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Cyberstalking:  What To Do
NCVC Recommendations for Victims of On-line Stalking

If you are being harassed on-line, there are several things you should do:

1. If you are under 18, tell your parents or an adult you trust that you are being harassed or threatened.
Do not keep this to yourself. Parents must know what is going on to be able to help and support you.

2. If you are getting harassing e-mail, get a new account or request a new log-on name and password
from your Internet service provider. Close your old account. Learn how to use the filtering capabilities of
your e-mail program to block e-mail from certain addresses. (Also, see below about e-mails and texts)

3. Save every piece of communication you get from the cyberstalker. Save all of the header information
you can if it’s an e-mail or newsgroup posting. Print a hard copy, and copy the communication to a disk
for documentation.

4. Start a log of each communication explaining the situation in more detail. Document how the
harassment is affecting your life and what steps you’re taking to stop it.

5. Once and only once, contact your harasser directly and state in simple, strong, and formal terms to
stop contacting you and/or posting anything about you.  (SHS recommends that you have someone do
this for you, thus avoiding any direct contact with the stalker.)  State that the communications are
unwanted and inappropriate, and that you will take further action if it does not stop. E-mail a copy to the
system administrator of your Internet service provider. Save copies of these communications, and note
that you sent them in your log.

6. If you receive harassing on-line messages and it is possible to trace the origin of the unwanted
message and you have informed the sender that you do not want to be contacted, you may want to
consider reporting the on-line stalker to the Internet service provider (ISP) because many ISPs have
policies that prohibit the use of their services to harass or abuse another person. Some ISPs may be
willing to cancel the stalker’s account. If you receive abusive e-mail, identify the domain (letters after the
@ sign) and contact the ISP. Most ISPs have an e-mail address such as abuse@[domain name] or
postmaster@[domain name] that can be used for complaints. If that does not work, you can usually find
contact addresses by going to www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois (do a "who is" search on
whatever ISP you need). If e-mail complaints don’t work, make a phone call. Save copies of these
communications, and note all contacts in your log.

Keep in mind, however, that this may be just a short-term fix or may even exacerbate the situation if the
stalker discovers that you notified the ISP. [Under those circumstances, he/she may attempt to retaliate
against you or begin/continue to stalk you off-line. Regardless of whether the on-line stalking ceases,
you need to be aware that the stalker may have obtained personal information on you via the Internet or
through other sources, and, consequently, you may be still at risk for off-line stalking, in which case you
need to do appropriate safety planning.]

7. Contact your local police. Report every incident of on-line abuse and provide the police with copies of
evidence you have collected. Save copies of any police incident reports, and note each contact to law
enforcement in your log. If the stalker is out of state, you should also contact your local office of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.


8.  Call the FBI Computer Crimes Unit in your local area. [The Federal Interstate Stalking and Prevention
Act, 18 U.S.C. Section 2261A, was amended in 2000 to cover on-line stalking as well as stalking by
phone and mail. Also, some on-line stalking cases may fall under 18 U.S.C. Section 875, Interstate
Communications (to make threats to physically harm or kidnap another person in interstate
communications is a felony) or 47 U.S.C. Section 223, Obscene or Harassing Telephone Calls in
Interstate Communications.]
Stalking
Safety Plan

What You
Can Do if You
Are Being
Cyberstalked
If you are receiving unwanted emails, text messages, or posts at Internet forums
or your blog

Be sure that these are not SPAM messages, or "spoofed" messages--spam meant to look like
messages coming from you or someone you know.   Many people are getting spammed nowadays and
they think it's a stalker doing it.  

And spam is often composed to masquerade as sounding like it is coming from real people.

Please be aware  that spammers can use your own email and message accounts to spam you and
others.   To do this, they can get information from sites where you have registered, they can hack your
email and text accounts for your addresses....   Also, computer viruses can be programmed to send out
messages to people in the computer owner's contact list.

Spambots register at forums and post at them, even replying to people threads.  They can leave
comments at blogs.  (One founder of an anti-stalking group was being spammed with porn links at a
forum, and she was convinced it was her stalker harassing her.)

One tell-tale sign that you are being spammed is your receiving many, many  messages in a short
period of time.

Spam isn't stalking, but it is Internet and telecommunications abuse.

Before you accuse someone of stalking you via e-mail, text message, or Internet, contact your provider,
the forum administrator, or the phone company for help with ruling out spam as the culprit.
In order to better protect yourself on-line:

  1. Use a gender-neutral, anonymous screen name. DO NOT USE YOUR REAL NAME.
  2. Never give your password to anyone, especially if someone sends you an instant message (IM).
  3. Don’t provide your credit card number or other identifying information as proof of age to access or
    subscribe to a web site run by a company with which you are unfamiliar.
  4. Tell children not give out their real name, address, or phone number over the Internet without
    permission.
  5. Use a free e-mail account such as Hotmail (www.hotmail.com) or YAHOO! (www.yahoo.com) to
    pass messages in newsgroups, mailing listings, enter chat rooms, fill out forms, or correspond
    with someone you don’t know well.
  6. Don’t give your primary e-mail address out to anyone you don’t know.
  7. Spend time on newsgroups, mailing lists, and chat rooms as a "silent" observer before
    "speaking" or posting messages.
  8. When you do participate on-line, only type what you would say to someone in person.
  9. Don’t respond to e-mail from a stranger; when you reply, you are verifying your e-mail address to
    the sender.
  10. On a regular basis (at least once a month), type your name into Internet search engines to see
    what information, if any, pops up. To have your name removed from any directories, contact each
    search engine on which you are listed and request to be removed.

(Tips #1 – 8 were developed by the George Mason University Sexual Assault Services, 1999.)


There is much more on ways to protect yourself in our article library at the SHSF