A high-level employee of a Northeast organization almost saw her job search sabotaged in 1997 when several potential employers received a mysterious letter containing slanderous information about her professional abilities and personal life.

The letter scheme came to light when one of the recipients telephoned the woman's immediate supervisor to ask whether any of the letter's details were true. The supervisor, who was aware of the woman's job search, assured the caller that the letter was a cruel hoax. He then notified his organization's security department to report the incident.

An investigation revealed that several slanderous letters, each of which was signed with a different name, had been sent to several of the organizations with which the woman had applied for a job. Suspecting that the letters might have been written by one of her current coworkers, security collected writing samples of everyone in the woman's department and hired a handwriting examiner to review the evidence.

After a week of work, the handwriting expert submitted a report identifying one of the woman's coworkers as the probable writer of the letters. Security confronted the worker with the information, asking him why he had done it. He eventually confessed, saying he had tried to sabotage the woman's career because of professional disagreements he had had with her over the years. The man was disciplined and required to undergo psychological treatment.