Dealing With An Online Stalker
How did we discover it?
I use a Trakzor to track how many visits my Myspace profile receives each day. I mainly use it because I have links to my blogs as well as a feed listing on my profile, and it’s a good way for me to see if anyone is actually seeing those links on my profile. If someone who visits my profile is also using Trakzor they will be identified whenever I view my list of recent visitors. Because my friend is identified, I can see when she views my page. I’m also given her location, and it’s pinpointed on a map. I know when she views my page from work her IP is static, and it shows from one specific South Carolina location. When she views from her laptop, her ip shows as a Verizon Wireless ip from Florida. This has been the same for months.
One day last week I just happened to notice that some of her visits showed as an Ohio ip. It seemed fishy to me, so we kept a log of what times she visited my profile, and I was able to match them up with my Trakzor logs that showed her normal visits. Someone else was logging into her account and viewing my profile. Because she’s made a point to change her Myspace password on a weekly basis, that meant 1 thing. Someone had access to her yahoo email account.
Around the same time I noticed these extra visits, many of the men on her Myspace friends list started receiving emails from the person who has been harassing her. These emails were also harassing, and they were full of false accusations towards her. Because her Myspace profile is private, this meant one of two things. Either someone was viewing the Google cache to see who her friends are, or that person had access to her Myspace account.
This same person who has been harassing her has also visited one of my other blogs on a daily basis. I’ve figured it was so he could see if I was writing anything about my friend because he has made it a point to try to keep tabs on her. I checked my logs, and the ip that I’ve been assuming is him is an Ohio ip.
Earlier this week I sat down with my friend, and we compiled a list of the various sites she has used this particular email address with. Some of them include sites like Paypal and Ebay. We changed her yahoo password, and we setup a Gmail account to begin the process of changing her email address on her accounts. She changed her Ebay password, but didn’t change the account associated with it.
She called me earlier to inform me someone had attempted to request her Ebay password using the lost password form. The email stated that if she didn’t request the change to ignore it, but at the bottom of the email Ebay included the ip of the person who did try to request it. It’s the same ip I have for the person who has been harassing and stalking her.
What did we do? After changing all of her Ebay information again including the email address she uses on the account, she immediately filed a police report. Not only has the person violated the order of protection, but he’s taken his stalking and harassment to a whole new level. We emailed a copy of the whois report along with the ip to the police department, and we were instructed to send a letter to the isp with details of the issue. We’re trying to stay on top of everything we need to do, and hopefully we can finally put a stop to all of this.
Stay tuned for information on how to protect yourself and your family from online harassment, stalking, and cyberbullying.
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Tags: cyberbully, harassment, myspace harassment, myspace stalking, online stalking
