Disappearing emails and attachments from within emails becoming 0 bytes!

[Strawberrycocktail]

A couple of weird things have happened in a few emails in my inbox in the past few days. These are emails from two organisations that I have a potential dispute looking with (both have a connection). One is an insurer, the other a large firm of solicitors so both are big businesses with access to sophisticated technology. First, the solicitor sent me an email last week which I saw flash up on my screen (I use Microsoft outlook and emails can flash up in a small box on screen as they come in). I saw what the email said. When I came to look for it the following day in order to respond it had gone. Definitely gone and not accidentally deleted from my inbox as I checked deleted items, trash etc and accessed my emails online at the internet provider's website. It wasn't there. The email was significant because it acknowledged something which supports my position but it appears they may have been able to delete it remotely. Is that possible?

The second weird thing concerns the insurance company. I made a complaint to them a few months ago and received a 'final response' which I had opened and read so I know it was definitely accessible. I have been considering what to do in the meantime as the issue has been evolving and their refusal to resolve something has lead to a big escalation of the problem. Therefore, I decided to make a complaint to the financial ombudsman and I need the 'final response' letter as part of this. I tried to open the letter to view it again today and download it only to find I couldn't and got a message saying it was faulty/corrupted/not there. I then realised the attachment (a PDF) was 0 bytes! I thought maybe there was a glitch with my software on the computer and perhaps a software update had not made it incompatible. However, I can open all other PDFs and that includes other PDFs I have received from this insurance company in the past. I then tried accessing the emails via my internet provider and using a different device to see if I could open the attachment. However, nomatter what device I use to access the email via the internet provider the attachment actually says it is -2bytes in size. Yes, 'minus 2 bytes' as in a negative size! Furthermore I noticed that the same email was sent by the insurance company twice, first late afternoon and then again first thing the following morning. I am wondering if it is possible for a company with the right technology to remotely delete the attachment or possibly set up some instruction for it to self-destruct in certain circumstances. I know this must read like 'conspiracy theory' but could those with more tech knowledge than me tell me if this is possible? The company knows there is now an escalating problem so they would have a reason to make this letter disappear given what they said in it so I am thinking it is possible they would do this if they could.

I am assuming your using the desktop outlook client rather than the web app.
It sounds like an issue with your mail client, I have seen similar issues before:-

1. Try accessing the email account via webmail
2. Try using a different mail client, or configure outlook on a different computer.

If either of the above suggestions work, (and you can see all of your mails including sent items). I would delete and reconfigure your outlook client.

Thank you. I did access the emails on a different device as well and looked at them directly on the remote server of the broadband provider that I have the email with. The problems were the same. I since spoke with a technical expert of specialist email services and he confirmed that the technology does exist to recall emails from Microsoft outlook and the technology exists for the sender to destroy remotely the attachments to emails after they have been sent. So yes, it looks like the one email was recalled by the sender and another one had the attachment destroyed by the sender at a later date. I have been told it is possible to include settings on document attachments to enable them to be viewed once before they destruct, to destruct at a later date or even (as mentioned above) destroyed remotely after sending where the sender wishes to retract a document.

I know you've checked your deleted emails and trash (often the same thing) but have you also checked junk/spam? In my own experience, I sometimes see an email flash up in the notification's box on my desktop and then it's not there to read. More often than not it's been directed to the spam folder. Just a thought... I expect you've already checked there.

The solicitors email sounds like it has been recalled by them which can easily be done on outlook