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 read my genuine reason just above this post.

glad you've resolved it, but who was/is paying for her account?

Am working for an organisation where I recetly discovered that they're paying for more than twice as many licences as they have employees 🙄

Could be an offence under the Computer Misuse Act. Get all the details and go to the police.

I've seen your update and know this is sorted now, but do you run Active Directory? Depending on how the email is set up you might be able to change the password in AD without needing any of the MS personal security - might help in future x

Glad you got this sorted.
When you are feeling sad about the friendship loss just imagine being a fly in the wall when she could no-longer access the stolen e-mail account 😂
Simple wins are all that keep us going some days 😍

Dear Sir / Madam

Please take some time off to sort this out. Your company is your currency, your reputation is your dignity. If this goes out of hand, blackmail, extortion, fraud could leave you low and dry. People engineer all sorts of things .... Best correspond with Go Daddy and Microsoft. You may have to inform them that you will file a law suit should you have any losses as a result of their refusal to co-operate with you. Good luck.

@FYLM you should still send a cease and desist letter to your former employee.

Even if you have a new email, she will still have access to all the old emails and any contacts that come in to the Microsoft account, she’s obviously not going to hand over any contacts to you.

At the very least, you should cancel your Microsoft subscription because if you don’t she’ll simply allow it to auto renew at your expense.

Did you have a contract with her? And did it mention business confidentiality? She has stolen your property, and you would shouldn’t let her get away with it. I presume you didn’t fall out and she left your business seemingly on good terms? She’s scheming at the least and vindictive at worst.

Make sure you contact your clients, let them know your new email address, you don’t have to go into details. Because chances are she will have done “hello, it’s Scheming Friend here, I’ve set up on my own. Please contact me on [email protected]”

Unfortunately she has an obligation to warn her customers that her business had an (internal) data breach.

If she is lucky its only email communication and email addresses which have been accessed by the ex-employee. Depending on what data she retains it could be much worse.

Op if you allow credit, you should also write to your customers and confirm your bank account for payments has not changed.

And write to all of your suppliers to confirm who is authorised to place orders and your delivery address.

That'd what I was thinking, this is surely theft of intellectual property and malicious intent. I'd calk cops then sue her for everything she has got

Big Al strikes again?