Potential Effects of Cyberstalking

Just because cyberstalking does not include physical contact with the perpetrator does not mean it is not as threatening or frightening as any other type of crime. Victims of cyberstalking often experience psychological trauma, as well as physical and emotional reactions as a result of their victimization. Some of these effects may include:

* changes in sleeping and eating patterns
* nightmares
* hypervigilance
* anxiety
* helplessness
* fear for safety
* shock and disbelief

Victims experiencing these reactions and many others might consider seeking out support from friends, family and victim service professionals in order to cope with the trauma resulting from cyberstalking. In order to locate local victim service professionals that may be able to offer assistance, safety suggestions, and information and referrals, please contact the Helpline of the National Center for Victims of Crime at 1-800-FYI-CALL, 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, Eastern Standard Time.

Read more about cyberstalking via the Stalking Resource Center.
For more information, please contact:

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
3100 5th Avenue., Suite B
San Diego, CA 92103
(619) 298-3396
Resources on the World Wide Web:

* National Center for Victims of Crime Stalking Resource Center
* National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV)
* Working to Halt Online Abuse (WHOA) - whoa@haltabuse.org
* CyberAngels
* Safety Ed International
* Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
* Online Privacy Alliance
* Network Solutions WHOIS - Helps determine contents of domain name registration

Your local prosecutor's office, law enforcement, or state Attorney General's office. Check in the Blue Pages of your local phone book under the appropriate section heading of either "Local Government," "County Government," or "State Government."
References

* U.S. Department of Justice. (August 1999). Cyberstalking: A New Challenge for Law Enforcement and Industry -- A Report from the Attorney General to the Vice President. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, pp. 2, 6.
* Gregorie, Trudy. Cyberstalking: Dangers on the Information Superhighway. The Stalking Resource Center, The National Center for Victims of Crime. Online.
* Riveira, Diane. (September/October 2000). "Internet Crimes Against Women," Sexual Assault Report, 4 (1).
* Wired Patrol. "US Federal Laws- Cyberstalking." Accessed 15 April 2003. http://www.wiredpatrol.org/stalking/federal.html

"Just hurry up and die already."

-Mike Foulks

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What is Cyberstalking? -- Its when an online incident spirals so out of control it gets to a point where a victim fears for his or her life.

"Cyberstalking is the hidden horror of the Internet," said Parry Aftab, an attorney and executive director of WiredSafety.org, a network of 9,000 volunteers who patrol the Web and assist victims of cyberstalking, child pornography and other online ills. "Nobody talks about it. They think they have to live with it."

Report Cyberstalking at https://www.wiredsafety.org/forms/stalking.html

Behaviors

Cyberstalkers meet or target their victims by using search engines, online forums, bulletin and discussion boards, chat rooms, and more recently, through online communities such as MySpace, Facebook, Friendster and Indymedia, a media outlet known for self-publishing. They may engage in live chat harassment or flaming or they may send electronic viruses and unsolicited e-mails. Victims of cyberstalking may not even know that they are being stalked. Cyberstalkers may research individuals to feed their obsessions and curiosity. Conversely, the acts of cyberstalkers may become more intense, such as repeatedly instant messaging their targets.

More commonly they will post defamatory or derogatory statements about their stalking target on web pages, message boards and in guest books designed to get a reaction or response from their victim, thereby initiating contact. In some cases, they have been known to create fake blogs in the name of the victim containing defamatory or pornographic content.

When prosecuted, many stalkers have unsuccessfully attempted to justify their behavior based on their use of public forums, as opposed to direct contact. Once they get a reaction from the victim, they will typically attempt to track or follow the victim's internet activity. Classic cyberstalking behavior includes the tracing of the victim's IP address in an attempt to verify their home or place of employment.

Some cyberstalking situations do evolve into physical stalking, and a victim may experience abusive and excessive phone calls, vandalism of personal property, threatening or obscene mail, trespassing, and physical assault. Moreover, many physical stalkers will use cyberstalking as another method of harassing their victims.

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"Just hurry up and die already."

-Mike Foulks

"Just hurry up and die already."

-Mike Foulks

What is Cyberstalking? -- Its when an online incident spirals so out of control it gets to a point where a victim fears for his or her life.

Some states in the U.S. have begun to address the issue of cyberstalking:

* Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, New Hampshire, and New York have included prohibitions against harassing electronic, computer or e-mail communications in their harassment legislation.

* Alaska, Florida, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and California, have incorporated electronically communicated statements as conduct constituting stalking in their anti-stalking laws.

* Texas enacted the Stalking by Electronic Communications Act, 2001.

* Missouri revised its state harassment statutes to include stalking and harassment by telephone and electronic ommunications (as well as cyber-bullying) after the Megan Meier suicide case of 2006.

* A few states have both stalking and harassment statutes that criminalize threatening and unwanted electronic communications.

* Other states have laws other than harassment or anti-stalking statutes that prohibit misuse of computer communications and e-mail, while others have passed laws containing broad language that can be interpreted to include cyberstalking behaviors.

Cyberstalking has also been addressed in recent U.S. federal law. For example, the Violence Against Women Act, passed in 2000, made cyberstalking a part of the federal interstate stalking statute. Still, there remains a lack of legislation at the federal level to specifically address cyberstalking, leaving the majority of legislative prohibitions against cyberstalking at the state level.

Most stalking laws require that the perpetrator make a credible threat of violence against the victim; others include threats against the victim's immediate family; and still others require the alleged stalker's course of conduct constitute an implied threat. While some conduct involving annoying or menacing behavior might fall short of illegal stalking, such behavior may be a prelude to stalking and violence and should be treated seriously.

Online identity stealth blurs the line on infringement of the rights of would-be

victims to identify their perpetrators. There is a debate on how internet use can be traced without infringing on protected civil liberties.

"Just hurry up and die already."

-Mike Foulks

What do cyberstalkers/harassers do when the stalk or harass someone?

The harasser may post comments intended to cause distress to the victim, or make them the subject of harassment by others. They may send a constant stream of e-mails and instant messages to their victims or a victim’s co-workers, friends, or family. They may pose as the victim and post offensive comments or send offensive messages in their name. They may send hateful or provocative communications to the victim’s boss, family or significant other (in their own name or posing as the victim). Often the victim’s computer is hacked or their e-mail accounts are broken-into by the cyberstalker/harasser and taken over entirely, or the password is changed and the victim locked out of their own accounts. The victim may be signed-up for spam, porn sites and questionable offers.

Cyberstalkers/harassers frequently follow their victims into chat rooms and onto discussion boards, posting lies and hateful messages, or passing misinformation about the victim. They may create sexually explicit images, using the head of their victims attached to the bodies of porn actors. If they have real sexually explicit or nude images of their victims (usually from a failed romantic relationship between the stalker/harasser and the victim), they may create Web sites posting the images and advertising the site to friends and family of the victim, or supply them to commercial porn sites with amateur image sections for public display. We are even familiar with cases where the cyberstalker has threatened the life of the President of the United States or the Queen of England, while posing as the victim.

In the most dangerous type of cases, the cyberstalker posts the name, address and telephone number of the victim online, often posing as them, and soliciting sexual activities on their behalf. In a California case, a man targeted a woman by posting her name and address online and soliciting group sex. The woman had never even used the computer before, but found herself facing angry, sexually frustrated men at her front door.

Death threats are typical in a cyberstalking situation. In fact, there have been several well-publicized cases in the United States where victims were eventually murdered by their stalkers. Many of these began as cyberstalking situations.

If there is any indication that a cyberstalker/harasser knows where the victim lives, works or how to find them offline, law enforcement must be contacted IMMEDIATELY to begin an active investigation into the circumstances of the situation. WiredSafety's law enforcement division, CyberLawEnforcement.org assists law enforcement in cyberstalking/harassment cases.

Mike Foulks and his cco gang often use cyberstalking as a method for persecuting those that do not share their particular beliefs.

Money, politics, religious beliefs, revenge, hate, and romance are the most frequent motives for cyberstalking. In fact, any situation that evolved from an emotionally packed incident are likely to include an offline component that can pose a real physical danger.

Cyberstalkers with a special grudge against the victim may be extremely difficult to stop. Their anger, jealousy and obsession may foil the common cyberstalking self-defense tips, and ignoring their contact may enflame them even more. No one should attempt to tackle a cyberstalker alone. The stakes are too high.

Don't be a victim! And, if you get the sense that the person may try to stalk you offline, call your local police immediately!

You're at it again - trying to bury discussion about the taxi business. Why do you keep doing this? Is it because you are somebody who works with people who don't want to see cabdrivers organized or helped? Look at the posting you are burying. "Concerned cabbie" is posting about assaults on taxi drivers and you're attacking others and burying it with garage about cyber crimes that have nothing to do with our industry.

One more nonsense posting from you and you'll be banned for a month.

George

Tell it to the investigators who have some questions to ask you about your website and your buddy, Mike Foulks!

Do you think this is some kind of game?

You're trying to bury criminal death threats against Wolf Weiss.

Foulks has also threatened others with physical violence before.

Both of you ARE being reported. Both of you WILL have to answer to these charges.

This has to stop or you will go to jail and your precious little website will be removed from the server by court order if necessary.

George, Four questions from one gentleman to another. 1) Why does Mike Foulks get your endorsement?
2) Was the previously mentioned meltdown a one time only incident?
3) I am starting to think you are of an agressive nature. This tends to scare off others. Do you agree?
4) Is "The Dispatcher" now a monthly publication?

These are serious questions. I can send you my email if you want to answer in private.

Mr. Lutfallah has never "endorsed" me, "Fatlu Hall".

When and how do you believe he did?

-Mike Foulks

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Replying to:

George, Four questions from one gentleman to another. 1) Why does Mike Foulks get your endorsement?
2) Was the previously mentioned meltdown a one time only incident?
3) I am starting to think you are of an agressive nature. This tends to scare off others. Do you agree?
4) Is "The Dispatcher" now a monthly publication?

These are serious questions. I can send you my email if you want to answer in private.

Lets start with the nice article and photo of you and Saleem Q. in your new meeting room at the Chinatown Hotel. How about the text listing your qualifications and detailing your office hours. I'm sure I can pull up some of the earlier stuff George has written in the past about you to refresh your obviously failing memory.

As far as the questions go, perhaps they are too "hot" for George. If I have pointed out to George that in my opinion his agressive behavior has scared off some of his would be supporters, I have achieved my goal.

My memory isn't "failing", "Fatlu Hall". It's your vocabulary which fails...

I remember all of the things you want sum up as an "endorsement" by Mr. Lutfallah.

All of the things Mr. Lutfallah published as a report in the Chicago Dispatcher were true.

I think you are imagining "some of the earlier stuff George has written in the past" which you seem to think adds up to an "endorsement". Post and cite your references.

Mr. Lutfallah shares my belief that an organization of Chicago cabdrivers should be open and democratic to all Chicago cabdrivers. We don't agree on much more than that.

He has never "endorsed" me in particular at any point in time.

My "endorsement" comes from the dozens and scores of cabdrivers who voted for me in either CCO election. Mr. Lutfallah didn't vote in either.

I don't think Mr. Lutfallah is looking for "support". If this opportunity he has discovered and is attempting to show to Chicago cabdrivers (the Geoghegan plan) has been somehow slighted by any of his behavior, then your point is valid.

However, I believe it is the behavior of many other so-called "organizers" who have cast aspersions towards Mr. Lutfallah which would be more responsible for any unjust failure of participation with Mr. Geoghegan.

-Mike Foulks

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Replying to:

Lets start with the nice article and photo of you and Saleem Q. in your new meeting room at the Chinatown Hotel. How about the text listing your qualifications and detailing your office hours. I'm sure I can pull up some of the earlier stuff George has written in the past about you to refresh your obviously failing memory.

As far as the questions go, perhaps they are too "hot" for George. If I have pointed out to George that in my opinion his agressive behavior has scared off some of his would be supporters, I have achieved my goal.

by i said knock it off. knock it off.