Case Project: Investigating Possible E-mail Fraud

A vice president at Alexander Rocco Corporation says he received a hostile e-mail message from an employee in the Maui office. Human Resources has informed him that the message's contents are grounds for termination, but the vice president wonders whether the employee actually sent the message. When confronted, the employee claims he didn't send the message and doesn't understand why the message shows his return address.

Write a memo to the vice president, outlining the steps an employee might have taken to create an e-mail message and make it appear to come from another employee's account. Be sure to include some SMTP commands the culprit might have used.