Protect Yourself from Internet Harassment and Stalking

by Larry Stevenson, aka Prince_Serendip, CastleCops Staff Writer
Oct 17, 2004

Stalking and harassment are crimes that many people may be familiar with in real-life, but these problems can also occur on the Internet. Cyberstalking and online harassment is an electronic extension of the physical forms of stalking. Many crimes on the Internet include fraud, embezzlement, harassment, identity theft, and stalking.

Much information is available about you online, and an enterprising criminal can find out a lot about you and use this information to his/her advantage. A criminal could use basic information about you, and then engage in "social engineering"--contacting your friends, co-workers, relatives, etc.--to learn even more.

Stalking can be described as an issue of control: their control of you. The solution is to take back control. Sometimes victims of cyberstalking do not take the problem seriously until it escalates to real-life stalking. Online harassment can get to the point where your harasser bombards you with messages of hate or obscenity, tracing your home phone number and physical address, thus bringing cyberstalking into real-life. Today, there are an increasing number of cases where the stalking of a person begins through the Internet, then escalates into physical stalking and harassment.

Three areas exist where an online user is vulnerable and are primarily where the user interacts with others.The first area is with live messages and Internet relay chat lines. Here is where you can talk live and it is one of the most common places where victims of cyberstalking are first targeted. Avoid entering private information in your profiles in messengers. The second most common place is message boards or Usenet (news groups), where Internet users post messages, another favorite place for cyberstalkers to approach their victims. Third, is the e-mail box. E-mail harassment usually continues from initial contact in the live chat or news groups situations.

Cyberstalking can take many forms. Unsolicited e-mails including hatred, obscenity, or threats, are some of the most common forms. With news groups, the cyberstalker can create postings about you or start evil rumors which spread through their bulletin boards. More complicated forms of harassment include mailbombs, sending the victim viruses, trojans and spywares or electronic junk mail (spamming). (Of course you can receive these without being stalked as well.)

Checklist to Protect Yourself from Harassment and Stalkers

1. Don't respond to flamings (scolding and verbal abuse online). If someone makes threats in a chat room or on a message board, notify the Moderator, Forums Administrator or Webmaster immediately.

2. Create genderless nicknames.

3. Create nonsense passwords and change them often. Use an encryption program, if you need to store them.

4. No flirting online, unless you are prepared for the consequences, both expected and unknown. The more obvious you are, the more likely you could arouse unwanted attentions from unwanted people.

5. Save offending e-mails or messages and report them to your Internet Service Provider, Forums Administrator, Webmaster, or local Police Department, as the case may be.

6. If there is any indication that a stalker might have your offline information - name, address, phone number -- call the Police immediately.

7. If a stalker threatens physical violence, call the Police immediately.

8. Avoid confronting the stalker/harasser as this only arouses more anger or emotional attacks.

9. Never give out any personal information about yourself or anyone else in any public forum.

10. Leave an online situation that has become hostile. Log off or surf elsewhere.

One of the most important recommendations is to use common sense. Users are advised to realize they should assume that all their online communications are public, unless proven otherwise. Users need to be aware that the 'delete' command does not mean the information disappears, it can be easily accessed by others. In addition, the more the user knows about the equipment and softwares they are using on the Internet, the less likely they are to fall prey to online harassment and stalkers.

Best regards and always take care of your security!