MY COWORKER HAS BEEN IMPERSONATING ME IN EMAILS TO CLIENTS

I first realized something was wrong when a client called me and thanked me for an email I had never sent.

I laughed and assumed there had been a mistake.

Then he mentioned specific instructions.

I had no idea what he was talking about.

I checked my sent folder.

Nothing.

The client forwarded me the email.

It had my name at the bottom.

It even sounded like me.

But I hadn’t written it.

I immediately contacted IT.

They checked my account.

There was no evidence that anyone had logged in from outside the company.

That made the situation even stranger.

Someone inside the office had access.

I changed my password.

Two days later, another client received an email supposedly from me.

This one contained incorrect pricing.

The client almost signed the wrong contract because of it.

My manager was furious.

He asked why I was sending clients incorrect information.

I told him I wasn’t.

He didn’t believe me at first.

Then I showed him the emails.

The signature was mine.

The account was mine.

But the messages weren’t in my sent folder.

IT started investigating.

They discovered someone had created an email rule that automatically redirected certain messages before they reached my mailbox.

That meant someone could communicate with clients without me seeing the responses.

I started thinking about who had access.

One coworker stood out.

She had recently lost several major accounts that I had been assigned.

I didn’t accuse her.

I waited.

Then a client forwarded me another suspicious message.

This one included a phrase I had never used.

I searched my internal emails.

That exact phrase appeared in messages written by the coworker.

I gave everything to IT.

They found the answer.

She had been accessing my account through a shared workstation where my credentials had been saved.

But the motive was worse than simple sabotage.

She had been sending incorrect information to my clients so they would complain about me.

Then she planned to take over those accounts.

The hidden clue had been the timing.

Every fake email was sent shortly after management assigned me a new client.

She wasn’t trying to get me fired randomly.

She was deliberately weakening my relationship with the clients she wanted.

The company investigated.

She was terminated.

The affected clients were contacted and informed about what happened.

Several apologized for initially blaming me.

One client said something that stayed with me:

“I couldn’t understand why you suddenly started making mistakes.”

Neither could I.

Because I hadn’t.

Someone else had been writing mistakes in my name.