So, I wanted to see a provider I had never seen before. As part of her screening process, which includes all my personal info, of course, she asks me to send from my work email account an email to a non-descript email address she has set up. She assures me this is the final check, then we're good to go. Fine. I'm feeling a little "not right" about it, but it's a non-descript email. So I send it from my work account at 5 PM with a little benign subject line and email message. "Just following up on our thing..." kind of stuff.

Next morning I get into work, open my 'puter, and what is in my inbox but AN AUTO-REPLY EMAIL FROM HER with ALL OF HER PROVIDER "STUFF" IN IT!! Such as: thanks for contacting me, please fill out my standard form, need the names/contacts of providers you've seen before, PLUS IN BIG BOLD LETTERS at the bottom all her contact info!! To her SITE!!

I nearly fell out of my chair. I: 1) erased that email then 2) deleted it from the trash folder.

My questions:
To any IT guys: is what I did "enough"? Will that email from her be "traceable" on my work computer? Is it still "sitting somewhere" where a work IT person can ever get to it?
To any guys: Has this ever happened to you? What did you do?
To providers: Why do you set auto-replies on your "dummy" email accounts?

Sigh. I was really looking forward to seeing this lady, and when I told her in anotehr email message from my personal dummy account and mentioned about her auto-reply TO MY WORK ADDRESS, she did not even address the issue. We never hooked up. I didn't trust her.

Sigh. Is it me???

i know i was a real dummy when i fist got started, perhaps she just doesn't see things from your point of view & hopefully will get a clue.  
i'm still trying to get a clue on many things LOL
i wish i had an actual answer to your IT question tho.

good point about understanding the provider Missy, but it is a really big issue for the guy. Once it hits the company servers, it probably lives forever. Everything done on company equipment is company property. The good news is that many companies are more interested in tracking web activity and URLs, not emails. There are some protections on email in larger companies, as there is some consideration for confidentiality... like emails between spouses, emails that may contain confidential medical or personal information, etc...
Not an IT guy, but have some experience as an exec needing to access a former employees email for work-related information. Had to go through Legal and HR and IT approvals, plus approvals from a level up in the org, blah, blah. Glad I left and started my own biz. I own my own emails and web activity now!

If I'm reading between your lines, it is as I suspected: That is, even though I deleted the email and THEN deleted it from the Trash file, it will live forever on their servers.

Thanks very much provider. You may have fucked me out of a 20-year professional career.

(Am I over-reacting?? Someone pls talk me off the ledge here and say I'm over-reacting and that it'll all be ok and nobody at my current work will ever ever dig into that email...)

My company for one has all emails stored in the cloud, even the deleted ones, not sure when we empty the trash folder if they go to the cloud or not. The IT people tell us anything that goes to the cloud is available to you or them. We used to have a very good spam filter which is no longer compatible with our system we now have a lot a spam that gets through the Microsoft filter. I for one would not worry to much about it, you can always claim it was spam, after all you did not click on her link.

Breathing, breathing, breathing.....deeply.

Please excuse the alias.

My opinion is that you have nothing to worry about.  Here's some facts.

- Due to many corporate fucktards, many companies keep copies of every email the company SMTP/POP server handles.  They need to keep the emails for a certain amount of time.  The amount of time is determined my either government regulation or the corporate lawyers.

- The reason they keep the emails is for legal discovery and forensics.  If something happens that results in the company being sued or someone getting arrested for malfeasance, they will need emails that serve as documentary evidence of wrong doing or proof of innocence.  

- There are analytics programs that analyze emails.  Those analytics programs are not worried about a angle email to/from an idiot hooker.  They are worried about Intellectual Property and corporate confidential information.  They are also worried about certain felony criminal activity, such as kiddie porn or embezzlement.

- Filters are used in the analytics systems to tell the program what to look for.  That might be keywords or a list of web sites.  I can guarantee that your email did not trigger the analytics.  Do you really think that the filter they bought is filtering for http://www.bettyblowjob.com or for that matter [email protected]?  There is only so much they can look for and you have to stop somewhere.  Even No Such Agency doesn't look for everything.

- This assumes that your work email is not part of high assurance, such as intel systems, LE systems, etc.

- What is likely to happen is that your email will be kept on a server, removed to tape and the tape will be destroyed at some point in the future.  If you are involved in a major lawsuit or get arrested for corporate malfeasance, you have much bigger problems than a hooker mail.

- Don't do it again.  Outgoing and incoming emails are stored.  They may not pick up one email, but they can detect a pattern.

Dude, we learn from our mistakes.  Even if you are confronted with the email, so what?  Deny, deny, deny.  Someone used your computer when your ran to the bathroom with the runs.  You went to a near cube for a conversation and saw later that the screen ever didn't come on.  Fucking Microsoft.  Call IT and have them fix it.

So, the story I can tell you is that I was on travel using the company VPN from the hotel.  I forgot I was on the VPN and accessed a porn site.  It must have happened 10 times in one month, I was so tired.  I got the screen of shame, shut down the browser, logged off the VPN, opened the browser and went to the wank site.  I never heard anything about it.  Of course, if I was looking at kiddie porn, I'd likely have had a visitor with a badge and a nice set of steel brackets to add to my jewelry.  

I hope this helps you feel better.  Dumb shit to do, but learn from it.  Next time trust your instincts.  Heart check sat.

Thanks for posting this.  Serves as a lesson for all of us.

discretion is so so so very important & should never be taken lightly. I can imagine the anxiety that one would feel.
I hope the provider who made the careless mistake is paying attention now & is careful in the future.

In my company I have filters setup so when certain keywords are in an email they get sent to me and I have sent them on to the appropriate party for either disciplinary action or even dismissal depending on how bad the offense might be.  I also keep some for myself to leverage for black material  Yeah... I'm a mean bastard but it's a nice way to get free BJs and even some pussy hehe.

You'd be amazed at how dumb people are with their work email.  Sending self nudes... really???  Office affairs... yup!  Stealing... dumb!  All that shit belongs on personal accounts and considering how easy it is to open a yahoo or gmail account I feel no pity for the stupid shit I see coming across my servers and will use that crap to my advantage every time.

So you never follow a provider SOP by sending an email from your business account to their dummy account?

Never been asked to and if I were asked I would look for someone else.  Plenty of other fish in the sea willing to spread their legs for $$$.

D'oh! I feel very foolish now.

If you're lucky you don't have IT people looking for that type of crap.

For me, I have lines that I won't cross.  I won't give my last name or any work info (web site, e-mail, etc.), under any circumstances.  There's too much to jeopardize IMHO.  It's not only that I don't want a provider to have that info, but I also wouldn't want that info to get into the wrong hands.  If they insist on either, I usually tell them I have P411 and personal references.  If they still insist on work info or my last name, I move on.

wow that sounds like you were filling out a loan application, not trying to see an escort lol well you dont realy need any lecturing from us, it seems like you have learned your lesson... I would never ever correspond with a provider with a work email...might not even use a work computer... even if u delete the history or use a "private" mode in the browser. way too risky and youll never know how deep your company looks into their employees activities. i had one employer who installed a key logger on all the computers so he could monitor EVERY word his employees typed on the computer, whether it was a email, an excel spreadsheet, word document, etc...

go get yourself a nice tablet or netbook...or even a cheap tablet or netbook...and do it that way...your paranoia will thank you. at the very least, always use a dummy email, use private/stealth mode in a browser (like google chrome) and never give out anymore info than ur first name, ur email and your phone number...if a provider wants more than that, just find someone else. you have to protect your privacy above all else

I can't imagine ever doing that or someone else doing it. I would never think someone would email a work account from their provider account. Crazy. Just for the record , not everyone does this.  

Hope it works out okay for you.  -- Modified on 2/6/2014 6:55:35 PM

I'm with you Sexy Gymnast, I could never imagine even going thru all that or even asking a gentlemen for his work info, if I cant get a reference from TER, Date-Check, P411 or another provider then it must not meant to be. Now I do go off of my gut alot but discretion is #1 always, I would never want a client asking me where I work or live, its just not fair.

Stay Safe and Happy Hobbying!!

END OF MESSAGE