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First, some background story. There's a guy that does some work for me when I'm away for an extended period of time. Then when COVID started up, I tried contacting him to no avail, including his last known telephone number, so I just figured he was dead or very sick from COVID.
Fast forward to today, and I get a message from his E-mail account that didn't say anything about him being gone. In this message, he said that he had a new E-mail account, but it was the same account he had been using for a while. Upon reflection, I started to get suspicious. In my response to that E-mail, I had asked him for his updated telephone number (since when I had tried to contact him last year, he didn't answer or respond to my voice messages). If he responds with his telephone number, I'll call to confirm it's him - and if not, then I'm going to the FBI.
I should say that I checked the full header of the message he had sent to me, and it checks out as being from his account - the only thing I'm wondering about is if "he" is a hacker.
Is there anything else I should consider about this situation?
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If you are getting a feeling that something is not right, then going to the authorities is a wise move, IMHO.
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You are right to be suspicious about this, but I would not necessarily assume that your correspondent has been hacked. It could be that he migrated everything (including the auto-reply message  ) from an old account.
I would go to the FBI if and only if you (a) get a phone No. from your correspondent, and (b) it turns out not to be him.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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I got an E-mail response, and he spoke of something that only he would know (that I know), so it's looking OK - but no telephone number  . I asked him for the number, just so I can hear his voice.
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I'd say that it's looking more suspicious. remember that a hacker would have access to any mails you sent to your correspondent, and so could impersonate him over e-mail. In your place, I'd ask for the phone number, explaining why you want it. If you don't get a number then, it may be time to go to the authorities.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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One of my sons had his email a/c hacked and the hacker started sending out invoices in his (my son's name). The first that he knew about it was when he received an invoice allegedly from himself. As I own his domain, I was able to get in and reset things for him (and notified the ISP).
When my father died (Covid, early last year), I went into his account, send email to his regular correspondents to let them know (again, he was using a domain that I owned and I'd set up his email originally). I only had one officious reply from a well know high street company (like sogra backwards) who were sending him junk mail - they wanted a certified copy of his death certificate before thy would consider stopping sending to him.
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jsc42 wrote: I only had one officious reply from a well know high street company (like sogra backwards) who were sending him junk mail - they wanted a certified copy of his death certificate before thy would consider stopping sending to him.
Similar when my mother died... I notified answering to all messages I found for the last couple of years and everything that came afterwards for a year too.
One association didn't bother to answer or to take any action (deleting from the address list), and continued sending spam. I forwarded the Email I wrote, the 3 emails from them after that, another email saying it again and referencing the previous one and all 9 emails from them after my second notice to the consumers protection agency and wrote them a third email saying that the next email would come from my lawyer...
Never heard from them again.
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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jsc42 wrote: I only had one officious reply from a well know high street company (like sogra backwards) who were sending him junk mail - they wanted a certified copy of his death certificate before thy would consider stopping sending to him.
I assume you sent them an invoice for however much a certified certificate would cost + markup for your time and effort and then setup a rule to send an auto-reply stating that the message was being forwarded to something like reportspam@ftc.gov (I just made this up now) and then delete it afterwards.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
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jsc42 wrote: When my father died ...
#include <ianal.h>
I assume that the executor notified all his business contacts (bank, mortgage society, utilities, ...), of his death, and closed out his accounts with them. Once that is done, just close the e-mail account.
Any spammers can enjoy the "bounce" messages from the domain.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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If you are really good at Limbo dancing, are you setting the bar too low?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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That souly depends on how well you bend. For further information, please attend to this[^].
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I prefer an open bar!
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
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OriginalGriff wrote: Limbo dancing
That may be Heaven for you, but it's Purgatory for the spectators, and it's Hell on the back... 
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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There you go always setting the bar too high! You are so inflexible!
If you can't laugh at yourself - ask me and I will do it for you.
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They do bend over backwards to please!
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Will the Plaza de Toros be replaced by the Plaza de Dinosaurio maché papel? 
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Daniel Pfeffer wrote: Will the Plaza de Toros be replaced by the Plaza de Dinosaurio maché papel?
I don't think this scene would revive me when I'm feeling morose.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
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Upvoted for the Tom Lehrer reference.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Death finds a way.
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
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Probably a Cobol programmer 
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The Twilight Zone, for sure.
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Tagging VS and R#er since I'm not sure which one is guilty.
A few months ago my copy of VS started trying to be helpful by, when I select a block of text and type ( wrapping the text in a ( ) pair instead of replacing the selected text with an (. If this was something that Borland had invented in its IDEs 25+ years ago, or that MS had done 20+ years ago I'd probably think it was a brilliant feature; but after several months of swearing at it I've concluded that my current typing patterns are too deeply embedded in my brain to chance - and avoiding a backspace/delete press by typing over unwanted text is very much at the core of how I type.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
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It must be the fault of VS. It's a culture thing, like when Excel pops crap up in anticipation of what you want to do, when all you want is to see the underlying! 
But it's also a culture thing that, if you poke around for an hour, you'll find a way to disable it. 
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s sake ... 