A cautionary tale
This Interweb can be a murky place sometimes.
We all [presumably] know about Trolls – those people who just try to flood a site with inane comments in an attempt to piss off the site owner. For some reason that might be understood only by a five year old, they seem to think it's hilariously funny. They don't bother me though – that's what the Delete button is for.
Then there is the other type. The Stalker.
Now I happen to know a woman who runs a site and somehow she has picked up a stalker. I have seen some of his shit and it really is nasty stuff. It started off with him professing everlasting love for her and when she failed to respond, the comments became nastier and nastier. They went from professing love through pathetic pleading and then the shit started. There is the name-calling, the threats of suicide and is now descending towards death threats.
I know little about the Stalker. He lives in or around the Rio Rancho / Albuquerque area of New Mexico [using Verizon Wireless]. He is barely literate [who the hell calls a woman a "kunt"?] but he is really fucking persistent.
When I say persistent, this fucker discovered my friend's Facebook account and from there, her Instagram account. He then started "befriending" her Facebook friends and then posting nasty shit on their accounts. He has scraped her Instagram account and now has all her family photographs. He even found an image which inadvertently showed her mobile phone number, and is bragging that he'll use that.
My friend isn't bothered by the implied death threats, but is very concerned about the messages being sent to her friends. As a result she had to contact every one of them and then shut down her Facebook and Instagram accounts though he is still hassling her on her website. I have had to take over moderation of that as most of his messages are [to put it politely] upsetting.
Of course the glib answer is to report him, but unfortunately it isn't that easy. If he were relatively local it might be a different matter but trans-Atlantic is a different ballgame. Probably the simplest answer is to play him at his own game and start sending him threatening emails.
I'd be good at that.
Hope it's Elton John !
Don't be daft! We all know that [redacted] and his boyfriend [redacted] don't go for the women.
Perhaps you should send him an email from her address with an attachment that he will feel compelled to open. A dose of some really vicious malware might serve to focus his mind a bit. You might see if you could add in a nice little virus, too.
To be honest, I'm not sure he has her email address. He seems to have everything else so I wouldn't be surprised. I must ask her.
In the meantime I have a lovely selection of viruses [I keep 'em as they don't work on Linux, but there's always a rainy day?] I might send him a mail from one of my [many] addresses containing my version of Ebola……
Go for it, Gramps! It might even be kind of therapeutic. All that stuff that sends your blood pressure sky high but that you, like the rest of us, can’t do anything to stop – you can focus all your frustrations and rage on him. All those politicians who drive you mad with their insane ideas and their nonsensical ideas about “how to run a country” – let him represent them and receive the full weight of your fury. All those unthinking nobodies who gladly go along with whatever the tabloid journalists and the “experts” tell them – well he can be your own personal drone, to “correct” as you see fit. As I say, it isn’t personal – it’s therapy!
I’d bet my bottom dollar that after a couple of weeks of really serious rage-venting from your good self he’ll never trouble your friend ever again. He won’t dare!
As the man says – I am pondering my options. It has just occurred to me that he might even have found this site through one of those weird treads in the Interweb, in which case I won't show my hand just yet! 😈