Cyberstalking—A Real Crime
Cyberstalking—A Real Crime
1st and foremost, what is stalking? 
Stalking can happen to anyone. It is serious, dangerous, and can get worse over time.
Stalking, in the traditional sense, involves following someone in a way that causes the victim to be afraid or upset, for instance:
•Following someone on foot or by car
•Watching someone at work or at home
•Sending unwanted letters or emails
•Making unwanted telephone calls or
•Leaving unwanted cards, flowers or gifts
What is, Cyberstalking?
Cyberstalking, simply put, is online stalking. It has been defined as the use of technology, particularly the Internet, to harass someone.
What are the risks of being cyberstalked?
1. Identity theft
a.Having your online accounts being taken over
b.Having your contact details obtained and used
c.Location and tracking of you by GPS on mobiles, tracker devices or spyware on phones
d.Having false profiles posted on social networking and other sites
e.Having malicious websites, blogs and social networking sites created about you
f.Impersonation of you being used to stalk others, positioning you as the guilty party
2. Being discredited(Or False accusations)
a.In social media and other online communities
b.In your place of work
c.Others being provoked to attack you
3. Receiving direct threats through email/instant messaging
4. Stalking or harassment of your relatives, friends or colleagues (on average a stalker will contact 21 people connected to the victim)
5. Escalation to physical violence
6. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
(I highlighted in purple the most commonly seen threats)
Is cyberstalking a real crime?
Although local police department's capabilities in dealing with such crimes may not be sufficient, stalking is a crime in all 50 states and the District of Columbia (In the Unites States). However, legislation on cyberstalking varies from country to country.
How can we protect ourselves from cyberstalking?
1. Review what online information exists about you and keep it to a minimum.
a.Do an online search for your name or your family members' now and then to see what's available about you and your kids online.
b.Review all your privacy and security settings.
2 .Regularly change your e-mail and passwords for key online accounts and keep them safe.
3. Avoid public forums
4. Ensure that your computer and mobile devices have updated antispyware software installed and turned on
What can we do if we are being cyberstalked?
1. Gather and document as much evidence as you can.
2. Report the stalking to the police.
3. Seek help and support from relevant organisations, for example the National Stalking Helpline on 0808 802 0300, or email advice@stalkinghelpline.org (In the Unites States).
4. Most social networking sites have a means of reporting such issues, use the relevant platforms.
Discussions(Let's brianstorm together!!!):
1. Is cyberstalking a crime in your country?
2. Are there any relevant organisations or helpline that support cyberstalking in your country?
3. Have you had experiences with cyberstalking? Would you mind sharing them?
4. Are there any other tips for protecting ourselves from cyberstalking?
Further Reading:
1. National Stalking Helpline(For the United States).
2. Attorney General of Massachusetts on Cyberstalking.
I'll start, just to get the ball rolling! :)
1. Is cyberstalking a crime in your country? In Malaysia, there is no specific law pertaining to cyberstalking.
2. Are there any relevant organisations or helpline that support cyberstalking in your country? No, not that I know of. I don't think there's any law or organisations dedicated to cyberstalking yet at this point.
3. Have you had experiences with cyberstalking? Would you mind sharing them? I once knew a person who I knew from a chatroom and the person went into my Facebook and downloaded my profile picture and showed it to me. Even thou it wasn't really anything malicious, it make me very uncomfortable and nervous and I was absolutely terrified about what the person actually knows about me. Rest assure I stop interacting with the person and eventually, blocking the person,
4. Are there any other tips for protecting ourselves from cyberstalking? I think also for me, is to be careful what information you shared daily in the internet. I don't like sharing photos on Facebook or being tagged in locations, for privacy reasons mostly. Nowadays with everything interconnected it's really easy for a stalker to get all the information they need on us.
@terrytee Hey there! this is honestly some amazing piece of work. Very relevant and helpful for this day and age. Thanks for sharing. It is a well deserved honor's project :D
@Ren Thanks for the compliment!
@terrytee
@terrytee
1. Is cyberstalking a crime in your country? here in my country there's no specific law about cyberstalking as far i know, but we have law about cybercrime. And the elements of cyberstalking is against our point on Cyber Law.
2. Are there any relevant organisations or helpline that support cyberstalking in your country? So far i only know about this community called ICLC (Indonesia Cyber Law Community), a cyber law community in virtual media that provides services to the public in the areas of consultation, advocacy and socialization in the field of cyber law, which formed by several government and non-government (private) cyber lawyers in 2011
3. Have you had experiences with cyberstalking? Would you mind sharing them? Yes, I've had several experiences regarding this. But there's most annoying one from this person that even stalked me to all social media that I have and even call to my phone number and it was really irritating eventhough I didn't put my number anywhere on my social media acount. This person started to try to connect with me to all of my social media account (all of my account is private so need to request to connect) and keep try to get my attention and post things that i don't like and spread false information about me. I never give respond but then I gathered all information and all the evidence to stop them.
4. Are there any other tips for protecting ourselves from cyberstalking? I personally do this, I keep all my account to private and i tried to google myself and then report to google to delete my personal pics or information related to me. So when people google about me there is no public information that being shared. I also keep all personal pics and data such phone number and personal email from my social media account. And i also protect my password, nowadays many site over double sign-in and protection to our account, it's good to try. As they report me the ip address of the person that tried to logged into my account, although it can't be so accurate due to VPN and all but that can be helped to protect our accounts.
@InvisibleAngel92
Awesome reply!! Thank you so much for your input!
I'm glad to hear about cyber crime laws and the ICLC in your country! Really sorry that you've personally experienced it, but I'm really thankful for the tips you shared with us!
@terrytee thanks for that! I hope people can learn from my experience :) <3
@InvisibleAngel92
@terrytee
Nice post! :)
@sensitiveShade5337 Thank you so much! It means a lot to me! :)
@terrytee
1. Pretty sure its a crime, its kinda like cyberbullying but worse.
2. I dont really know
3. I have. A few classmates of mine decided to make profiles on a site I use and it went to making their profiles my nameiscancer mynamehasaidsfromanotherstudent, my youtubename=cancer.
4. IDK, block the person maybe, report them, something like that
@Cynonic
Yes cyberbullying and cyberstalking are indeed two very similar terms! The distinctions are mild. They are somewhat similar in terms of definitions.
I'm really sorry you've had that experience…! How did you handle that situation? Did you reported to the admins of the website?
Thank you, indeed, reporting them is one of the steps to take when faced with cyberstalking.
@terrytee
Well after they finished they never got on the site again, guess it was after my best friend kickled them out of his group when they didnt return
@Cynonic Well I'm glad your friend did what's best at the time!
@terrytee
Ive also had my account taken by someone who started changfing group pics inappropriatly, changed my account to a picture of a swstika, and deleted pages worth of chatting which serves as good memories. I had to change my profile password but they changed it back till I changed my password and email. Then I recieved an email from that person saying F(full word too) U
@Cynonic That sounds terrible !!! Did you know who did it? I hope they didn't do it to you again :/
@terrytee
IDK. Even though for some reason a friend knows a way on to my account I doubt he'd do something mean like that. The only mean thing he did on my account was reply to a roleplay as a small joke and that didnt really make me as mad as this thing. And I dount he'd say f u to me.
Ive also had someone online on Youtube tell me that they hoped I'd get ran over by a truck, then another account that disturbed me saying myrealnameishot(Actually using my real name) and it fricking creeped me out.
@Cynonic
Really sorry to hear about that, can't believe you've actually have to go through with this!
Well it seems like someone is actively cyberstalking and harassing you online. How long ago did this happened? If it was just recently you might want to follow the steps above such as reporting to the website, blocking them, and even taken screenshots as evidence and informing the police if things really starts to escalate.
Also, you might want to take note of the precuations listed to protect yourself from harassment such as checking your privacy settings, updating your password and becareful what personal inforamtion you've shared on the internet.
I'm not saying that it is good to cyber stalk, catfishing, is a huge thing going on. It's big on the dating sites and can really damage people's trust.
I say if we are honest with each other and honest with ourselves, this won't happen.
@Rebekahwriter13 Yes indeed! I agree that catfishing is also a problem that needs to be addressed and I do believe that honesty is the best policy! :)
1. Is cyberstalking a crime in your country?
In Australia, there are no specific cyberstalking laws, however cyberstalking fits into the laws of stalking in general.
2. Are there any relevant organisations or helpline that support cyberstalking in your country?
Not that I know of (or could find from a quick Google search)
3. Have you had experiences with cyberstalking? Would you mind sharing them?
I've never had any experiences with cyberstalking.
4. Are there any other tips for protecting ourselves from cyberstalking?
Learning tips to stay safe on the internet, not sharing too much online, and telling someone straight away if you think that you might be in danger from cyberstalking!
@PhoenixAsh Those are some good tips! Thanks for your input! :)
1. Is cyberstalking a crime in your country?
Yes, I'm pretty sure there is action you can take.
2. Are there any relevant organisations or helpline that support cyberstalking in your country?
I'm pretty sure there are such as Childline (for children and teens) and Lifeline (for adults). There are much more I'm sure.
3. Have you had experiences with cyberstalking? Would you mind sharing them?
No, but I have had friends experience stalkers etc.
4. Are there any other tips for protecting ourselves from cyberstalking?
Try to keep your online profiles anonymous and block/report anyone who makes you feel uncomfortable right away. If they continue to harrass you talk to a trusted adult or friend about what to do.
@StayyAlive Thanks for those great tips!
Glad to hear that you've never experienced it(It's a terrible experience, no one should experience that :/)
@terrytee
I agree, it's something that is very real and not okay, we all should be more aware of the signs and where to go to someone about it. Great post!
@StayyAlive
Thank you for that! Much appreciated!!
I tried to report cyberstalking/cyberbullying to my police and they didn't do anything.
@happydandan
"Although local police department's capabilities in dealing with such crimes may not be sufficient, stalking is a crime in all 50 states and the District of Columbia (In the Unites States). However, legislation on cyberstalking varies from country to country."
Some tips on remaining safe online.
1) Do not use the same username (or especially password) for every site you sign up for.
If the forum or website you are signing up on is public-facing (meaning anyone can view it without signing up) then it has been archived by Google and/or other search engines. Google has likely billions of "web-spiders" which automatically map out every website they come across. You can easily find posts from many years ago on websites that nobody even uses anymore with a quick google search. Even when an account is disabled, or even the website itself is taken down, your posts may be stored in one of the many web archives that save historical copies of websites on a fairly regular basis (an example being the wayback machine https://archive.org/web/).
2) Any time you create a new account, find out what information on your account is public and what information the website host shares or uses for marketing and such.
Facebook and other social media are particularly bad with automatically making your data public. If you don't want to see your facebook pictures in search engines, or you don't want people to be able to track where you live, work, went to school, who your family members and friends are, your date of birth, etc. etc., then go in and set everything you want hidden to private or friends only. I don't understand how so many people are oblivious to how much information they are making public. A quick check of your profile without logging in first, or by making a fake account and going to your page, will show everything you haven't bothered to make private.
3) Do not make or continue using a "junk email address" for all the things you don't want to use your main email for.
This is a great way for someone to track your interests or comments, and potentially even find some random comment you forgot you ever made that gives enough info to determine your real accounts. An example of how serious this is, this and 2) were used to apprehend the founder of the "Silk Road" marketplace on the dark web, a place where you could literally buy anything. The FBI found him by tracking a user "Dread Pirate Roberts" used on many forums which frequently discussed the... shadier parts of the internet. They were able to gather enough information from his chat logs to prove both his real identity and that he was the founder of the Silk Road.
4) Do not forget about accounts you've made in the past. They don't disappear.
There are a ton of other things I could bring up, but those are some of the important ones in my opinion. On a side note, get a decent antivirus program and pay attention to what you download. If it looks shady it probably is. Some freeware/services I highly recommend are Malwarebytes for an anti-malware with a good reputation, KeePass or something similar for generating and saving account information (passwords are stored in an encrypted database on your own computer which I trust way more than something like LastPass that saves your account info on their own servers), and TempMail or something similar which you can use to generate a fake email address for all those websites that ask for your email address when you have no desire to recieve any emails from them (solves problem 3 easily, but make sure not to use it for any websites that might send personal info by email).
Always keep in mind that when a for-profit company offers you a free service, they are making money off of you usually by selling off your personal data to the highest bidder. Be careful what you give people and companies access to and cyber-stalking is much less of a threat.
@pioneeringCake7350 Thank you so much for providing us with those tips!! I especially agree with continue using a "junk email address"! I personally do this too haha! Awesome!!
This might be off topic, but sometimes I get prank calls or calls that say "unknown number" Or "private number". There are some apps that allow you to block or report the caller & you can mark calls such as spam. This is probably not really helpful, but it's an idea.
@babygirlrhi Thanks for the tip! I got those calls too! I think some service providers also give you the option to block those unknown numbers as well!
Don't let politicians fear monger you into letting them pass bills which allow government officials and police to spy on everyone instead of waiting for a warrant to do so. When ISPs store too much of our data on their end it leaves everyone MORE vulnerable to cyberstalking and ID theft. Net Neutrality is a GOOD thing because without it 7cups.com wouldn't be nearly as accessible as it is, if it even would exist at all. Support and protect Net Neutrality every chance you get with online activism petitions. This is what will keep the internet resources like online therapists and inclusive, safe communities going instead of blocked by paywalls.
Take note in case you ever forget: Net Neutrality = GOOD!
Also Police State Bills = BAD but I think everyone here already knows this. We need freedom of speech and privacy to exercise it with to feel safe during online protests and signing online petitions.
