Employee left the business but is still using her work email address

[FYLM]

And according to Microsoft, there is NOTHING they can do about it.

I set up a small business 2 years ago. One of my employees left last week. I called Microsoft as we are with Office 365 to reset her email account with a new password so that she could not access it and I could manage the account myself (I am a sole trader). The email address she was using was the generic one, "hello@....".

As she changed all the passwords, Microsoft have said there is nothing they can do. I can't get into Office 365, I can't reclaim the email address from her, there is literally NOTHING I can do.

All they keep saying is "contact your HR", "contact your IT dept", etc. I don't have these things - I am a sole trader!

Can anyone advise me please? Thanks.

You can register a Trademark as an individual/sole trader.

I'm sure thar makes it theft of some sort, online property or something. Look into letter templates, detail and log everything you send to her and you may have to get a solicitor involved.

If she was still using the email - why? has she been taking your business?

Without taking control of that domain name properly she can continue to do so. It will come up for renewal and she will be able to pay for it.

Nominet are only useful for UK domains.

Bit of an expensive route though if op can’t even afford to see a solicitor to get this sorted.

Dh adds that when you set up an admin account that only you have the password for, set it up as 2 factor so you need your phone as well to enter a second password/passcode just in case someone sees you type in the password ever.

There are lots of videos on YouTube walking you through setting up stuff like this which will help you.

It's not even a solution/relevant to the OP's problem, I was just answering your question as to whether it was possible.

The OP's problem is that they don't have admin control over their 365 account.

But I'm also a little concerned for the OP being a sole trader and using the phrase "one of my employees". The liabilities associated with being an employer can mount up substantially, and without a legal limit on those liabilities there are very significant risks to the OP.

Dont understand why the OP didnt talk to her employee!

I would be concerned about why she has kept and is using this email? Is she contacting your clients/making people think she is still connected to your business to gain work for herself?

I'm glad you sorted it out.
What on earth did she do that for?

I’d imagine that as the OP is gutted about this supposed friend, that this is more than not giving the email back and is more about stealing her business

This is horrific especially as she thought she was a friend. Surely it's a legal what she's doing?

If you read OP’s posts, the employee isn’t just using the email, she has changed all the passwords and locked OP out of the whole company account. This is malicious.

If this person is a qualified professional, you may have cause to have her sanctioned or deregistered by the governing body for this kind of unprofessional behaviour.

Make sure you change all your banking passwords too.

Yep, companies house has a links

companieshouse.blog.gov.uk/2019/02/12/choosing-a-company-name-trading-name-or-trade-mark/

That is because you had no administration rights to your the companies email address.

If the company choose to leave the inbox active and redirect mail they could do that by changing the password needed and by changing the reset password protocol.

In the OP's situation the ex-employee has gained access to a system she has no legal right to access anymore, an internal hack, and used her access to gain control of the OPs property by changing passwords and reset protocol.

What did she say when you spoke to her?

PSA

If you are a sole trader with employees always have at least 2 admin's. Even if both of them are you logging in under 2 id's

For important stuff like system controls for access changes and removing users make sure that it is a 2 step process 1 to input the change 1 to approve the change.

PSA
If you are a sole trader with employees ... look to limit your liabilities with a legal structure as soon as possible. Employees are one of the biggest liabilities a small business can have.

How much were you quoted?

You don't have the money for a lawyer but you can afford to throw away your business? Okay.

Amazing that there aren't more instances of this happening.

Glad you got it sorted op... And I bet you're gonna be wary of who you hire in future!

Always ensure you and you alone have admin access. Other people should be users added or removed by you. To all IT systems

*also this creates a single man dependency but presumably as a sole trader nothing admin should need doing behind your back?

If you’re the admin get into the Microsoft 365 admin tool and reset the password. If you don’t manage that then delete the hello@ but that would mean that email address is trashed long term so you’d still have to replace links all over the place.