Am I Responsible for emails Sent from My Domain

salmon90 on 17/08/2018 - 17:12
Last edited 17/08/2018 - 17:30 by 1 other user

I am a sole trader running a small business, and I am the only employee.

A while back, I gave a family member an email account under my domain name… So for example my email is [email protected] and the family member is [email protected]. The family member is starting to get older now, and I have started to get concerned about misuse of the email address attached to my business. They use it for everything, banking, ebay, RTA/RMS, it is their only email.

This might be for one of many reasons, being old and not thinking straight, if they say anything inappropriate, if they sign off as if they were from my company, relationship breakdown, etc etc - skies the limit with possible reasons

My question is, being a "business" / "business" domain name, am I legally responsible for the emails this family member sends?
How does this differ to someone using a gmail or hotmail address for example?

If anyone actually knows the legalities of it, I would greatly appreciate your feedback or advice.

• 

  boomramada on 17/08/2018 - 17:23

  +3

  Not sure about legalities but your domain name is your brand name, if someone miss used it, it against your brand name.

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  [Deactivated] on 17/08/2018 - 17:24

  +1

  Is Gmail not free anymore?

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  scrimshaw on 17/08/2018 - 17:27

  +10

  Have that family member use a new gmail account.

  Then set up mail forwarding so that anything that is sent into [email protected] to be forwarded into gmail.

  That way they won't miss any emails from their bank / ebay / newsletters etc but whenever they send mails they'll do it through their Gmail account.

  • 

    amkssg on 17/08/2018 - 18:33

    And set an auto-reply (vacation responder) that notifies senders to change the email address on record.

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  Ocker on 17/08/2018 - 18:07

  I guess the question is whether the domain name element of an email address can be classified the same as a company letterhead/logo on stationery.
  My training was that whenever correspondence was received on stationery imprinted with the companies letterhead/logo, then the correspondence is deemed to have emanated from the company - not the writer.

  • 

    HighAndDry on 20/08/2018 - 10:57

    I guess the question is whether the domain name element of an email address can be classified the same as a company letterhead/logo on stationery.

    Nope. Otherwise universities would go out of business from defamation suits overnight.

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  tranter on 17/08/2018 - 18:35

  +3

  Lots of people have a Yahoo email address but they're not sending correspondence on behalf of the company Yahoo.

  I can't see how you can be legally responsible for somebody else's emails.

  But in saying that, I still wouldn't want somebody else to have an email address which could potentially impact my business in a negative way, even if it's only a remote chance.

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  MrHyde on 17/08/2018 - 19:04

  +3

  I would say that you are not responsible, but your company reputation can take a big hit if somebody did something really wrong with it.

  Keep in mind, people and businesses' emails are spoofed by spammers and scammers on a daily basis and that does not impact the business. However, an inappropriate email that looks like it came from an employee can do a lot of damage.

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  hawkeye on 17/08/2018 - 20:26

  Change password.
  Other than the other person was using it for scan to email with a Samsung or similar MFC that doesn't support SMTP over SSL for Gmail etc would be an abuse,laziness or a wannabe.

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  Savas on 17/08/2018 - 21:22

  +2

  nah personalised domains are awesome, gmail is for amateurs.

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  Davo1111 on 18/08/2018 - 00:16

  +2

  There's no evidence so far to suggest they're misusing it right? lets keep that in mind.

  IMO the main issue is reputation of the company.

  With things like piracy, they have to notify the webmaster first to take down the offending content

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  HighAndDry on 20/08/2018 - 10:57

  No legal liability. Potential reputational damage. I'd set up a Gmail for them anyway, just because it means less maintenance and headaches for you, plus I'd personally trust Gmail to be around longer than your website domain.