Shoutbox

My daughter has suffered cyber bullying on msn msging.  I did not have 'save history' set, however i saw the comments when she logged on but could not find them later after she logged off and I logged on again.  Does anyone know how we can find those comments again as the school will need to see as evidence.

many thx

Steve

Firstly, there are two types of message history that can be saved.

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The first one is message history that is saved by Messenger itself (Windows Messenger / MSN Messenger / Windows Live Messenger)..

They are saved in this folder..

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C:\Documents and Settings\<Name Here>\My Documents\My Received Files\<Name Here>\History

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For example, mine are saved in here..

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C:\Documents and Settings\Chris\My Documents\My Received Files\chris4158979229\History

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So go to My Received Files (on the account she was using), then the folder inside there, then the History folder.

The message history is stored there. Check to see if it is in there.

If the message history isn't there, maybe the folder that the history is saved in was changed? You can check where it is saved by logging onto your daughers Messenger account, go to Tools > Options > Messages. I've circled in the image below where to look (click to enlarge):

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If you have Messenger Plus! installed, chat logs are saved in:

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C:\Documents and Settings\<Name Here>\My Documents\My Chat Logs

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Chris4 Thx.  However, I have already done the first choice of search but this only saves when you had previously checked the 'save history' box in msn.  The 2nd, I do not have Msgner Plus.

Is there any other ideas you can give me?  I would presume that all incoming msgs are stored somewhere, but i just dont know where to look.

thx in ad.

Steve

quote:

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Originally posted by Chris4
If you have Messenger Plus! installed, chat logs are saved in:

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C:\Documents and Settings\<Name Here>\My Documents\My Chat Logs

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That too depends on what directory has been set in the preferences:

Plus! > Preferences > Conversations > Chat Logging > Store Logs in: ...

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quote:

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Originally posted by flynnys
I would presume that all incoming msgs are stored somewhere, but i just dont know where to look.

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No, they are not stored somewhere if you haven't enabled the logging options. If they were, it would make the option to disable logging useless...

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So, if neither types of logging have been enabled, then I'm afraid you can't retrieve any 'comments' or previous chats on your own.

The next best thing you can do is actually contacting Microsoft via the abuse link you'll find in the main menu in Windows Live Messenger:

Help > Report abuse

But they will not give you information just like that, if they even are able to (because I seriously doubt they store billions of chats each day on there servers).

Then you can also contact your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and explain the situation. It might be possible that they could retrieve the internet traffic (and thus also the data from and to your daughter's Messenger). But those chances are again slim though, and they would most likely never give such information without a police investigation if they even have it (because doing that without an investigation would be illegal in many parts of the world).

The only place messages are stored are in the folder I said above, as far as I know.

Someone said to try this to recover it:

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Go to Start, Search, choose "All files and Folders." In the "A word or phrase in the file" box, type a few words from the conversation that you remember. From there click "More Advanced Options" and choose "Search System Folders" as well as "Search Hidden Files and Folders" and "Search Subfolders." If a log exists, that should find it.

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But your chances on recovering the message history is very small I'm afraid.

Unless you have previously enabled chat logging, the conversation history is not stored anywhere for retrieval.

Chris4 & all

thx for your replies, Chris I think u have hit the nail on the head and I will need to look at other avenues.

Tvm

Steve

When you saw those comments when you logged on, those may have been offline messages (messages the user gets when they are not online). As others have mentioned before, you cannot recover messages if the option of saving chat logs was not enabled. Cyber bullying is a very serious matter and I suggest you contact the police for this matter. I'm sure they can somehow retrieve data (how else do you think they get evidence against cyber crime).

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Originally posted by spongeboy
I'm sure they can somehow retrieve data.

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yes, with their magic wands.

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Originally posted by spongeboy
(how else do you think they get evidence against cyber crime).

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By monitoring data, _after_ they have been informed that person x is doing dodgy stuff.

Or by tricking people... (not legal in many European countries though; but it is allowed in USA for example)

Bottom line, they first need to know (and have the warants)  to monitor someone.....

If there aren't logs they can't proof anything either. So they would just say: turn on logging and let's wait till it happens again...