Psycholgy of "Stalkers" on Message Boards! A Must Read!

[KoKo]

CYBERSTALKING PREVENTION TIPS

If you are being harassed online by a cyberstalker, the chances are that you are not the first person they have stalked. Cyberstalkers, like other predators, are opportunists. They know what they are looking for and how to get it. "Stalking" is a "power" crime, the stalkers has the power to make you suffer and enjoys that power. Stalkers' self-esteem rises when they attack your self- esteem. The more pain and suffering they can cause, the better they feel about themselves. The best protection against becoming a target of stalking is not to reveal anything personal that you might have in common. Often, stalkers are mentally unstable, paranoid, delusional, and extremely jealous, and have extremely low self-esteem. Stalkers may display selfishness, malice, sadism, be very cunning and arrogant. Most are anti-social, and to put it in layman's terms, be a "control freak", enjoying manipulating other people. They crave power over others, and enjoy the type power that hurts other people. harassment is common enough in live chat on the Internet. The three most common ways it can start are: 1) sexual harassment; 2) a flame war (argument that gets out of hand); 3)users that show their technological power by attacking innocent users, channels or even networks. Those who regularly start flame wars online are rude an obnoxious people, often having poor social and communication skills. Their idea of fun is throwing obscene abuse at another just to upset them. These kind of harassers are often loners who don''t have a companion and their attempts to attract your attention is often clumsy and crude. Care should always be taken when turning the away, as the are highly sensitive to rejection and humiliation, and could cause a vendetta to start against you. Understand that although clumsy and crude in most cases, the stalker is not stupid, they are very organized and usually experienced in their war against you.

Stalking is a form of obsession. The difference between a normal cyber harasser and a cyberstalker, is this: harasser moves on to others and forgets you and a stalkers will come back to stalk you another day.

The Internet enables the stalker, his powers, in most cases, merely a knowledge of the technology is all required to have the ability to stalk another user. Most stalkers, having been rejected desire to instill fear in users, therefore, upsetting the normal enjoyment of the Internet.

Note that educated, smooth talking, responsible people also can be stalkers, appearing to be a perfect gentleman or lady with perfect manners. The major "clue" to cyberstalking, is when the stalker pushes for information regarding you personal life, private life, or life away from the net. Rule of thumb, as it may be referred to is: "NEVER GIVE ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION ACROSS THE INTERNET!"

Online meetings should stay online, the individuals are, in fact, strangers. Online, the physical warning signs usually in the "body language" are missing. Also the clues of personality within the voice and eyes are missing. All there is to determine a personality is the skill in which they type there messages. There is no code of honor in protecting privacy on the Internet. Each user should therefore take steps to protect their privacy online. 1) never specify gender 2) use neutral-gender names 3) change your password often 4) edit your online profiles often 5) review your email headers and signatures often 6) use secure chat programs that do not permit tracking of your isp# 7) use a good chat network 8) use standard names, passive names to as to not draw attention to you 9) use anonymous remailer. 10)use an anonymous browser 11)use encryption to authenticate email 12) discuss privacy with your server. And last: learn your technology. REMEMBER: PROTECT YOURSELF!

http://grafx-specs.com/News/Cybstlk.html

[KoKo]

1. I hope all will read this, although you "Techies" are already way ahead of

us on these issues, many folks may not be aware of this. Innocents appear on Message Boards every day, armed with their new Computers looking for information.

So much has gone on before they got on the Net, even here, on Sophisticated DU, thought this was an interesting refresher. I learned a few things from this article myself.

[KoKo]

2. A kick!

:kick:

[this_side_up]

3. boy howdy! I've watched

some pretty sicko stalkers since we first went
on-line (1994)

Give out your name and state or city and that's it.
You are found via Lexus Nexus (spelling?) Your spouse,
your cars' plate numbers, home phone numbers etc.

Another idiot called up a guy's kid and said daddy
was putting nudies of her on the net. Another turned
in a parent for non-existent child abuse. Another
called a person's doctor and raised hell saying the
doctor was not using 'proper' medical treatment.

Way sick.

[KoKo]

4. One last kick.

:kick:

[sangh0]

5. I'd like to emphasize the NO PERSONAL INFO tip

If you're worried about stalking, and you should be, you should not, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, give out personal info unless you know EXACTLY who is asking for it. Even innocous-seeming info can be used to track you down.

Another tip is to sometimes reveal deliberately incorrect info. A friend of mine used to subscribe to magazines using his cat's name, Tippy Katz. This way, when he got something in the mail, he knew how the sender got his cat's name. If you put out misleading info, and someone comes back to you with it, you know it came from the 'Net.