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Wrong timestamp on Yahoo Mail email

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(@freebird)
Posts: 14
Active Member
Topic starter
 

Yes, we have that. What I am telling you, and anybody I could get to listen from the time on after a police computer forensics expert testified that it wasn't possible for the timestamp to be wrong–including the jury–is that it WAS NOT sent at 1206 PM that day I sent it in the early morning hours.
I am telling the truth and I find it nothing less than mind-boggling to be told again and again by computer experts that there is no possibility the timestamp is wrong.
I sent that email in the early morning hours from Toronto to 250 miles away (but same time zone).

 
Posted : 06/02/2018 12:45 am
benfindlay
(@benfindlay)
Posts: 142
Estimable Member
 

What happens if you repeat this? Can you send another email and replicate this at all?

If so I would do so, noting down the time you send the new email, then compare the timestamps present with the time you know you actually sent it.

You may (and I stress may) find that there is something funny going on with regards to the mail server providing times (rather than them being taken from the local computer) which could explain it.

 
Posted : 06/02/2018 8:03 am
(@freebird)
Posts: 14
Active Member
Topic starter
 

No, I can't repeat it, and I suspect it impossible to actually duplicate the situation.
At the time the Sept.19, 2011 email was sent I was living in a friend's basement and she was too cheap to pay for internet she just bummed of whatever area wireless connections she could access (in 2011 passwords on routers wasn't at all as common as today). Often the signals were very weak and would drop the connection frequently. This is what happened. That aside, after the conviction and years in prison the person I sent the email to would not be agreeable to take part in anything to do with me.

 
Posted : 06/02/2018 8:09 am
benfindlay
(@benfindlay)
Posts: 142
Estimable Member
 

You don't necessarily have to repeat it exactly "as is". Send an email from one Yahoo account to another (given both sender and receiver seem to be Yahoo) and check the headers that result. You may spot something which shows that the resultant timestamps are different from what you would expect to see.

Also, have these headers come from the local PC or from the mail server itself? If they've only come from one source, what do the headers from the other source say?

And I'm not quite sure I understand - how exactly would a weak/intermittent signal cause an incorrect timestamp?

 
Posted : 06/02/2018 8:25 am
jaclaz
(@jaclaz)
Posts: 5133
Illustrious Member
 

The time stamps are provided by Yahoo servers, besides the original one, the ones for the intermediate "hops" inside Yahoo various servers appear to be consistent.

A possible scenario (provided that Yahoo Mail works like other similar providers) could only be the case where to the message was attached a single (huge) file and the users pressed send in the early morning and it took - due to the extremely slow connection - several hours to complete the uploading of the mail to Yahoo server.

Give or take a few seconds, the "sent" timestamp also marks the moment the Yahoo server completely received the e-mail (and the attachment).

I have no idea if in such scenario the connection would have timed out or it would be kept "alive" notwithstanding the extremely slow transfer rate.

To give you an idea of the time needed, in the good ol' times (talking of 1993/1994, last century wink ) transferring a 1.44 MB floppy image on an analog modem 14,400 baud took roughly 15 minutes.

Later, circa 2002/2003, I happened to have in a particular location a very slow (more than slow, highly asymmetrical) satellite connection, where - while the download was - all in all - a decent speed, the upload was excruciatingly slow, and I remember e-mails (with attachments, even if not particularly large) take several minutes.

As hinted before a complete analysis of the computer actually used at the time may provide some additional info, but till now the data from the timestamps alone seem like confirming that the mail was actually sent at the given time.

I personally doubt (but that doesn't mean that is not possible) that the Yahoo servers had a wrong timestamp, nor that they "held in hostage" the e-mail for several hours before actually sending it, the given hypothetical scenario could explain it but proving that something like that happened, and proving it some 6 years later, isn't going to be easy.

As a side-side note (and only to reaffirm how "strange things" may happen) there is the famous case of the further than 500 mile e-mail not delivered
https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail.html

jaclaz

 
Posted : 06/02/2018 10:27 am
(@freebird)
Posts: 14
Active Member
Topic starter
 

I have troubled half a dozen people who I guess qualify as experts in this area. Some have less than subtly suggested that I am lying about the whole thing and hoping someone can come up with some explanation that my save me in my appeal.
I am not lying about it.
The file was not huge.
It happened the way I said that it did.
I have been on out on bail just shy of 2 years and the Court of Appeal ordered the appeal be perfected and filed not later than the end of this month. I have little doubt if I was a suspected terrorist or even just a murder case, the authorities would be able to dig out whatever it took to find the real send time. I do not have the financial ability to back that kind of endeavor and so it is over–as I had already accepted until I received a (spam) email from FF and thought I might give this a shot.
I appreciate you taking the time to look at this.

 
Posted : 06/02/2018 3:48 pm
Jamie
(@jamie)
Posts: 1288
Moderator
 

until I received a (spam) email from FF

Sorry, what was this exactly?

 
Posted : 06/02/2018 3:53 pm
(@freebird)
Posts: 14
Active Member
Topic starter
 

Attn benfindlay.
I haven't compared the full headers but the timestamp on the email from my SENT folder also gives a timestamp of 1206. By your CV you certainly must be considered an expert whereas I know precious little about matters of this sort. I don't know why the connection being weak could affect the send time, it was something said by another person who seemed to me to also qualify as an expert.
It boggles the mind.

 
Posted : 06/02/2018 3:55 pm
(@freebird)
Posts: 14
Active Member
Topic starter
 

until I received a (spam) email from FF

Sorry, what was this exactly?

It was information about an upcoming seminar of some sort I have no idea why FF would be sending it to me and I had never had email from FF before, hence I refer to it as spam.

 
Posted : 06/02/2018 3:59 pm
Jamie
(@jamie)
Posts: 1288
Moderator
 

It was information about an upcoming seminar of some sort I have no idea why FF would be sending it to me and I had never had email from FF before, hence I refer to it as spam.

From our account registration Terms of Use

Webinar announcements, site updates, surveys and other news items may be sent to you via email. You may unsubscribe from these emails at any time.

 
Posted : 06/02/2018 4:03 pm
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