Cyberstalking

Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk someone. This term is used interchangeably with online harassment and online abuse. Stalking generally involves harassing or threatening behavior that an individual engages in repeatedly, such as following a person, appearing at a person’s home or place of business, making harassing phone calls, leaving written messages or objects, or vandalizing a person’s property. 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 only that the alleged stalker’s course of conduct constitute an implied threat.

Behaviors
Cyberstalkers target victims using online forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, spyware, and spam. They may engage in live chat harassment or flaming or they may send electronic viruses and unsolicited e-mails.  They may repeatedly instant message 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 trigger a reaction or response from their victim, thereby initiating contact.

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.

Stalking does not consist of single incidents, but is a continuous process. Similar to stalking off-line (physical stalking), cyberstalking can be a terrifying experience for victims, placing them at risk of psychological trauma, and possible physical harm. As Rokkers writes, “Stalking is a form of mental assault, in which the perpetrator repeatedly, unwantedly, and disruptively breaks into the life-world of the victim, with whom he has no relationship (or no longer has)….Moreover, the separated acts that make up the intrusion cannot by themselves cause the mental abuse, but do taken together (cumulative effect).”

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

from Wikipedia

Cyber Stalking and the Abusive Personality

From bullyonline.org

The Internet provides the perfect forum for cyberbullies, individuals whose aim is to gain gratification from the distress caused by provoking and tormenting others. The anonymity, ease of provocation, and almost infinite source of targets means the Internet is full of predators from pedophiles targeting children to serial bullies targeting … anybody.

Many serial bullies are also serial attention-seekers. More than anything else they want attention. It doesn’t matter what type of attention they get, positive or negative, as long as they can provoke someone into paying them attention. It’s like a 2-year-old child throwing a tantrum to get attention from a parent. The best way to treat bullies is to refuse to respond and to refuse to engage them - which they really hate. In other words, do not reply to their postings, and on forums carry on posting without reference to their postings as if they didn’t exist. In other words, treat nobodies as nobodies.

The objectives of bullies are Power, Control, Domination, Subjugation. They get a kick out of seeing you react. It doesn’t matter how you react, the fact they’ve successful provoked a reaction is, to the bully, a sign that their attempt at control have been successful. After that, it’s a question of wearing you down. The more your try to explain, negotiate, conciliate, etc the more gratification they obtain from your increasingly desperate attempts to communicate with them. Understand that it is not possible to communicate in a mature adult manner with a disordered individual who’s emotionally retarded.

The anger of a serial bully is especially apparent when they come across someone who can see through them to the weak, inadequate, immature, dysfunctional aggressive individual behind the mask.

The first rule for dealing with this type of behavior is: don’t respond, don’t interact and don’t engage. This is not as easy to do as it sounds. It’s a natural response to want to defend yourself, and to put the person right. However, never argue with a serial bully; it’s not a mature adult discussion, but like dealing with a child or immature teenager; whilst the serial bully may be an adult on the outside, on the inside they are like a child who’s never grown up - and probably never will. Serial bullies and harassers often have disordered thinking patterns and do not share the same thoughts or values as you.

Second, keep all abusive emails. Create a new folder, perhaps called “Abuse”, and move hate mail and flame mail into this folder. You don’t have to read it. When the time comes to take action, this folder of hate mail and flame mail is your evidence. Bullies, especially cyberbullies, are obsessive people and if their account is closed down you may start receiving mail from another address. This can later be compared to the abusive emails you’ve already received to identify the perpetrator. You’ll find the same words, phrases and strategies occurring. If you receive abusive emails or flame mails or hate mail, you can forward it to abuse@isp where “isp” is the service provider the abuser is using, eg “aol.com” or “yahoo.com”. Although Internet service providers may not act on every complaint, the more complaints they receive about a particular individual (with examples of abusive email) the more likely they are to close down the person’s account.

Third, become alert to provocation. It could be called “The Baiting Game”. A provocative comment is made and those who respond spontaneously in irritation are then targeted for further “attention”.

Fourth, become an observer. Although you may be the target of the cyberbully’s anger, you can train yourself to act as an observer. This takes you out of the firing line and enables you to study the perpetrator and collect evidence. When people use bullying behaviors they project their own weaknesses, failings and shortcomings on to others. In other words, they are telling you about themselves by fabricating an accusation based on something they themselves have done wrong. Whenever you receive a flame mail or hate mail, train yourself to instinctively ask the question, “What is this person revealing about themselves this time?”

Fifth, decide if you want to take action, and if so, prepare carefully and strike hard. Sometimes refusing to respond and engage will result in the cyberbully losing interest and going off to find someone easier to torment. Sometimes though, especially if there has been interaction in the past, the cyberbully is so obsessed that s/he cannot and will not let go. You will have to make that person let go, but only through swift, hard, legal action, and only when the time is right. Don’t deal with the abuser yourself (this encourages bullies and stalkers), use a third party such as a Lawyer.

Internet stalker profile:

lives in a 1-room apartment which hasn’t been cleaned for months - if ever

has stacks of pornographic magazines in his bedroom area

has poor personal hygiene

has poor table manners

has poor social etiquette

hasn’t changed the sheets on his or her bed for months, which are now best described as crusty

has a bathroom, the state of which doesn’t bear thinking about

lives on pizza and beer/coke, the remnants of which litter his apartment

may have an unusual pet (eg ferret) which has free run of the apartment

is either significantly over- or under-weight

has a small moustache or other facial hair

has not held down any job for more than a couple of years, probably less

has no real friends

has no life outside the Internet

The Internet stalker probably has other unpleasant characteristics that sexual harassers possess, and the usual sexual inadequacy including lack of intimacy, controlling behavior, no concept of the partner’s needs, premature ejaculation, and an abnormal belief bordering on obsession in his smallness.