (probably assuming the bounce was due to the business going bust) and will simply contact another company.

          As for trapping the 'common' mistakes, that would be one hell of a long list! You should see some of the ones we get. The company I'm referring to has two main addresses, 'Accounts' and 'Service'. As well as that there are about five named individuals. The combinations are endless - most are highly amusing too!

    3. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Alternatively...

      "While I agree that catch-alls can be a problem, in small service companies they can be a life (company) saver."

      There's a difference between external mail and internal mail in this respect. And the larger the company the greater the probability that there will be legitimate internal mail that's above the monitor's level of responsibility.

      If you think you need a catch-all make sure everyone knows about it and whose will be reading it. At least anybody who's sending anything sensitive (personal or business) can either take extra care with addresses or choose not to use email. Shock-horror - other methods of communication exist!

  21. Mike Shepherd

    Get a life

    The curtain-twitchers have moved on, but now they work in IT. If your biggest thrill is reading colleagues' salacious emails, you need to get out more.

    1. Version 1.0 Silver badge

      Re: Get a life

      I'll +1 you for that sentiment but you're going to get a lot of down votes on this post because El Reg is the sysadmin's Fark, but without Caturday.

      1. Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

        Re: Get a life

        You two must be guests from some parallel universe. Around here, real life seems to correlate nicely with the poll result - where majority of responders selected one of two "it's none of my damn business" options.

        Yes, I've heard an occasional story of peeping Toms in IT, but these don't seem to last long enough to leave a lasting impression, so their existence is not fully confirmed.

        Welcome to The Register then. Hope you come in peace.

  22. Jim 43

    Odd moral dilemma he created for himself

    Unless someone in management asked Flash to do this then he's way out of line and should be fired. I'd also advise Flash to find an IT job that does not put him in a position to access his co-workers personal data as it looks like he has some serious issues with respecting boundaries.

    I'd love to know what's wrong with letting mail bounce. Why on earth did Flash feel the need to set up a 'catch-all' account? While I'm at it, why would anyone want to manually route email?

    1. John 110

      Re: Odd moral dilemma he created for himself

      I imagine that Flash is/was fresh in the job. I remember that when I was new, I was eager to please while at the same time heady with the responsibility. And aware of how difficult it is to get a decision out of management.

      Rather than ask what to do with misaddressed email and still be waiting for a decision when I retired, as an eager to help people young IT professional, I might have done what Flash did.

      Of course, when the inevitable saucy email arrived, I would turn it all off again and let it bounce and pretend I hadn't done nothin...

  23. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
    Devil

    I'm rather disappointed at the lack of BOFH potential in this threat. And the lack of people who voted for "blackmail both parties". Personally I would have voted for having the email projected onto the front of the building in foot high letters, but that option was mysteriously missing...

    Then again, the BOFH would never have foolishly created extra work for himself. And simply set up an search of the email database to bring any interesting or useful items to his attention automatically.

    1. Pete 2 Silver badge

      spread the hell

      > the BOFH would never have foolishly created extra work for himself

      A true BOFH would set the defaults so that incorrectly addressed internal mail would go to everyone. That way it would be sure to end up in the right person's email (and all the wrong people's, but that's FH-ism for you).

  24. Paul Woodhouse

    I once had something similar... but they had pictures attached... couldn't reach the delete key fast enough...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      But was she hot?

      Could've saved the pics for later in the evening.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ethical dilemma?

    Where's the ethical dilemma then? Married or not makes no difference. Using company email for private purposes is nothing. It's a bit iffy though that he reads emails not meant for him. Those emails should bounce as they are required to do, so the sender updates their email details. He should stop trying to fix up those cases when there's a well defined protocol for it.

    Perhaps she would have become the love of his life? But he was spurned when she didn't answer his email!

    Humans are biologically programmed to want sex and fall in love. And seriously do you think married men and women don't fall in love/lust??

    I remember I used to go to conferences with this woman, a smart beautiful woman, who was in a relationship. I was crazy about her anyway.

    There would always be an icebreaker at these things, and people would hook up.

    One time she mentioned she'd be going to the Manchester thing, and her boyfriend wouldn't be going. I got my hopes up high. At the icebreaker, I hit on her all night, made a total ass of myself. At the end of the night most people had gone to bed, just me, her and the organizer, a notorious womanizer, were left. He'd obviously struck out that night since he was alone. I was determined not to strike out.

    I saw the room allocations, he was on floor 3, me on floor 4, her on floor 5. We went to the lift together.

    So he will get out on floor 3, and I would have 1 floor, 1 last chance to get her. What would I say? How would I convince her to come to my room? If I failed, I'd be too embarrassed to look her in the eye again, I'd burned all my bridges. Would I even have the nerve to say it?

    So what did I say?

    Well the lift opened at floor 3, and she and the organizer got out of the lift and headed to his room.

    Ouch.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Ethical dilemma?

      Well the lift opened at floor 3, and she and the organizer got out of the lift and headed to his room.

      And after the lift doors had closed she thanked the organizer for helping her get rid of the annoying guy who'd been hititng on her all night, and headed back to the lift to go to her room.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Ethical dilemma?

      > Married or not makes no difference.

      Where's the commandment saying "thou shalt not be a dirty rotten snitch"?

  26. Flat Phillip

    Another era?

    I suspect the admin had the best of intentions at the time. There was a time email was newish and he probably thought he was helping people out by fixing typoed email. I doubt he was thinking it would be a problem getting work related emails and sending them on their way.

    Me? I'd nuke it and then consider if I want a catch-all anymore. Maybe just check the mail logs and add some alias for some common problems. It is easy to be the armchair general with hindsight though.

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Catch-all? No thanks.

    I've had that live for about a week for test purposes, and the amount of crap that gets thrown at an email gateway to deliver spam, malware and ads for "medicinal" products ended that test quite rapidly.

    May all spammers suffer accidents involving their genitals and nail guns. Repeatedly.

  28. 080

    Keep out of it

    Flash it not the moral police so just keep his beak out. Consider this outcome:

    Flash forwards the email to recipient, recipient is not happy with email and reports it , sender quite rightly says that he did not send it to them, Flash in the poo right up to his neck.

    What a decent person would not have done is to mention the details to anyone so much better to bounce and not be such a nosey bugger.

  29. localzuk Silver badge

    Would have to report it

    In my job, there's no question about it, I'd have to snitch. Them's the rules, and I'm not risking my job over their indiscretion.

  30. heyrick Silver badge

    Blackmail both parties?

    BOFHs in practice...

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Unless it's about something illegal or faudulent

    The only rule is to deal with it and don't talk about it.

    Rule number 2 clearly broken by this admin.

    By dealing with this problem by hand the problem will also escalate as people will not update their address books as the "system" fixes it all the time. Bad move pal.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    jpg's or it didn't happen.

  33. John Stoffel

    Why are you not teaching them to fish?

    So why in the name of god are you not teaching your users to fish? Collecting mis-sent emails and forwarding them on is an exercise in futility. I have valuable time to be spent trawling the web for photos of cute kittens that would be *seriously* inconvenienced if I spent my time re-addressing email all day.

    Delete it and ignore it, and just start bouncing email (especially for internal only!) emails back when they screw up the address. For externals, you can bounce or drop as you see fit.

  34. TRT Silver badge

    Just another thing...

    to add to the wank bank.

  35. Matt_payne666

    As agreed, if this guy has enough time to trawl through spam then he has way too little to do...

    I personally wouldn't have set myself up in his role and have all miss directed mail going into the big mailbox in the sky... even if management asked me to perform said task is explain the futility of it...

    but this isn't what is being asked... and who knows what id have done at finding such a mail item - all depends on how the wind is blowing... but while we are thinking about morals, id probably find myself chatting to a certain female employee a little more often!!!

  36. David Roberts
    Coat

    One reason to filter emails

    Is to catch the spear phishing emails aimed at your important staff.

    Running a check for mail from/to an address very similar to the corporate email domain and originator/recipient of a staff member could catch a major phishing attempt.

    Downside is that you would pick up all sorts of other crap as well then have to deal with it.

    For mis-addressed emails, just read the headers then send a message to the originator saying you are holding the message (in one hand, with one of your bodily extensions in the other) and can they confirm the recipient. Or, better, can they re-submit. With more detail. No - bad idea. Still.......

    This assumes that (as others have suggested) you haven't been forced to do what mail rooms used to, and correct obviously wrong addresses.

  37. Stumpy

    I'm devastated ...

    ... by the apparent lack of BOFHness amongst you all.

    I mean, you've practically all stated that you'd delete the email and pretend nothing happened rather than resort to blackmail or extortion?

    Fer chrissakes, grow a backbone and charge up the cattle prod, the lot of you.

    1. Midnight

      Re: I'm devastated ...

      That's only because "Organize a "Lunch 'n' Learn" session on the importance of not using corporate email accounts for personal business, and then only invite two people to it" wasn't on the poll.

  38. BurnT'offering

    How about if ...

    The email had been something the admin really shouldn't have read, for compliance or confidentiality reasons? He'd at least have broken company policies, if not the law. And he'd have known as much from the legal disclaimer text that every company insists on putting at the bottom of its email. He's lucky he kept quiet

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: How about if ...

      "And he'd have known as much from the legal disclaimer text that every company insists on putting at the bottom of its email."

      An example of the idiocy of company lawyers. Or do they think everyone but themselves reads backwards?

  39. Dave 13

    OMG..

    I ran across a very similar situation in which a co-worker was banging a supervisor in another organization. I simply let it be and the co-worker filed for divorce about 3 months later. Not my job to police morality, and I still stand by my decision.

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Re: OMG..

      Morality ≠ staying married

  40. Crisp

    He couldn't look her in the eye?

    What the hell did she do?

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Re: He couldn't look her in the eye?

      Turned her back on him. Favourite position if what he read was true.

  41. Yugguy

    How stunningly boring

    1346 of you, and counting, chose this:

    "Delete the mail and hide the secret forever"

    It's Friday afternoon - let your imagination go wild.

    Where's the option to "Blackmail both parties for money and sex, then frame each for the other's murder and watch from the public gallery as they get sent down" ? Now that's an option.

    1. Chris King

      Re: How stunningly boring

      Where's the option to "Blackmail both parties for money and sex, then frame each for the other's murder and watch from the public gallery as they get sent down" ? Now that's an option.

      If they've murdered each other, how can they be sent down ? It's like asking where you bury survivors.

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Re: How stunningly boring

        attempted murder. TFTFY

      2. Mark 85

        Re: How stunningly boring

        It's like asking where you bury survivors.

        I don't know about you, but I bury them out in the woods... in a carpet roll, taped appropriately, and quicklime.

  42. framitzula
    IT Angle

    No dilema here

    I've been in some situations involving sensitive information. I would not have read the email. I would have forwarded it as routine business.

    What's in the email is none of my business. However there was one situation where I did say something, it involved classified information being collected by a person that had no need to know, I stumbled upon it while doing maintenance and certainly reported it. I don't know what became of the "suspect" I never saw him again.

  43. Version 1.0 Silver badge

    Similar situation - True Story

    When I first started working for "A Very Big Company" - this is the days before the internet - the "perk" was a company car, which everyone in the service department had, but since it was a "company car" and we were just workers any of the bosses could requisition our cars if their car was in the shop.

    The Sales Director took my mates car one day (his was in the shop and he and his secretary had to go to a meeting in London) - he returned it the next day, but there were two small holes in the ceiling liner, aligned with the imprint of a pair of shoes, one on either side of the ceiling above the rear doors.

    We all had a good giggle about it but there was no other evidence and if we'd said anything, we would have got the blame. And, whatever the evidence might suggest, there was no way to actually KNOW what happened - as in this article, you can guess what may have happened but you can't know, and I think most of us here realize how easy it would be to spoof a similar email complete with matching headers and log entries.

  44. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Simple problem, simple answer

    Two questions here: whether to run a typo/fwd service at all, and who sets standards for acceptable use of email and monitors them. The mistake was to connect the two.

    If you are in the business of #1, my opinion is that this is all you do. You don't set the standard, you don't monitor content, etc. Apart from anything else, you reduce your personal legal and moral responsibility.

    If you are in the business of #2, then org policies need to be in place to tell users that emails are monitored, not private etc. And ideally you want most of the work filtering to be done by machine, otherwise you end up with some petty BOFH who knows everyone's secrets.

    Returning to the first case, supposing you saw an email that read, "I am going to <anglosaxon> you so hard you won't be able to walk." Is that a threat of assault? Or a mash note? If you treat it like the second but it turns out to be the first, you could be blamed for knowing a crime was about to take place and not doing anything about it. Steer well clear.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: Simple problem, simple answer

      It's the equivalent of assisting a user to move folders on a server or helping them clean out their desk. Don't look in the folders or the bottom drawer of the desk. Never.

      Now if the legal department, security, HR, etc. produce a signed document telling you to look, that's a different story.

  45. PacketPusher
    Devil

    Other Option

    My response is not listed as an option. I would have left the message where it was and told the sender that while I am not the morality police, I am the network (or at least e-mail) police and he should not be using the corporate mail for these kinds of messages. These kinds of messages can come back to haunt you in the form of a harassment suit.

  46. 4x4_Welder

    Send with an altered subject "recovered and resent from dump bin", followed shortly by a company-wide memo explaining the use of the typo dump bin. Win-win, you get to thoroughly embarrass the recipient, who will likely tell the sender, and keep a level of professionalism as well.

  47. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Noble Cause Corruption

    Sounds like a classic case of Noble Cause Corruption to me. He violated the staff's privacy with the best of intenions and was left with the harsh lesson of why the staff have privacy in the first place.

  48. martinusher Silver badge

    Easy Fix

    I'd just correct the address and forward the mail. But I'd also put out periodic broadcast 'administrative' emails that would remind people that a) mail content is not private b) all mail traffic is archived (it has to be for legal reasons) and c) everything you send on a corporate email server belongs to the company.

    Its a roundabout way of telling people that 'lewd, lascivious and illegal content should be kept off corporate email systems because there's a high chance it will bounce back and bite the people communicating". This isn't being the morality police, its just reminding people for their own sake.

  49. ecofeco Silver badge

    Here's how I handled a similar case

    I discretely told the recipient that kind of mail was not acceptable, and that I was not going to say anything to anybody this time and to make sure it doesn't happen again because I was not going to lose my job over it.

    I could do nothing about the sender as they did not work for the company. However, the problem was resolved.

  50. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

    Must be a small business

    Flash must work for a small business, so catching all the mis-addressed email from existing or potential customers may well be vital for the financial future of the company.

    I make the assumption it's a small business because corporates usually have an A4 equivalent (at least) of legal disclaimer as a sig on all company emails loudly claiming, amongst other things, that "this email is only to be read by the intended recipient blah blah blah" in which case if the "intended recipient" can't be identified with 100% certainty from the To: address alone, then it should be bounced or blackholed as per the "legal disclaimer" included.

  51. Number6

    You missed the option to forward it to someone else on the company email list, preferably someone with a similar enough name. I occasionally get email for the person whose name appears below mine in the company directory although never in the category described in the article.

    Then I'd remove the email catch-all and let the stuff bounce back to sender to teach them to type it properly. It's a minefield to be party to the email of others without an official policy and you're better to just not go there. Hell, paved, intentions, good and all that.

    1. Andy A
      Pint

      One place I worked at had exactly two people in their address list with my surname. I appeared as Andy and the other chap appeared as Andrew.

      Senders assumed that because the mail system had not complained about what they had typed, then it must have been right. They ignored the filling-in bit, which showed UK in my address, and AU in his.

      So he ended up forwarding things about IT, and I forwarded things about his line of work. We added comments telling each other a little about ourselves, and promising that if either was passing the other, then beer would be involved.

      So one day I turned up in the office in Brisbane, and announced to the receptionist "Andy A to see Andy A".

      After a tour of the office, beer WAS involved.

  52. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You don't want to know anything...

    My view would be that "Flash" is obviously green. I did email work in the accounting end of the entertainment industry( not adult entertainment, but entertainment by and for adults). The mix of a lot of money, perceived "power" and a whole lot of very attractive people in the office (excepting my IT crew) meant there was a lot of pelvis bumping happening both intra-office and with just about any other human with a heartbeat. As a result, and we seemed to get sued regularly, and fairly often. Other things like malfeasance and other bean counter foibles meant we did quite a bit of suing in our own right as well.

    As a result, about every month I would get called into the Big Boss's office, our counsel would be in there, and the ominous words "Shut the door behind you" would begin the conversation....followed up with "We need every e-mail to, from or about so and so..."

    Counsel specifically did NOT want me scanning for content...because, if we had to litigate, she much preferred for my testimony to be limited to how the evidence was obtained. We would hand off the data, unfiltered and completely to her e-Discovery team and THEY would do the snooping.

    This was very workable all the way around. Initially in one of the the Big Boss did want to use the IT org to do the e-Discovery to save the money. Counsel shot that down that if we ended in court the other side would wrap me around the axle on methodologies I had used in the e-Discovery process. I then piled on with my ethical objections that counsel agreed with.

    The conversation ended with big boss getting a mini lecture from counsel that my position of "Don't read things not intended for you" was proper and defensible, and that since I did not have the legal training to discern the difference between "Malfeasance" and "Just being a dick" I should stick to that policy,

  53. Oengus
    Coat

    Little black book

    Being single myself, I think I would have made a note of the people involved in my little black book for future possible dalliance (assuming that would align with your moral/ethical compass).

    A bit of inside knowledge never went astray.

    (Mines the one with the little black book in the pocket.)

  54. Medixstiff

    I had two similar things happen, I used to release the quarantined emails on our IronPort's.

    One morning an email was stuck for our State Sales Manager, we used to check why the message was quarantined as usually it was just the profanity filter, boy did I get a surprise when the embedded image of his wife came up, for a woman in her late 40's she was seriously hot.

    I spoke to him quietly about it and mentioned it was best not to send personal emails using his work email, I could do this because I had a very good rapport with HR, CEO, CIO and CFO and they knew I don't muck around.

    The next one was a few months later when one of the junior sales ladies sent an email to the same Manager detailing what they did the night before.

    That one got deleted, however I sent a company wide email to all staff advising them as per policy, that whilst we did allow some personal use, we had been receiving emails lately that were not acceptable and as we do check quarantined emails to find out why they get stuck and as people tend to blurt everything out in the first lines of the email, that we really didn't need to know some of the things that we had found lately.

    Suffice to say, I had no problems after that.

  55. bish

    No brainer

    If you set yourself up as the kind of admin who redirects mail, you have to redirect it. There's nothing illegal going on, and flagging it up as a violation of company policy on computer use is obviously messy and unnecessarily complicated. The right answer is obviously to stop nannying your users and let their emails vanish into the void. Teach them how to look up email addresses and check their sent items and then just leave it the hell alone.

    The implied moral quandary over being complicit in an affair between two adults is so absurdly puritanical, I can't help but wonder if the admin worked in some kind of hyper-zealous bible sales business.

  56. d4f

    Do as always?

    If everyone knows you forward mistyped emails, just forward that one too. By doing so you implicitely tell them that their dirty secret leaked and that they should at least stop using corporate email for their private stuff.

  57. Gulraj Rijhwani

    Do your job

    Depending on company e-mail usage policy (which in any sensible organisation would specify that company resources are subject to possible scrutiny, and also dictate that communications should be within certain bounds - including, but not limited to obscenity, illegality, etc.) as a mail admin, people should assume that the mail admins have legitimate access to all incoming and outgoing mail anyway. The option I would go for is noticeably absent from the poll - a quiet word in the sender's ear to knock it off and/or take it out of the company system, because otherwise sooner or later they're going to get burnt. Now, if company policy DOESN'T expressly allow for scrutiny, then your boy has a problem, because no matter the intent, intercepting e-mail is a no-no, and without permission he shouldn't be doing it.

    What puzzles me is how internal mail users could get the address wrong in the first place. Don't they use some kind of address book or company directory?

  58. Gulraj Rijhwani

    And another thing...

    "However, Flash was left forever unable to look the woman in the eye."

    Really? That says far more about your guy, Flash, and his insecurities than it does about the fornicating travellers.

  59. John 61
    Coffee/keyboard

    all your data belong are us.

    Couldn't it be argued that *all* data (email or otherwise) on their servers belongs to the company? For example, if your job title is programmer or developer and you write an app for the BBC (for example) the Beeb has the copyright to it and not you. I'm told what I can and can't do in my contract.

  60. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    On reflection: Return to sender. Not an option?

    I think this is different for external and (genuine) internal e-mail. (I've had spam "from" my own address, presumably used because assumed to be whitelisted.)

    External e-mail is likely to benefit the business, even if it's just social. it should be delivered as the sender intended.

    Having reflected on the unwanted harassment question, internal e-mail should return to sender, with a covering message that looks like an automated response, but with a hint of doubt. If they want to correct it and send it again, that's up to them. If they're ashamed to, that may be for the best.

    I quite often get e-mail intended for a colleague with the same forename, but it is almost never as much fun as the case described.

  61. Chris King

    Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean I'm not out to get you...

    A user once made a formal complaint about me, claiming that I was spying on his e-mail.

    "Of course I'm not spying on you", I said. "You're just not that interesting !"

    [Cue sound of an ego going "POP! Pfffffffttttt !"]

  62. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Anecdote

    When I worked in an office job (before e-mail was invented) (yes, I am retired now) I had an episode like that. We were clearing out a store room and I came across an old briefcase, which rattled, and was locked. Our orders were to throw such things out but I thought I should first find out what was inside. The three-wheel lock on the cheap briefcase was easy enough to fiddle in my lunch break (didn't even have to brute-force it by the numbers). Found discussion papers from a long-past interstate conference, and the used airline ticket of the one who attended the conference, and half a packet of condoms. So I closed it and left it in the boss's office. In that case the moral issue was moot, because the traveler was my boss. Never heard another word about it.

  63. Floz

    Hmm, funny I'm in the (apparently small) percentage that emailed both parties asking about a menage-a-trois.

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