FaceCrook

A drug baron on the run from US justice is facing up to 105 years in jail after being traced in Britain through Facebook.

Emmanuel Ganpot, 36, was convicted in 2003 of hiring two “mules” to carry cocaine and 3,500 ecstasy tablets worth £22,000.

Cops in Largo, Florida, arrested him in his car, which held a huge stash of narcotics and $22,000 in used bills.

A cohort in the vehicle got 25 years and Ganpot faced a minimum 15-year term.

But before he could be sentenced, he skipped his million-dollar bail and fled to the UK, where his French mum lived.

He changed his name by deed poll to 'Neo Masuro', obtained a British passport, and set up home in Oxted, Surrey. (sounds like Ed Hicks, Yidwithlid and Dan Jacoby)

There, the “charming Yank” with a drawling accent became “Manny” the barman in the high street’s George Inn.

He also coached a football team, drummed in a band and worked with disabled kids.

But his downfall came when he set up Facebook and Myspace pages in his new name — knocking six years off his age and posting pictures of himself on a Spanish beach. (sounds like Cyberpath, Felon - Ed Hicks!)

Prosecutors back in Florida had given state prosecutor Bill Burgess a three-year mission to track him down.

And the ex-US Army special forces soldier trawled the internet sites of Ganpot’s friends, noticing them referring to a secretive pal called Neo.

Eventually he came across a photo of Neo blowing a kiss and realised his true identity.

Database searches traced Ganpot to Oxted, where British cops arrested him and put him on a plane to the States.

Florida judge Deanna Farnell announced on Wednesday that she would sentence him on May 13 for the original offences plus law evasion — giving a maximum term of 105 years.

Back at the George, barmaid Susie Pocock, 25, said: “The whole thing is crazy. He always used to come in here with a big group of friends.

“Everyone liked him. It just doesn’t add up, it’s incredible.”

Pal Daniel McCarthy, 26, said: “It hasn’t sunk in. Nobody had a clue Neo wasn’t Neo.”

Burgess said: “Finding Ganpot was like finding a needle in a haystack. Then I realised he was still in touch with his pals.”

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Psychological torture as damaging as physical torture

By Jonathan M. Gitlin

The subject of torture has been in the news a lot lately, what with extraordinary rendition, secret prisons in Poland, detainee abuse, Iraqi torture facilities, and the fight between the US Congress and the White House over just what you can and can't do to a prisoner. Everyone is pretty much on board with the idea that causing physical pain, a la the TV show 24, is verboten. But in this brave new world, the techniques being employed are more sophisticated than such trusty old standbys like beating the soles of the feet or inserting and then breaking glass catheters.

Practices that have evolved from the men who stare at goats now aim to break down subjects through psychological means that leave no visible scars, and as a result they are far more palatable with the general public. Sleep deprivation, stress positions, sensory deprivation and the like are dismissed by pundits and defense lawyers as nothing like torture.

But the aftereffects of such treatment are at least as damaging to those on the receiving end, such as having teeth pulled out, being burned, or being electrocuted. Those are the findings of a new report in the Archives of General Psychiatry. The study, carried out by Dr. Metin Basoglu and colleagues from King's College London and Clinical Hospital Zvezdara, Belgrade, Serbia, involved interviewing 279 torture survivors from the former Yugoslavia. Their experiences were cataloged, and they rated each event on a scale of zero to four for distress and for loss of control, and whether or not they suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The researchers identified seven categories of torture: "sexual torture; physical torture; psychological manipulations, such as threats of rape or witnessing the torture of others; humiliating treatment, including mockery and verbal abuse; exposure to forced stress positions, such as bondage with rope or other restrictions of movement; loud music, cold showers and other sensory discomforts; and deprivation of food, water or other basic needs." Physical torture rated between 3.2 and 3.8, and this figure was matched by 16 other practices, such as sham executions, rape, threat of rape, isolation and fondling of genitals. There was no lesser incidence of PTSD in those who had not been physically tortured. Dr Basoglu concludes that

the psychological practices which are in vogue right now " do not seem to be substantially different from physical torture in terms of the extent of mental suffering they cause, the underlying mechanisms of traumatic stress, and their long-term traumatic effects."

Man Arrested for Exploiting Facebook to Find Woman

Cleveland County, North Carolina deputies have arrested a man for cyber-stalking a 38-year-old Kings Mountain woman.

Laurence Barnett, 40, is charged with the crime. Deputies say it appears the Marietta, Ga., man may have used information on Facebook.com to track the woman down at her church. She recognized him, saying Barnett repeatedly tried to contact her on the social networking site.

Deputies say internet users should be careful with the information they chose to make public online. On Facebook.com, a user can control their privacy settings to decide who can access their profile.

FROM THIS ARTICLE

Stalking Laws Need to be Tougher

by Kim Archer

He seemed to be around every corner. Standing near her. Watching her.

"It's unsettling," said Tulsan Stephanie Lewis, who met the man through her work in coordinating a local arm of a national political group.

The man started calling constantly and sent hundreds of e-mails, she said. Every public meeting she led, he was there. He argued with her and tried to take over. Then he copied everything from her political group's Facebook page and put them on his.

"First, what you notice about him is he doesn't respect social boundaries. He gets real close to you when he talks," Lewis said.

On Christmas Eve, things took a scary turn. He called her again that evening. When she asked why he was calling on a holiday, he went off.

"He got abusive and threatening. He said he was going to teach me a lesson," Lewis said. She spent last Christmas Eve filing a report at a police station.

From there, things escalated. It got so bad, she filed for a protective order against him I in Rogers County where she then lived. But the judge only admonished the man to stay away from Lewis.

He didn't. One time, he even pushed her down and spit on her. But it was just the two of them, her word against his.

Again, Lewis filed for a protective order. Only this time, it was in Tulsa County, where she moved. The judge indicated it wouldn't be granted, but Lewis pleaded.

"He said it didn't meet the requirement because there was no relationship between us," she said.

Lewis argued her case and got a 60-day order.

"If a judge does not interpret the law to protect people out in the public, that's where the problem lies," Lewis said.

Lewis is not the first person to have filed for a protective order against a particular stalker. She just appears to be the first successful one.

Tulsa County records show at least two other individuals have done so without success.

Stalking is a crime
Stalking is considered a crime in all 50 states, although legal definitions vary.

Oklahoma law is relatively strong on stalking, but courts and law enforcement are reluctant to enforce it, said Tim Gray, attorney advocate with Domestic Violence Intervention Services in Tulsa and vice president of the board for Family and Community Empowered for Safety.

"It isn't taken seriously enough. That's pretty much because society doesn't take it seriously enough," he said.

Judges, district attorneys and law enforcement officers have some discretion in dealing with stalkers. Often, they are hesitant to take action against them, Gray said.

"It is time-intensive for law enforcement and district attorneys to make a case," he said.

Sheree Huckill, an anti-stalking advocate with T.K. Wolf, a counseling and wellness group in Skiatook, said the majority of stalkers go on to commit physical violence against their victims.

"If we look at recent homicides, chances are the victims were being stalked first," she said.
Stalking is pervasive and can be done in person or on the Internet.

An estimated 3.4 million people age 18 or older reported being victims during a one-year period, according to a report released by the U.S. Justice Department in January. The report came after the most comprehensive study of stalking ever done.

The study confirmed that women are at higher risk of being stalked, and that stalking is a gateway to more violent crimes.

"Stalking can absolutely lead to death," Gray said. "Like domestic violence or sexual assault, it all boils down to power and control. The stalker gets a high from doing the stalking. They enjoy putting that person in fear."

Perhaps the state law's only weakness is it does not recognize emotional damage, Gray said.

"Our society and our courts want to see physical damage done," he said.

By the time it gets to that point, it can be too late.

Reprieve
The relative peace Lewis has had since the protective order soon will be replaced with worry. The order expires in early May. And she will have to spend nearly another entire day to get the order approved for another period.

Her stalker has mostly stayed away, but has inched near her at public political events, testing his boundaries. "It's just creepy," she said.

Lewis said when she got the first protective order, the man came to court and argued the law like a pro. "He knows the stalking law like he's a lawyer," she said.

Lewis says she is not about to allow someone else to run her life.

She believes the stalking law should be strengthened so judges and district attorneys can't ignore the pleas of those who are victims.

"I will do whatever it takes to get this message heard."
(NOTE: Many Cyberpaths will ACCUSE THEIR VICTIMS of Stalking them. This is PROJECTION! Take your proof to the police, victims - and demand they file a report and GIVE YOU A COPY. - EOPC)

Eighty-seven percent of stalkers are men. One in 12 women and one in 45 men will be stalked in their lifetime, federal data show.

• Seventy-seven percent of female and 64 percent of male victims know their stalker.
• Fifty-nine percent of female victims and 30 percent of male victims are stalked by an intimate partner.
• Fifty-five percent of female victims report their stalking to the police.
• Nearly a third of stalkers have stalked previously.
• Seventy-six percent of women murdered by an intimate partner and 85 percent of women who are victims of attempted murder by their intimate partner had experienced at least one incident of stalking by the perpetrator within a year of the crime.

Source: National Center for Victims of Crime

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The Downside of Telling A Cyberpath's Spouse/ Partner

While exposing a predator (or any cheater/ liar for that matter) can give YOU conceptual closure, bear the following things in mind while you plan how to do it:

What if the partner/spouse/job doesn't believe you.... but believes the lies and revisionist history of THE PREDATOR!!

• You could lose your job
• You could be accused of harrassment or stalking
• You could be accused of a vendetta against the predator
• You could get a cease & desist order and/or Restraining Order filed against you
  

This is what the partner MIGHT do:

Tell YOU to stop pursuing their partner;

that the predator had told them what a nut you are,

your attentions were not welcome and please stop trying to come between their relationship and/or start trouble in their family

Even if you can produce emails, instant message transcripts, letters, gifts, photos, etc as proof of the relationship. This is what might happen:

the partner/job can say they prove nothing. Predators are VERY GOOD LIARS & TALKERS!! Even if you have source codes saved on instant messages and emails... they can still tell themselves YOU MADE IT ALL UP. (however these are great things to have if you need to go to law enforcement for any reason - and make sure law enforcement makes a REPORT and ASK FOR A COPY OF THIS REPORT)

The Predator will also say YOU MADE IT ALL UP... or PLANTED IT...

And their partner can say "So what? I don't even have any way of knowing that what you are showing me really came from him/her. Maybe YOU planted them!" ...

The partner and the predator often call the police and make YOU out to be the bad one/stalker, etc. (or threaten to)

If there are other targets involved, rest assured the predator has ALREADY planted seeds in their brain saying:

• YOU are crazy
• YOU are obsessed with them
• YOU are just a 'scorned woman' or 'psycho ex'
• THE PREDATOR is/was just being nice to you - that's ALL
• YOU started the relationship
• YOU are mentally ill
• THE PREDATOR will blame your divorce/ breakups on the "fact" that YOU are imbalanced and none of your exes can stand being around you
• THE PREDATOR will blame any disability, illness on something else -- such as calling you "lazy" or "fat" or "old" or "desperate for attention" or a "welfare cheat" and so on...
  
• YOU are the predator here, not them!
• YOU invented everything
• YOU are trying to hurt their relationship(s) because you are jealous

Of course they have been so thorough by the time you come on the picture with the truth - you are primed to appear the fool and your words have already been sprayed with the smell of fiction.

Predators are VERY convincing liars and can spin a tale or explanation so convincing that even if you don't totally believe it, you think you're crazy for doubting it because they said it with ABSOLUTE CONVICTION (cyberpaths often believe their own lies, since they are a type of sociopath - and behave the same way)

CLICK HERE FOR ANOTHER INFORMATIVE ARTICLE ABOUT THIS PROCESS

It is easy to believe because the partner/other targets WANT to believe... it's part of their manipulation & seduction. No one really wants to admit they've been used, cheated on, lied to, manipulated and disregarded and your entire relationship was fake, would you? Now think about if you were the spouse/ partner/ or other relationship....

It's easier to believe, even if the predator was caught red handed, that it's an isolated incident and will never happen again. Predators will often make all sorts of "shows" of accountability to save face with the family. Therapy, installing software for the partner, buying a new computer for the partner, etc etc. --- and believe us it IS all SHOW! Don't believe for a second that as soon as their partner calms down and they are sure their excuses have been 'swallowed whole' they will GO RIGHT BACK to things and trolling for new victims.

Denial often beats out the pain of realizing what the horrible truth really is or facing divorce or the dissolution of a family or partnership.


By the way? The cyberpath will FULLY EMBRACE the NO CONTACT rules laid down by their clueless partner, therapist, clergy or other targets. That means they will disappear on you - probably forever. Not having YOU and THE TRUTH in the picture makes it INFINITELY easier for them to spin their web of lies & deceit to those desperate to believe it. (While it usually sends your PTSD into high gear)

If they REALLY are sorry? They would TELL THE WHOLE TRUTH as well as sit down and give you face to face meetings.

And they would reframe their relationships with their partners, you and everyone else and allow for healing and truth across the board.

But don't hold your breath.

After a while, when you have been lied to non-stop by a predator nothing makes any sense any more and you have no real idea of how healthy people function, how normal relationships work, and what is and is not acceptable behavior.


Reality and normalcy really no longer exist after a long enough period of time living with a Narcissistic type psychopath, cyberpath & predator. How many times have you seen people on TV whose spouses or partners were arrested and they say "we have been together for 20 years and I HAD NO IDEA!!" We bet they DID have an idea but buried it.

When approaching a partner/other targets about the predator/cyberpath (or one of their friends and associates), you must remember that it makes perfect, logical sense to YOU, but to THEM, either nothing has made sense for SO long OR.... they have been fed so many lies and twists and become so bonded to the predator that there is no way on this earth that you can expect a reasonable, proportionate reaction to anything you have to say or tell them.

CLICK HERE FOR A GREAT ARTICLE ABOUT OTHERS "NOT GETTING IT"

The associates, friends & partners of predators, cyberpaths, narcissists, psychopaths have been so brainwashed and reprogrammed that all reason goes out the figurative window.

These predatory types are very good at covering their bases, asses, and tracks. NEVER for an instant forget that. They plan for things we wouldn't even think of because we are basically honest people that don't need to hide things.

There are none so blind as those that will not see.

Think about it... now, from your standpoint, if someone showed you pictures of your partner's vehicle, with the plates in clear view and them getting into the car near something that definitely IDs it as someone else's residence, and then they claimed they were never there, you'd laugh in their face, right? Of course you would.

Because you're OUT of the relationship with that predator or liar and things make sense again. --- But what would you have done at the time? Denial isn't just a river in Egypt.

That said, Telling the Truth is the best and strongest option. But choose how you want to do it. (see links at the right where Victims Speak Out about the smear the predator tells about them!)

Back up your plan and be ready for the above scenario. There are sites that deal with this sort of thing. Have hard & fast proof. And be ready for the reaction.... whatever that may be.

This should NOT be revenge but it can be empowering, conceptual closure and a step towards your healing.

(Recommended reading: WOMEN WHO LOVE PSYCHOPATHS by Sandra Brown, MA for a fuller view of this dynamic and its effects)

MARRIED & 'ECHEATING': A DREADFUL ALLIANCE

MARRIED & 'ECHEATING': A DREADFUL ALLIANCE
In Homer’s Odyssey (a Greek Myth) sailors were lured to their death by Sirens, mythological temptresses who sang seductive songs. Sailors called Argonauts escaped the songs, because of the great musician Orpheus. He played his lyre so beautifully, that it drowned out the songs from the Sirens. His decisive deed saved the crew from total devastation.

Today’s version of this enticement is “ECheating” - a phrase I’ve coined. “ECheating” enchants new scalawags to an internet isle. Rather than sail, today’s Argonauts surf to this island. In great numbers surfers are defying danger and destruction for a chance encounter - a rendezvous.

Here’s one such tale:
Martin leaves mornings for work before rush hour. He hates the wasted time or so he’s been coached to tell Michelle, his unwitting wife. She cleans up breakfast dishes before heading off to work an hour later. Michelle loves Martin and thinks of him throughout the day. She faithfully trusts him.

Martin is the first at work. He logs onto the internet using his personal laptop to avoid detection and violation of company policy. He follows these tips from his team of “eCheating” consultants. Martin receives many hits just a few days after setting up his “eCheating” membership profile. He only has seconds to wait. With his coffee still steaming, seventeen women want to hear from him. Several want dialogue, others want extra. Nervously rolling his wedding band around his finger Martin is tempted to read them all. He’s overcome will excitement, finally the monotony is gone! (That’s the Siren’s seductive song.)

“Your name is Cindy; you live in Seattle and need to spice up your marriage. This is your first time too? You enjoy things that might make some blush……Oh no, what am I doing?”

Martin says under his breath. With a quick click of the mouse Martin’s off the net - escaping what seemed like a crime he’s committed. His heart beat races. Martin is both scared and energized. For now signing off is the right thing. “That’s it, no more,” Martin says to himself. “Well at least they helped me cover my tracks. Michelle will never know I signed up.”

Almost coincidentally, Martin’s boss passes the cubicle with a routine welcome. “Oh not bad Paul, thanks for asking… Man that was close! I can’t believe what I’m doing. I’m married; what am I crazy; I’ve got so much to lose. What would the kids do if they found out?” Martin asks himself.

Unfortunately, Martin yields to his desires and a rendezvous devised. His next business trip provides the perfect alibi. He will meet his chosen “eCheater” at a nearby convention hotel. Michelle remains clueless.

But wait, “eCheating” serves a compelling purpose, true? Just listen to one slogan “When Monogamy becomes Monotony.” This catchphrase conjures up a sense of justification or reason. It includes not just a sex theme, but a sense of fellowship.

Does marriage end when it’s unexciting?

Is in fact adultery the answer?

These new dreadful alliances would lead you to believe it is!

I am deeply troubled these “eCheating” businesses are flourishing! Isn’t it time we put an end to them? How? What can YOU do about them?

Be proactive.

Get informed.

Search adultery keywords for banner ads.

Learn these “ECheating” sites by name.

Search computer history for visits to them.

Don't get another computer or laptop - install a Keylogger on THEIR computer.

Install spy ware on home PC – yours of course.

Keep an eye on credit cards statements.

Monitor computer usage.

Paying attention to your relationship.

Fight for your marriage and spouse – seek help.

Don’t use God or the Bible as a weapon in confrontations.

Therapy sessions don’t work if you are forcing them.

Don’t require your spouse to go to therapy – it will deliberately fail after a few sessions and be used against you.

Safeguard your homes and kids from the internet.

Make time to watch the eHighway carefully for those hazardous detours.

Communicate better.

Recognize the signs of adultery early on.

If you don’t know them, I can help you.

You are not alone… let’s break these alliances together.

To receive a free special report entitled Emergency Infidelity Survival Plan—Top Fifteen Steps to Implement Right Now! send an e-mail to mitchellreports@bellsouth.net, with “Emergency Plan” in the subject line. We will respect your privacy.

Kentucky Puts a Stop To ‘Cyberstalking’

Joined by Attorney General Jack Conway, Gov. Steve Beshear Thursday signed HB 315 sponsored by Rep. Johnny Bell and passed during the 2009 session of the Kentucky General Assembly. The new law includes measures to better protect Kentuckians from cyber crimes.

“This cyber-safety bill is a critical step toward protecting Kentuckians from the very real threats that come with 21st century innovations and toward helping to prevent further abuses of these technologies,” said Beshear. “Kentucky families will be safer because of this bill.”

Through this legislation it is unlawful to “cyberstalk,” which is defined as intentionally alarming, annoying, intimidating or harassing a person with no legitimate purpose through electronic communication. This bill also includes tougher regulations for sex offenders when they use electronic communication.

“House Bill 315 will bring Kentucky laws up-to-date with changes in technology,” Conway said.

“I would like to thank legislators for the bipartisan support of this bill and I appreciate Gov. Beshear signing the bill into law. ...I look forward to working with law enforcement officers and prosecutors to continue making Kentucky a safer place to live, work and raise a family.”

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Internet was Killer's Undoing!

The "Craigslist Killer" was a high-tech BlackBerry addict who stalked his victims in cyberspace - and in the end, that's where cops took him down.

"We received forensic evidence, not only from the crime scenes, but also from electronic and Internet communications," said Suffolk County, Mass., Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Hickman.

After Julissa Brisman's murder, detectives in Boston and New York searched her computer and found her Craigslist massage ads.

They also found the e-mails suspect Philip Markoff sent her to set up the ill-fated April 14 rendezvous at the Boston Marriott Copley Place hotel in Boston's tony Back Bay.

Markoff sent the e-mails from an account he created just the day before.

From those e-mails, police were able to locate his Internet service provider and get an address for Markoff's apartment in Quincy, Mass.

Then they started watching him, noting how much he looked like the blond man caught on various security cameras leaving the crime scenes while nonchalantly texting on his BlackBerry.

Police also found cell phone records linking Markoff's BlackBerry to Brisman, as well as an earlier victim, Trisha Leffler.

"They followed high-tech leads and they used old-fashioned shoe leather. They connected computer IP addresses to physical locations," Conley said.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Thanks to: Laura Knight-Jadczyk -- Editor, Signs of the Times
http://www.sott.net

SEX PREDATORS ON ONLINE DATING SERVICES

DID THEY ASK YOU FOR "PICTURES" (sexual in nature)? DID THEY ASK ABOUT YOUR SEXUAL HISTORY? BE WARNED!!!
A warning to single, divorced or separated persons about sex offenders, sex predators and sex addicts who may be using online dating services to find potential victims.

The warning comes after a child advocacy group, Parent's for Megan's Law, received anonymous emails that a convicted child molestor named Michael Bradley was using online dating service Match.com. The advocacy group set up a sting, posting a fake profile of a mother of two boys and emailing Bradley. He responded, which is a violation of his parole. As a result, Bradley's computer was confiscated and he faces the possibility of having his parole revoked.

“It is the responsibility of consumers to protect their safety and that of their families, so do not rely on the assurances of dating sites that attempt to screen out predators,” said Dr. James Houran, spokesperson and feature columnist for Online Dating Magazine. “The best protection is to use your head in matters of the heart. Do not get so caught up in the excitement of online dating that you are not constantly alert – instead assume everyone online is a potential predator.”

Online Dating Magazine recommends the following five tips that parents should follow when using an online dating service:

1) Never post photos of your children in your profile or anywhere online.

2) While indicating that you are a single parent on your profile is ok, don’t talk about your children in your profile.

3) Don’t mention what gender or ages your children are.

4) If you’re dating someone, wait several months – until you are more serious – before introducing your date to your children.

5) Run a background and sex offender check on the person you’re dating before introducing them to your children or getting serious about them!

Online Dating Magazine recommends that online daters take a cautious approach to online dating. The publication has a list of online dating safety tips on their site at http://www.onlinedatingmagazine.com.

About Online Dating Magazine Online Dating Magazine is a consumer watchdog publication for online daters. Located at http://www.onlinedatingmagazine.com.

EOPC DOES NOT RECOMMEND ONLINE DATING OR SOCIAL NETWORKING FOR ANYONE AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON, EVER!

Cyberstalker's Hate Campaign Made Me Live in Terror

A survivor of the July 7 U.K. bombings revealed how she has been subjected to a year-long hate campaign by a "cyberstalker".

Rachel North, 36, who survived the Russell Square Piccadilly line blast which killed 26 people, said she feared for her safety after being bombarded with hundreds of abusive emails.

One accused Miss North, who is leading a campaign pushing for a public inquiry into the London atrocities, of "making a living on the backs of the dead".

Last month, her stalker, Felicity Jane Lowde, 41, who Miss North has never met, was convicted in her absence, of harassment after failing to attend her trial at Stratford Magistrates' Court in East London.

The mother of one is on the run and a warrant has been issued for her arrest.

But despite this, she has continued to subject Miss North, who married last month, to a torrent of warped messages apparently sent from Internet cafes in London.

Last week, Lowde, from Oxford, spent more than an hour firing off a string of messages.

She wrote: "Get lost you justice-perverting bitch.

"You are a warmongering bitch. No one believes you. People hate you for what you've done. Stop trying to promote yourself and go away Rachel.

"Wicked bitch. In your wedding picture you look happy to have got away with it. But time is ticking and you'll wind up in jail with the stupid grin wiped off your evil face."

Another message said: "So happy to grab your man. You're an embarrassment. You have embarrassed all of us.

"Poor deluded sod. I feel sorry for him. Has he any idea what a fool you are making of yourself with your campaigns? You will pay for your actions. You have LIED to us Rachel. LIED."

Miss North survived the 7/7 atrocities three years after she was raped, robbed and left for dead by a stranger who broke into her London flat.

After the terror attacks, she gave up her job in advertising to lead the campaign for a public inquiry.

She described how Lowde began posting abusive comments on her blog in April last year.

Miss North, who has received counselling for post-traumatic stress and survivor guilt, said: "This woman was writing that I should be prosecuted for deserting the dead.

"She asked why I did not stay to help the dying when in fact we had been told to evacuate the carriage.

"At the time I was having nightmares. I would wake up hearing people screaming and think that we had all walked away from the carriage.

"It was relentless psychological warfare. She sent me hundreds of emails and made false accusations about me publicly on her website.

"I have never understood why she has gone for me like this. I find it horrific that a woman could do this to another woman." Miss North said she feared for her safety. " have no idea what she will do next," she added. "I am concerned that she will just turn up at my door.

"I have given her every opportunity to stop. I ignored her at first and then wrote to her asking her to leave me alone. I even offered to have a woman-to-woman chat to her on the phone to sort it out.

"I thought that the trial last month would be the end of it all but now she has gone on the run. I just hope she is caught soon." (note: Lowde was caught and is currently out with a gag-order on her about this case as it is ongoing)

On her internet blog, Lowde - who has a grown-up son - describes herself as a graduate researcher and psychologist.

During the police inquiry, she claimed she was being stalked by Miss North and has vowed to clear her name. (note: THIS IS A TYPICAL PATHOLOGICAL PROJECTION THAT HAS BEEN USED BY OUR EXPOSED CYBERPATHS WHEN THEIR REMORSELESS ACTIVITIES HAVE BEEN EXPOSED! Count: Beckstead, Jacoby, YidwithLid, Thomas and others in that "boo-hoo I am the victim here" nonsense Cyberpaths feed to law-enforcement!

Sounds a lot like Ed Hicks' "I am writing a tell-all book to get the TRUTH out there."; O.J. Simpson's "looking for the real killer"; Scott Peterson's "I am innocent - everyone takes a boat out on Christmas Day in freezing cold weather to dump a body"; Yidwithlid's whitewashed version of events; and the other Cyberpaths who write us or have their friends write us threatening us if we 'don't remove the slander' or the Psychopath's whose versions of reality are enough to make your head spin.)

A prosecution source said: "What she has said to Rachel is incomprehensible. It beggars belief that someone could be so cruel."

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

MORE ON FELICITY JANE LOWDE

FELICITY JANE LOWDE'S VERSION & WEBSITE

Manipulation

(We have replaced the words narcissist and psychopath with CYBERPATH for clarity)

by Kathy Krajco

The way cyberpaths interact with others makes them extremely potent manipulators. How potent? So potent that their powers of manipulation are spooky and seem downright magical.

How does the way they interact with others make them such expert manipulators? Because practice makes perfect, and they have been practicing the art of manipulation in every interaction since birth.

Indeed, in playing to the mirror of your face, that's what they're doing, isn't it? Manipulating you. Everything they say and do is entirely for effect, to get the reaction they want from you. That IS manipulation.

They're regulating, manipulating your reactions. But you aren't like them. Your reactions come from within. So, what are they ultimately regulating and manipulating? Your thoughts.

Manipulation is mind control.

Manipulation is a subtle thing. So subtle that we are usually unaware of being manipulated, unless the manipulator blows it and breaks the spell. So, manipulators are putting thoughts into our heads that we think are ours. A very dangerous thing.

Since a cyberpath isn't acting on normal human premises, since all he is doing is playing you for the reaction he wants, truth is irrelevant. Truth or lies — it's all the same to him. Whichever works. Usually that's lies.

It would be more correct to say that there is no such thing as truth to a cyberpath. Because there is no such thing as truth when playing Pretend. That's why cyberpaths beat lie detector tests. (In fact, so do many people from "shame" cultures where lying to save face of oneself, one's family, one's tribe, and one's religion is considered morally necessary and expected.)

Psychopathic types (such as Cyberpaths) are known to get so good at manipulating people that, by the time they're teenagers, they routinely fool and manipulate mental healthcare professionals, judges, prison officials, parole boards, and social workers who know they are psychopaths, are on the lookout for attempts to manipulate them, and should be immune to manipulation.

It isn't a matter of intelligence: it's a matter of practice, experience. This is because most of what transpires in interaction happens too quickly to think it through.

In playing to the mirror of your face, the cyberpath receives a steady stream of your feedback to the steady stream of words he sends. He continuously reacts to every nuance of it in "real time," if you will. An odd question from you might make him alter his choice for the next word in the sentence he is saying. Or the tone of his words. Or it might make him try to get even closer to you.

So, no matter how cunning a manipulator is, he isn't consciously analyzing your every slight reaction and fine-tuning his act to it. I say that because he can't be. That would be impossible, because no one could think that fast.

He must be relying on a lifetime of experience at this game, reacting habitually in certain ways to certain things he observes in you on the fly. In other words, this manipulation must be rather like the act of hitting a forehand in tennis.

You cannot consciously think your way through the stroke. Too many things are happening too fast. In fact, you will botch your stroke and be lucky to even connect with the ball if you try to consciously think your way through with "Watch the ball ... bend your knees ... keep your arm straight ... keep your head still ... step into the shot ... et ad infinitum." Well, that's exaggerating a bit, because there are only about 100 instructions I could list for hitting a forehand ;-)

You can't think that fast. No one can. So, you must practice that stroke enough under varying conditions to program the unconscious centers of the brain to execute it virtually automatically. When you net your shot or hit it out (provided you note how far off the shot was), your "program" is revised to get the bug out.

This phenomenon is called Natural Learning. It's how we learn to walk and talk.

That "program" isn't just a fixed set of muscle commands from the brain. It's an interactive program like a computer program. Because no two forehands are the same. Yet the more you practice, the better your forehand program, and the more effectively it faithfully produces a good forehand under widely varying conditions. You have only to make the major decisions, such as where and how to hit the ball: speed, spin, and placement. But Natural Learning is so powerful that even tactical decisions become virtually automatic in advanced players. Hence the best players in the world do very little conscious thinking while the ball's in play.

The power of Natural Learning is also illustrated by comparing experienced drivers with young drivers. Young drivers have no experience, so they must think their way through problems. Result? Crash. But with the same problem an experienced driver has no problem. He or she spontaneously makes an intuitive, instinctive move faster than the speed of thought. Result? No crash.

When playing to the mirror of your face, that must be what a cyberpath is mostly doing — relying on a lifetime of experience that allows him to react instinctively to every bit of feedback he gets from you. That's how he fine-tunes your reactions into the feedback he wants. Rather like turning the knobs on a short-wave radio.

This is manipulation. And it's occurring faster than the speed of thought, because a cyberpath has had so much constant practice at drawing the reaction he wants that most of his "moves" are virtually automatic.

This is why, I think, cyberpaths seem like machines with their knee-jerk reactions to things. But those reactions aren't knee-jerk reflexes: they are learned through experience to the point that they become habitual as second nature.

This is also why, I think, we tend to overestimate the intelligence of cyberpaths, narcissists, psychopaths, con artists, and other manipulators like dictators who con their way to power. We think they must be brilliant to be so manipulative. But even a stupid cyberpath can be extremely manipulative. Their skill is the fruit of constant practice at manipulation in every human interaction.

But it doesn't pay to underestimate them, either. That same practice makes them extremely observant and perceptive. Over time that will improve their intelligence, at least some aspects of it.

In fact, they are much more observant and perceptive than they seem. That's because all they're interested in is what they can use. So, though they block out much, what they do choose to see, they see very well. They are interested in your reactions, not you. So, they probably are more aware of how you react to things than you are.

But the only information about you they're interested in is what that can use to exploit you.

The rest they filter out of consciousness = forget.

CLICK HERE FOR A GREAT GRAPHIC OF HOW MIND CONTROL WORKS

So, never think that you are too smart to be manipulated by a cyberpath, narcissist, psychopath, or con artist. You aren't. And you surely can never beat one at his own game.

That's nothing to be ashamed of. It just means that you are an innocent who hasn't spent his or her whole life practicing the black art. So, you won't win that game.

ORIGINAL

Canada Online Predator Sentenced to Prison

A Winnipeg, Canada man who abused and assaulted women he met online or over the phone was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in prison, minus 1½ years for time already served.

Terrance Moquin, 38, was described in provincial court Tuesday as a predator and master manipulator who has committed a long list of similar offences.

His latest convictions are for assault, uttering threats and violating probation.

Court heard that in April 2007, Moquin met a Winnipeg mother on a telephone chat line.

Their communications continued online until they arranged to meet in person. The day after that first meeting, he moved in with her.

Over the next six weeks, Moquin assaulted the woman several times and attacked and threatened her 12-year-old daughter, court was told.

According to court records, over the past 15 years Moquin was convicted several times after using phone chat lines and the internet to connect with his victims, employing various aliases. He would often tell them he was a military man from the U.S. working in Canada.

Once he gained women's trust, Moquin would steal from them and begin terrorizing them, court heard. Most of the time, they would end up assaulted and defrauded, with their children abused in some way.

In one case in 2004, Moquin used a hypodermic needle to inject a boy with an unknown substance that gave him double vision, according to Crown Attorney Cindy Soldice, who called Moquin "sadistic" and "relentless."

Soldice requested a prison sentence of seven years, but provincial Judge Ken Champagne decided on eight years, with credit for time already served.

MORE ON THIS PREDATOR

Boston Hunts for the "Craigslist Killer" of Online Escorts

Boston police are searching for a man who may be using Craigslist to lure masseuses and escorts to posh hotels to rob and even kill them.

Police released a surveillance camera photo on Wednesday showing a man walking in the lobby of the Marriott Copley Place hotel while typing on a Blackberry the previous night, around the same time a New York City woman was found dying in the hotel.


Investigators said the man was "a person of interest" in the case.

"What we believe is that there are a series of independent operations that are occurring, and it’s very difficult for the hotels to police them because they don’t know who it is that’s coming in to use their rooms," Boston Police Superintendent Edward Davis told The Boston Globe. "We've been monitoring it very closely, but it's very difficult to completely eliminate it."

Police said 26-year-old Julissa Brisman of New York City was found with multiple gunshot wounds to the torso, Davis said. She was rushed to Boston Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.

Davis said police believe Brisman was a victim of an attempted robbery.

Police said the same man was photographed Friday at the Westin Hotel in Boston, where a 29-year-old Las Vegas woman was found bound and robbed.

Investigators said both victims offered massage services on the Craigslist.org Web site.

A massage table was found set up in Brisman's room. Authorities believe she had been in a struggle at the door of her 20th-floor hotel room before she was shot.

Lucy Slosser, a spokeswoman for the Marriott Copley Place, said the hotel has beefed up security following the shooting.

"We haven't seen an increase in crime at the hotel, so we believe this to be an isolated incident," Slosser said.

Slosser said the hotel was not fully occupied Tuesday night.

PICTURES of the Alleged Killer from the BOSTON GLOBE

More from FoxNews on the victim

SOURCE

Thanks to OneofSeven for this tip!

IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT

I FEEL SO STUPID -
I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN -
I DIDN'T LISTEN TO MY INSTINCTS -
IT'S ALL MY FAULT

Just some of the things the victims of an internet predator say.....

One of our discussion group contributors and a victim themselves - recently wrote the below to a reader who was blaming herself and was chided for her obsession to get to the bottom of what her apparent cyberpath was.

It was so powerful we asked and got permission from this contributor to reprint her response here (edited for clarity). Everyone should read it and heed it.

There's no fault when dealing with a cyberpath. Remember "PREDATORS HUNT THE WOUNDED" - Fighter

THIS CONTRIBUTOR SAYS:
Let's get focused on him - the internet "friend" you say is NOT a cyberpath - because it was with HIM you interacted with and HE'S the cause for all the stress and suffering you are going through nowadays.

It's more than obvious (and I want you to take me seriously) this guy is not so wonderful as you think and say he is. An emotionally stable, honest man, who is looking for a serious relationship or even a friendship over the Internet, will not create a profile on a sex site (such as AdultFriendFinder or Eroticy to name a couple) and won't try to find possible real/ serious partners on a sex site!.

You had a profile there because as you said, your marriage wasn't good. I understand. When we are in emotional pain we can do stupid things. But believe me, even on a seemingly innocent site like PenPalWorld, or reunion sites like Classmates.com and the online dating sites, recovery sites, single parent sites, you can find idiots, posers, players, etc. (the predator stories on EOPC will tell you just that!!)

The possibility of finding them on a sex site is higher (sex addicts, narcissists, sociopaths, users and abusers love the Internet and they place themselves on these sites just waiting for the next victim). A sex site can be the ideal place. They will find lots of people to communicate with, to chat ocasionally, to have cybersex with and nothing more than that. Casual, no strings. The difference is that on a sex site, they don't need to lie as much as they do on a dating or e-friends site.

This type of man - the one you e-tripped upon - when they feel someone is starting to get emotionally attached to them, they will do everything to get rid of you or drive you crazy. Emails will go unanswered, generally with the excuse they are busy, sick or whatever their imagination can make up. Or they answer emails with short lines like "I don't know what to say/tell you" or "Thanks" or "we will talk later."

They're either never online on MSN Messenger, AOL IM, YahooChat, etc. (they are - they just appear to be offline - blocking those they're not interested to chat with). Or they are there - putting on their AWAY or BUSY messages or just plain IGNORING you. (usually busy with other women!)

They make it all your fault!

They will even tell you they are busy working if you try to IM them anyway. These guys are emotional vampires and mental sadists.


When something like this happens, its clear, they are not really interested in any type of genuine communication. I know by experience (although on a different level) it's time to say "bye bye - have a nice life."

Unfortunately most of the times we can't. We have feelings - they don't. We would not do that to someone and can't understand why they are doing it to us. We blame ourselves for the situation and we wonder over and over, what have we done so wrong, to get such cold treatment. Actually, we did nothing wrong.

However, they've allowed us to put them on such a pedestal that we can't see the real truth. We think they' the best thing in the world, better than sliced bread.

We idealize them and they knowingly allow it without telling us the truth.

So, I know what you feel and empathize with you, but he is not 'a great guy' and it wasn't your fault.

You just didn't know the best way to deal with him. The best would've been ignoring him, but gradually he made himself an obsession to you, always in your mind, a fruit of your desire. Your need for emotional connection made him into something he wasn't and it's not your fault. He could have responded to you and said something but he didn't. He let you dangle there confused... (this is a SEDUCTION method used by cyberpaths remember?)

Keep Them in Suspense: What Comes Next The moment people feel they know what to expect from you, your spell on them is broken. More: you have ceded them power. The only way to lead the seduced along and keep the upper hand is to create suspense, a calculated surprise. People love a mystery, and this is the key to luring them farther into your web. Behave in a way that leaves them wondering, What are you up to? (from LURES OF THE ONLINE PREDATOR))

You are a sensitive caring person who doesn't just use and drop people when you are done using them - even online. He is.

And here you go blaming yourself. "It was my fault", "I shouldn't have said this and that", "I shouldn't have done what I did", etc... Ok, you sent him some e-mails, even a love letter... All of us victims have done things like that. Maybe because on the chats he was sweet, he called you "Princess", but unfortunately it was just words he didn't mean.

See how he avoided giving you his address? He doesn't want any type of contact with ANYONE except for "discreet sex encounters."

That's not the actions of a nice guy.
This isn't a normal person.
Keep that all in mind.


The e-mail he sent you was 100% bullsh*t. I'd bet money he wasn't going to 'get married.' I also doubt he was 'in love with' someone. Guys who are really "in love" don't go on sex sites looking for a little fun.

He said that to get you out of the way and then to scare you he mentioned he would call the police if he heard from you again. This isn't the behavior of a nice guy. (typical predator move - now the victim is a "stalker" because they want & deserve answers! )

He probably has many friends from the sex site he exchanges e-mails with, many others to chat with, many to have cybersex with -- both he and they: without any emotional attachment. That makes him "busy" and obviously he is not on a sex site for genuine romance.

I'd also bet he was busy with other women online (you know what I mean).

Understand this situation isn't the way you have pictured it in your head: that others are good and you're a bad person for letting it get this far. This isn't true. Don't beat yourself up this way.

A good and nice guy would have interacted with you differently. The e-mail would have been different. He'd have been straight and honest with you. He'd have told you he wants no emotional involvement and just wanted sex. Problem is this guy most probably uses and abuses women. It's obvious. He thinks women are objects.

Notice how that female friend of his told you if you had met him in person, you could see how flawed he was "in heart, mind and body". She gave you the accurate picture.

He is not a nice guy, much less principled. He is another jerk on a sex site! There are thousands like him.


Although you don't think so, it's a good thing you didn't remain friends with him. He would have caused even more damage to you. At any moment he would have revealed his true personality and you'd see the idiot he is -- then you would have been reeling.

I know, I have been there. Study his motives and see how he is an idiot with a oversize ego who thinks women are good for only one thing: Sex.

Sorry but he is a jerk, not you!
Stop blaming yourself!

Are You A Victim of Sweetheart Fraud?

• Do you believe that someone (even online) has used your love and trust in order to steal your money?
• Did they claim they loved you, would marry you, take care of you, start a business with you - and all you had to do was provide the financing for everything?
• Did they disappear overnight or just walk out on you after you ran out of money?
• Did they refuse to pay back any of the money they received, claiming that you gave it to them willingly as a gift?
• Did you learn after they left that they were involved with another person at the same time they were promising you the world and taking your money?

Then you are the victim of a sweetheart scam - a growing epidemic of fraud that is fueled by the anonymity of the Internet and the laxity of law enforcement to prosecute when a "friend" steals from a friend.

CUFF (see link below) helps victims of sweetheart scams obtain justice by providing information that can be used to prosecute or sue the thief. We have worked with thousands of victims, some of whom have successfully convinced the police to issue criminal charges against the person who stole from them.

Some of the victims we have worked with have learned how to sue the thief pro se (representing themselves in court), have obtained civil judgments and have collected their money by levying the thief's bank account, garnisheeing paychecks or having the sheriff seize personal property.

Some of the victims have been able to gain the emotional strength to fight back through e-mail and phone support from CUFF victims who have volunteered to share their experiences and time with other victims.

Your journey to justice may be rocky and at times very discouraging, but there is justice if you persevere.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

Paul S. Krueger - The 'Millionaire Match Music Man" Con Artist

more reasons to NEVER EVER do ONLINE DATING! or HOOK UP WITH ANYONE ONLINE!

by Lou Sessinger

A homeless man who used a phony investment scheme to con women he met at an Internet dating site will find a home for the next few years behind the walls of a state prison.

Paul S. Krueger, 50, who has former addresses in Souderton, Telford and Hatfield, pleaded guilty Friday in Montgomery County Court to one count of felony theft charges for scamming victims out of $100,000, which he then gambled away at Atlantic City casinos. Judge Thomas C. Branca accepted the recommendation of the prosecution and defense and sentenced Krueger to three to seven years at the State Correctional Institution at Graterford.

Krueger was also ordered to repay the 13 victims of his scam a total of $100,000, something the prosecutor said Krueger likely will be unable to do. Had not the prosecution and defense negotiated Krueger’s guilty plea by dropping some charges and consolidating others, the con man could have faced a maximum sentence of 174 years in prison if convicted on all counts, his lawyer, Chief Public Defender Stephen Heckman, explained to his client during Friday’s hearing.

The judge also sentenced Krueger to a concurrent sentence of 2 1/2 to 5 years in prison for violating the terms of his probation from a similar crime he pleaded guilty to in 2006. In the most recent crime, he’d met his victims on an Internet dating site called MillionaireMatch.com, which describes itself as “the first, most effective and largest site in the world to connect with, date, marry successful, beautiful people."

Krueger passed himself off as a Grammy nominated sound engineer in the recording industry who was looking for investors. Some of the women, who lived in various parts of the country, had friends who also invested in Krueger’s nonexistent business. In all, 13 people gave Krueger between $500 and $20,000 for a total of $100,000.

“All the money was lost in the casinos,” said Assistant District Attorney Robert J. Sander, who heads the economic crime unit. “Mr. Krueger had a bad gambling habit. All the money’s gone. He was essentially homeless and living on the streets of Atlantic City when he was arrested.”

Although Krueger was ordered to begin repaying his victims when released from prison, Sander said,

“He probably is never going to make restitution. You can’t get blood from a stone, and he doesn’t have anything. When he gets out of prison, we’ll see what happens.”

Lou Sessinger is a columnist with The Intelligencer and phillyBurbs.com.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE WHOLE DATELINE NBC SHOW ON KRUEGER

Are YOU a Possible Victim of Paul S. Krueger?
Click here
and
Click here
for more information

This guy sounds like EVERY SINGLE ONE of our cyberpaths (listed on the Right Column here).

If you have issues with this story - please contact the NEWS MEDIA who published it in the first place and the District Attorney (their phone number is: 610-278-3090) in this. Not us. We are just reporting what the media has already.

Thanks to 'Gypsy' from the EOPC Support Group for this one!

CyberStalking - A Very Real Problem

Cyberstalking is defined as threatening behavior or unwanted advances directed at another using the internet and other forms of computer communications. It can involve the use of email, instant messaging, chat rooms, bulletin boards and/or other electronic communication devices to repeatedly harass or threaten another person.

The process of stalking a person in real life generally requires that the perpetrator and victim be in close physical proximity. Cyber stalkers can be across the street, the country, or the globe from their victims.

"Cyber stalking can cause the same kind of trauma to its victims as traditional forms of stalking," says Holly Quist, public health educator at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County, Tennessee Health Department. She continues, "But, behind a username, stalkers can be difficult to identify."

Most stalkers repeatedly change usernames and accounts to slow down or deter the identification process. The anonymity of the Internet makes it easier for perpetrators to carry out their attacks against their victims. The most popular targeted areas are: Live Chat or IRC (Internet Relay Chat) in which a user talks live with others, Message Boards (IM) and Email.

Cyber Stalking Prevention Tips:

• Never be gender specific- Use a neutral gender name. Use a nickname your stalker won't know if you create a new email account.
  
• Change your password often- Never share your password or personal information with anyone.
• Use the private settings on social networking sites and let friends know not to share your information.

If you do become a victim of cyber stalking, let the offender know that contact is unwanted. But when harassment continues, contact your local police authorities and collect evidence by documenting all contact by the offender.

Visit http://www.haltabuse.org for more information on cyberstalking and how to prevent becoming a victim.

The Rape Prevention Program of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department focuses on reducing the number of rapes and educating the community on how to prevent rape from happening. Through partnerships with local domestic violence advisory boards and other local domestic violence agencies, the program is able to provide resources for contacts, educational materials, and programs. For additional information, please call (423) 209-8282.

Why Victims Need to Tell & Keep Telling

On behalf of all survivors, let me just say this: if we could "just get over it", we would. If we could snap our fingers and instantly make ourselves whole and healthy once again, we would do it. If we could wake up one morning, and find ourselves completely healed of our abuse, and completely free of the harmful effects the abuse had wrought on our lives, we'd do it. If there was a magic pill to take, or a certain food we could eat, or a spell we could cast, or a prayer we could say which would make it all go away instantly, I can't imagine any survivor who wouldn't at least try it once.

The fact is, it's too exhausting to live with the consequences of being abused. Depression, eating disorders, violence, generational abuse, panic attacks, and so on are all potential results of being abused; and why would anyone want to be plagued by such things? Furthermore, the toll abuse takes in terms of survivors' self-esteem is incredibly debilitating. Oftentimes, even survivors who are relatively together are haunted by the nagging belief that they aren't worthwhile human beings.

And the supreme irony of it all is that, by and large, the abusers and perpetrators themselves NEVER take responsibility for cleaning up the mess they've left behind in their victims' lives. It is the abusers who rip their victims apart, but the victims who must put themselves back together.

The backlash against survivors who dare to talk about their experiences is incredible. From well-meaning relatives or friends who hope to lessen the pain somehow by telling us, "It can't have been that bad," to death threats and stalking from abusers we've confronted, to organizations operating on a large-scale to debunk reports of abuse (such as the False Memory Syndrome Foundation), survivors are beset on all sides with walls of disbelief.

We are accused of making it up, of being crazy, of being "oversensitive", scorned, jealous, ungrateful, just out for attention, or any of a thousand demeaning labels which not only insult our individual persons, but also give no respect to the horrors we've survived, or the strength we have shown in doing so.

It is my personal opinion that people just don't want to admit abuse exists. Sometimes, this is understandable. Sometimes, a person might have great faith in the goodness of humanity, and can't even conceive of abuse as happening (or else, can't conceive of it happening except "over there", or "somewhere else").

Or perhaps they don't want to imagine that abuse might have happened to someone they care about, and so they minimize it. Maybe, they even believe they are helping to relieve a survivor's pain, by suggesting that the survivor focus on something else.

Other people have a more vested interest in letting abuse happen. ... The only acceptable reason for not stopping abuse is if you really don't know that it's happening -- and this is extremely rare.)

People who buy into an abusive system -- say, overly macho or aggressive men, or very submissive women -- might deny that abuse happens as well. A good portion of college men apparently believe that there is no such thing as rape, and that it's okay to have sex with a woman if she's drunk or unconscious. (I say, if the only way you can get laid is with a woman who's out cold, you're probably the most pathetic a**hole that ever lived -- and a criminal to boot.)

Yet another group has a direct investment in whether or not abuse is revealed: abusers themselves.

For one reason or another, abusers want to get away with it. Why? I don't know. I've never been inside an abuser's head, I've only been on the receiving end of their abuse. I don't know what makes abusers tick -- and in some ways, I hope I never find out.

The bottom line is, this isn't a very survivor-friendly world. Yes, resources are out there. Yes, people know more about abuse and recovery than they ever did before. Yes, more strides are made daily, in healing and in research. Yes, we keep talking. But it isn't easy. All of the above makes our lives very difficult.

Add to this the reports of abuse which actually do turn out to be false, and it just adds one more wall -- if one "victim" cries wolf, it makes those of us with true stories to tell that much more likely not to be believed.

But talk we do, and talk we will. With our friends, our families, in books, in journals, through artwork, with therapists, online, on web pages and blogs... on and on and on.

We have to.

For those of us who have suffered abuse at the hands of others, the only way out is by revealing what happened -- bringing it out into the light, naming it for what it is, looking at it good and hard, assessing the damage done to our selves and our lives, and then assimilating the damage and moving on. No, there's no overnight cure. No, we can't just "snap out of it". DUH!

We have to talk, because if we don't, abuse will never come to light, for anyone. It will continue breeding in the silence and shame, on and on, for generations to come, causing the same debilitation and hatred and confusion for future generations that it has to us.

We have to talk, because we can't let abusers get away with it anymore.

The toll they take on all of humanity is simply unacceptable.

Article

Costume Designer Charged with Cyberstalking

By Donita Naylor and Tatiana Pina

The problem started with a poorly made SpongeBob costume, and ended with a cyberstalking arrest.

In between, Tracy Sisson says, were two years of harassment: prank calls, hangups, telemarketing calls and phony applications, as many as 60 a day.

In 2001, Sisson, 33, of Cranston, Rhode Island (U.S.) ordered the character costume, called a Yellow Cheese to avoid copyright infringement, and put $500 down on a costume resembling Bob the Builder, for her party rental business. But she was not happy with the quality of the Yellow Cheese, she said in an interview Wednesday, because of unsightly glue drips. When she called Bruna Puppets and Costumes, of Providence, to cancel the builder costume, owner Ann Bruno refused to return her deposit.

Sisson and her husband, Keith, own Absolute Fun Party Rentals and the Absolute Fun Party Center, in Cranston. She and Bruno, 59, met again in 2006 when Sisson was arranging mortgages at Able Financial Services and Bruno got a job there. Sisson told her boss that she felt uncomfortable working with Bruno and planned to leave. Bruno was laid off, she said.

Later that year, around September, Sisson told the police she began getting mysterious phone calls and Internet messages from companies indicating she had filled out applications. She had not. Her phone was ringing as she came home from the hospital with her third son. “I was walking in the door with my brand-new baby, and someone was calling for my husband.” It was a female voice, she said, and the caller hung up.

Was her husband having an affair while she was giving birth?

On Monday, the police charged Bruno, of West Warwick, with cyberstalking, a misdemeanor. She was issued a summons to appear at District Court, Warwick, on April 14.

Earlier that day, Sisson called the police from the Cranston Public Library, saying she recognized a woman at the computers who might be involved. Bruno wasn’t aware that two officers were standing behind her, a police report said. They watched as she typed Sisson’s name and business address onto an application.

Bruno told the police she was the victim, that she had received harassing phone calls and that applications were filled out in her name.

She said that Sisson had gotten her fired from her job.

Sisson’s business, operating a party center and renting items for home parties, started seven years ago. It’s a family operation, she said. Nieces and nephews appear as characters in costumes, her sister does face painting and temporary tattoos and her husband delivers water slides, moon-bouncers, tables, chairs and tents.

Bruno, who started designing fashions as a student at Cranston High School East, has a shop in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Providence. The shelves are lined with costume heads of bunnies, Mickey Mouse-like creatures and characters that Bruno has made, along with wigs, vinyl go-go boots and costumes she has sewn, such as a Southern belle. Bruno refused to comment.

Tracy Sisson said she started asking callers how they got her number and was told she or her husband had filled out cards at a home show or business expo. Neither had attended those shows, she said.

ARTICLE HERE

Typical - the cyberharasser plays VICTIM! Sounds like Angela Buer, Nathan Thomas, Dan Jacoby, Yidwithlid, Ed Hicks...

Stalkers Cause PTSD - Sometimes for Years... or Life

by Kimberly Tsao

It's an ordinary day. You step into a bookstore and start to browse through the shelves. Next thing you know, the feeling of being followed isn't something just in movies anymore - it's real. It's now.

A tall, lanky man weaves in and out of the same aisles you do. Then, suddenly, he's not behind you anymore. Coincidence, you think.

Huge mistake.

You turn to get a closer look at the book titles, and he's right there - peering at you from the other side of the bookshelf. His eyes pierce yours in the space between the top of several books and the shelf above them.

You look away for a second, and your eyes flicker to the children's book, "The Rainbow Fish," an illustration that will be burned in your mind forever, an image that you will flashback to and allow to fester in your mind in the years to follow.

Seventy percent of stalking victims fall prey to post-traumatic stress disorder, which can manifest itself into depression, sleep problems. anxiety, behavior problems, inability to cope with everyday life, heart problems, autoimmune problems and more, according to a 1998 New York Times article.

One California woman was stalked for 31 years before the police made an arrest, according to the same New York Times article. That's more than 11,000 days of being stalked, of feeling helpless and afraid.

Stalking only became a crime in 1990, according to the same article. One can't help but wonder, what about the centuries and centuries of victims before that?

Fifty percent of stalking cases involve violent threats. The stalkers who carry out their threats have been known to hurt their victims' pets or vandalize their victims' properties. As a result, some victims are forced to move, find new jobs and change their identities. In extreme cases, the stalker kills the victim.

Unfortunately, the Internet has placed stalking in a whole new arena. Stalkers don't need to constantly dial the victims' phone numbers or drive over to the victims' homes anymore. Cyberstalkers can haunt people from other states and countries.

In a 2002 Christian Science Monitor article, the president of SafetyEd, a group for stalking victims, was quoted as saying, "The majority of police departments, district attorneys and attorneys do not understand (cyberstalking), and the laws do not really protect you from this type of problem."

But most cyberstalkers usually stop after one visit by the local authorities, according to the same article.

If only all police forces would make that visit.

Even if the police and private investigators were vigilant, there is no profile for your everyday stalker. Stalkers can be psychotic, have a personality disorder (narcissism or psychopathy) that is almost impossible to detect, or both, according to the New York Times article. They may also be alcoholics or drug addicts.

Some people turn into stalkers because they've suffered abuse or abandonment, according to the same article. Other times, the trigger is "a recent loss."

But none of them are legitimate excuses. Everyone who is grieving or abusing drugs doesn't necessarily become a stalker.

A stalkers register was shut down in 2000, according to a 2005 BBC News article. It would have been akin to a sex offender register. The reasons for scrapping the plan?

"Practical issues and existing monitoring safeguards," according to the same BBC News article. What does that even mean? What could be more practical than keeping tabs on potentially dangerous stalkers? And what "existing safeguards"?

The law and ALL those who enforce it need to catch up. Restraining orders, when it comes down to it, are pieces of paper. They don't do much. Almost 25% percent of the time, the stalkers remain undeterred, according to a 2007 ABC News article.


One million women and 400,000 men have been the victims of stalking, and one in 20 women will be stalked in her lifetime, according to the New York Times article.

To the victims: Persevere.

To the law enforcement (including local police, FBI, private investigators and IC3: Protect and serve.

To the stalkers: Get a life.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Another Facebook Stalker Arrested

ANOTHER REASON TO NOT USE SOCIAL NETWORKING! OR MAKE YOUR PROFILES PRIVATE AND LIMITED TO PEOPLE YOU ACTUALLY KNOW ONLY!

~~~~~~~

Cyberstalkers sometimes hide behind computer monitors or anonymous usernames.

A Georgia (U.S.) man, who local police say obtained personal information on a Cleveland County woman through a social networking Web site, reportedly hid from police Sunday under insulation at an abandoned home.

Laurence Odell Barnett, of Marietta, Ga., recently made the trip to North Carolina to see a woman in her late 30s, according to Cleveland County Sheriff's Capt. Alan Norman.
But feelings weren't mutual between the two.

A Cleveland County Sheriff's Office K-9 apprehended Barnett, 40, after he sought concealment from authorities in an attic of a vacant Oak Grove Road home.

"Mr. Barnett had viewed a Facebook account of a female that lived here in Cleveland County and was able to retrieve enough information through the Internet on the victim to come here," Norman said. "He showed up in the county at a nearby location where she was at."

Law enforcement was immediately contacted, Norman said, but Barnett fled the scene.
Deputy Doug Bryson was the first to arrive at the abandoned home Barnett was believed to be hiding in. Given the situation, he called for backup.

Norman said Deputy Bryan Ledford arrived shortly after with his K-9 partner, Zane. The dog reportedly found Barnett stashed away in the attic, hidden underneath insulation.

Zane made the apprehension, Norman said, which might have saved an officer from being injured in a confrontation.

Barnett was arrested and charged with misdemeanor breaking and entering, resist, delay or obstructing an officer and cyberstalking. He was denied bond.

Norman said the incident goes to show that online predators are in fact out there and a little caution can go a long way.

"I would urge individuals not to list any information that might give an individual an area where they may live," Norman said. "In today's times, it's fairly easy to narrow down where a person does reside with the tools and technology available to people such as Mr. Barnett."

SOURCE

Minimize What People Can Find Out About You Online

People Search Engines: They Know Your Dark Secrets … and Tell Anyone
By JR Raphael, PC World

Social search engines can turn up your Amazon Wish List, photos of your kids, your musical tastes, and much, much more. What else is out there that you don't want everyone to know, and what can you do to protect yourself?


I know things about my lawyer I absolutely should not know. He's 55 years old, listens to the music of the band Creed, and screams like a little girl when riding roller coasters. He also relaxes with New Age spa treatments and is thinking about getting an electronic nose-hair trimmer. And that's just the start.

Now, let me be clear: I've never spent a single moment outside the office with this guy (and for what it's worth, I'd just as soon not be privy to his personal grooming habits). I learned all of these details by tracking his social footprint across the Web -- and he probably has no idea that he has left such a vivid trail behind.

In our age of social sharing, we expect some of our thoughts to be public. But as we slowly put more and more pieces of ourselves online, specialized search engines are making it easier than ever to pull them together into a highly detailed (and potentially invasive) profile of our virtual lives (read "Online Stalking Made Easy").

I'll let you in on a little secret: The picture isn't always pretty. And even if no rap sheet turns up, do you really want the world to know that you look at bad-breath cures online or post awful "Star Trek" fan fiction?

The depths of the Deep Web
You hear a lot of terms bounced around when you talk about this growing breed of search engines. Some services like to be called "social search" utilities, while others prefer the phrase "people search." Many boast of their ability to delve through the "Deep Web" that even Google doesn't touch.

"Even though most people think the size of the Web is basically the Google crawl index, there's actually a lot of information that Google doesn't crawl," says Harrison Tang, founder and CEO of Spokeo -- which, taking a mash-up approach to its identification, describes itself as a "social people search engine" service.

People search engine Spokeo is upfront about what it thinks it can find on anyone.
Spokeo, like its competitors Pipl and CVGadget, is designed to let you dig up information on friends, foes and anyone in between. Spokeo goes a step further than many of the other services, though, by importing your entire e-mail address book.

Then, for a few bucks a month, it continually monitors your contacts and lets you know whenever anyone has done anything new, anywhere online. (The site's home page promises to help you "uncover personal photos, videos and secrets," including "juicy" and "mouth-watering news about friends and co-workers.")

Each individual bit of information may seem insignificant, but the cumulative effect of seeing it assembled in a neatly packaged portfolio is enough to give almost anyone pause.

"Aggregated identity is actually a new type of identity," Tang says, theorizing about why so many people seem to use the word "spooky" when describing his service. "A lot of people know that they have a public MySpace page, a lot of people know that they have a public Twitter album. But, when combined together, it's not one plus one equals two -- you actually create a new identity."

How Spokeo works
Spokeo's system uses your contacts' e-mail addresses to track their activity on a few dozen services, ranging from basic blogs and social networks to a slew of photo- and video-sharing sites. That means the random photos of your kids you shared on Flickr two years ago (or perhaps those less innocent images from your spring-break trip a decade earlier) will pop up right under your name, seconds after someone searches for you.
Less obvious sources such as Amazon Wish Lists, Pandora playlists and movie rating sites fill in the colorful details that you may not have realized were out there at all -- things like (in my lawyer's case) an affinity for New Age jams and nasal maintenance.

I found Mr. Attorney's age on an old MySpace profile and his roller coaster behavior on a personal YouTube video, but Pandora divulged his cravings for Creed and his suggested usages for the "Spa Radio" station he had created. As for the nose-hair trimmer, he can thank his Amazon Wish List for sending that factoid my way.

For sale: Your information
Rapleaf gathers information from the Deep Web -- often posted by you -- and sells it to marketers.

Other services access the same data and then sell the information under the banner of marketing research. One highly visible example is Rapleaf, a company that describes its services as "data and people lookup." Clients pay thousands of dollars to have detailed social profiles of individuals compiled in their own customer databases. As is the case with the data that Spokeo assembles, the information is all publicly available -- Rapleaf just brings it together. "Things that people have posted are out there for anyone to come and see," says Joel Jewitt, Rapleaf's vice president of business development. "As long as you're not going beyond that, that's within the privacy norms today."

Most of Rapleaf's clients, Jewitt says, are simply trying to understand how to use social media more effectively for marketing. An auto manufacturer, for example, might want to know which car models its customers are checking out and discussing on social Internet services. Armed with the company's list of customer e-mail addresses, Rapleaf would crawl the Web and track down the information, person by person.

"It's pretty standard Web spidering," Jewitt says. "We re-create in an automatic way what someone from the general public would be able to do if they were looking."

Electronic exposure
Whether they target businesses or individuals, the services have one thing in common: Unlike the public-record-driven search tools of the past, the new people-tracking utilities build a highly detailed dossier about you solely from information that you yourself published -- a circumstance that may give you a distinct feeling of discomfort.

"What it does is make the ubiquity of the Internet and the sheer openness of the world tangible," says Internet privacy expert Kevin B. McDonald, executive vice president of Alvaka Networks, a network management firm. "It makes the whole concept of the world sharing of information and the 'no-walls' approach that the Internet was designed for very real to people."

The reality can be chilling if the information is going to certain interested individuals: a curious client, a boss big on background checks or an obsessive ex, say. A recent study reported that half of all British Internet users surveyed admitted to having used the Internet to look up information on a former flame. The ease with which someone can arrange to monitor your every electronic move certainly adds a new dimension to the idea of fixation.

"It is a little 'stalkery,'" says Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "If the information is distributed, that's actually a form of privacy. When it's gathered up in one place, it creates some new risks."

Rotenberg is no fan of companies that assemble nuggets of personal but public information to turn a profit. "The fact that someone's made something public doesn't mean that someone else can sell it," he contends. "I would say even with affirmative consent, if there's going to be a market for personal data, the user should get some percentage of whatever value the data has."

Taking control
The thing to remember, of course, is that these services aren't doing anything illegal. The information they gather is information that anyone who knew where to look -- and had the time to do it -- could find. So rather than ignoring the king-size file that may have been collected on you, McDonald suggests, you should try to use it as a tool to understand and control your online identity.

"I've come to the point where rather than be driven by the Internet, I intend to drive it to the degree that I can," he says.

"All you can do is learn to live with it," McDonald says. "That's the confines of the world that we live in."

For suggestions on concrete steps you can take to reduce your online exposure, see "People Search Engines: Slam the Door on What Info They Can Collect."

ORIGINAL

Man Found Guilty of Cyberstalking - Jailed

A 28-year-old Missoula, Montana (US) man has pleaded guilty to cyberstalking for sending threatening e-mails to his former girlfriend.

Jeffrey D. Grob pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Missoula on Thursday. He faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced on June 19. Grob remains jailed.

Prosecutors say Grob sent the threatening e-mails to his former girlfriend from October through December 2007. The e-mails included death threats and some included pictures of dead women.

An Oct. 15, 2007 e-mail said: "I hope you die!!" One on Nov. 24 read: "I'm going to slit your throat. If you ever come back to Montana again I am going to slit your throat." Another e-mail included a picture of a dismembered woman and said: "This will be you."

The woman now lives in Seattle.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Trying to Recruit Prostitutes - Through MySpace

By Helen Croydon

Ordinary women are being lured into prostitution through networking sites with offers of glamour and cash.


After a friend was approached through her MySpace profile with the promise she’d “earn £100 an hour having fun”, I went undercover to find out exactly what these girls are being lured in to.

The flattering email – from “Jules” – complimented her on her appearance and told her she’d be able to “select the type of clients she sees and approve every appointment”.

It also assured her that security checks would be taken care of.

So, to expose the reality, I emailed Jules, calling myself Charlotte and pretending to be interested.

Two days later I turned up to meet her at a London Tube station, armed with a small bag of clothes.

She’d asked me to bring a selection of sexy outfits so she could take photographs and put my “working” profile up on the web right away.

Jules reeked of alcohol and later apologised for “being a bit tipsy”. She’d been with a client that day and had been drinking champagne. “You get a lot of that in this job. So if you like champagne you’re on to a winner,” she laughed.

We settled into a nearby Starbucks and she immediately reassured me: “You’ve got the job by the way. This is not really an interview – if we like the look of you, you can start.”

She didn’t ask about my background, my age, whether I’d done this before and she didn’t question my emotional state.

The only questions she asked me in the course of our two-hour meeting were what sexual acts I was uncomfortable with and what days I was unavailable to work.

She never once made any reference to safe sex or asked if I’d had sexual health checks myself.

She told me the going rate is £100 an hour. She charges a £25 booking fee plus a £10 fee for every hour.

But for the first five bookings, she takes an extra £10 per hour because she claims it takes extra time to push the profiles of new girls. That means her recruits are expected to perform a series of sexual acts for just £55, and to arrange their own transport.

“We used to be able to charge more, but with the credit crunch it’s gone down, and there are much less overnight stays,” she said. “You would have got a lot for those – around £800.”

Jules explained that the price could vary from week to week.

“If we find you’re getting loads of inquiries we might put your prices up but if you’re not getting much response from the website, and it does happen, we’ll have to put your prices down.”

I asked her how the security checks were done. “Oh, that’s Jonathan, he does all the client side of things, I don’t know how he checks, but trust me, he does.”

Having supposedly calmed my fears about safety, she went on to paint a glamorous picture of a life full of luxury hotels and gifts. “I’ve not bought perfume for two years,” she bragged.

“You’ll meet so many interesting people. I’ve had all sorts of clients from High Court judges to electricians.”

After a half-hour chat, she was keen to get me to the hotel to do the paperwork. She had a room booked that she’d used to entertain a client earlier.

She wanted to use the room to photograph me. I asked if we could do the paperwork in the hotel bar – unwilling to have my photos taken by a stranger.

Jules ordered a large glass of wine and water for me then produced three sheets of paper.

The first page asked for my real name, a “working name” and physical details such as height, bra size and eye colour.

I gave a false name but she never checked my ID. If I ever went missing on a job – how would anyone find me?

The second page was to select the type of male client I’d prefer. The third listed the sex acts I may be expected to perform. They were colour coded: white for what was “normal”, yellow for “what I can refuse to do” and blue for what would merit “extra payment”.

The “extras” included “unprotected sex” and “unprotected sex until completion”. There were some phrases I’d never heard before. Jules didn’t offer to explain them.

After half an hour another girl joined us for the photo session. Jules had recruited her the day before.

Jane (her “working name”) was mouse-like. “I’d never normally do this,” she confessed as Jules went outside for a cigarette, “but so many things are bad in my life right now.

“I split with my boyfriend and then I lost my job and I just can’t get anything. I went to two other agencies from an advert on the internet. But both of them ripped me off.”

She reluctantly told how she’d given them an “appointment fee” of £200 or more then the so-called agencies disappeared without trace. “I have bills to pay, and this could just be what I need,” she concluded.

Worryingly, she seemed to genuinely believe that escorting was a good way of getting out of a bad situation.

Even more alarmingly, despite admitting she was in a very vulnerable state of mind, she was willing to be represented by a stranger who contacted her on the internet.

Certain types of prostitution are legal in the UK but for girls who chose to do it there is a significant risk to personal safety and emotional stability.

Chris Student from the International Union of Sex Workers warns: “I’d never encourage this type of work. But if people are going to do it they need to know exactly who they are working for, get ID, ask to meet other workers. This is an industry where there is a particular danger.”

Jules was persuasive and charming and it’s easy to see how girls hungry for money could trust her – and her reassurances that male clients go through security checks.

But what she does is another argument against having an open profile online. Anyone could be studying your photos, sizing you up as a possible sex worker.

Jules told me MySpace kept deleting her account when they found out she was contacting potential recruits. But it didn’t deter her. “I just start a new profile up again,” she laughed.

A MySpace spokesperson said: “We have measures to monitor emails, but unless something in the language triggers an alert, we can’t investigate. If someone reported a potential abusive email, we’d look into it.”

Excerpt from the MySpace email:

Hiya, you seem like an adventurous, fun-loving girl… perhaps you’d be interested in this?

Would you like to earn over £100 an hour having fun, part-time, with flexible hours to suit you? Working as little or as much as you want?

I’m an escort working together with part-time girls from 18 to 35 who earn on average over £100 an hour. Everyone works flexibly with hours to suit them – some work up to 10 hours a week, others only a couple of hours a month – it’s entirely up to you.

All the girls choose the kind of client they see and approve every appointment before it’s finalised.

The agency does all the marketing, sales and security so you have nothing at all to bother about except the appointments.

Thanks

Kisses, Jules

SOURCE

Ohio Judge Cyberstalked and Threatened

Any of this behavior familiar to our readers? - EOPC

An Ohio man allegedly set fire to a car belonging to City Court Judge Christopher Anderson and for two months harassed Anderson and a woman described as the Ohio man's estranged wife, federal court records state.

A federal indictment filed last week against Thomas Slapnicker, 26, of Mentor, Ohio, states Slapnicker posted bogus Internet pages posing as Anderson and the woman.

In the indictment, the victims are identified as "CA" and "CS." Court records filed in Ohio reference a string of police reports filed by Anderson and the woman with Lake Station police.

Police acknowledged on Thursday that the alleged victim "CA" was Anderson.

The complaints include reports of threatening phone calls and e-mail messages from Slapnicker to the couple in January and February. They also allege that Slapnicker made bogus Web pages on the site Myspace.com posing as Anderson and claiming the judge was a pedophile.

Lake Station Police turned the investigation over to federal authorities, Chief Mike Stills said.

"My first inclination was to have an outside agency look into it, with the victim being an elected official here," Stills said.

The Ohio records state Lake Station investigators have surveillance camera footage that shows a vehicle identical to one Slapnicker owns driving away from Anderson's home on Jan. 22, the night Anderson's car was set on fire.

Slapnicker allegedly called his estranged wife after the fire and threatened to burn down Anderson's house.

Slapnicker was arrested last week in Ohio. He is due for a hearing in federal court in Hammond today, his attorney, Roseann Ivanovich, said.

Slapnicker served nearly five years in the military, earning commendations for his conduct in combat, Ivanovich said. He was honorably discharged in 2007, she said. The couple has a 3-year-old child, she said.

"I was surprised this case was charged federally," she said Thursday. "He's a nice young guy who's got a lot to deal with from his service and his divorce."

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

(Of course it was charged Federally! In the U.S. cyberharassment is a FEDERAL CRIME. The fact it took ONLY 2 months to get charges? Is because the victim is a judge. Other victims wait YEARS for charges! But it does catch up with these pathological internet harassers.)
ABOUT CYBERSTALKERS
Cyber stalkers can be broadly categorized into three types. (Sometimes these categories overlap).

The obsessional cyberstalker
This is the most common type of cyberstalker and he or she usually has had a prior relationship with the victim. The stalker cannot come to terms with the fact that their relationship is over. He or she then takes a lot of trouble to coerce the victim into re-entering the relationship or has his or her revenge on the victim by inducing fear and making his or her life miserable.

One should not be misled by believing that this stalker is harmlessly in love and incapable of causing real harm.

The delusional cyberstalker
This type of stalker is usually unrelated to the intended victim. Most of the time, contact is achieved through the Internet. These stalkers suffer from mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, psychopathy, bipolar disorder, narcissism, etc. This is why, sometimes, they are severely deluded into believing that their victim is in love with them even though they may have never met. These false beliefs keep them tied to their victims. This particular condition is also known as erotomania.

A delusional stalker is often a social outcast because of his or her mental illness and this makes him or her all the more desperate for companionship. Victims often tend to be married and from high profile professions such as celebrities, doctors, teachers, etc.

The most common type of stalker from this group is the type which pursues a celebrity and this syndrome is better known as the "obsessed fan syndrome". Delusional stalkers are very difficult to shake off.

The vengeful cyber stalker
These cyber stalkers are typically disgruntled employees and ex-spouses, ex-lovers or ex-friends who are resentful towards their victim due to some reason or the other. The motive for them is the feeling that THEY were the ones who have been victimized first and that they are merely teaching their victims a lesson.
EOPC EXAMPLE

His or her actions are similar to that of the obsessional stalker but they differ in motive. He or she is usually hell-bent on inducing fear in his or her victims by blackmailing or threatening them after taking over their computers.
EOPC EXAMPLE

WHAT MOTIVATES A CYBERSTALKER/ HARASSER?
The following are general motivations for any cyberstalker. The more fearful cyberstalkers tend to have more than one motive.

Anonymity of the Net
As mentioned before, the very nature of anonymous communications through the Internet makes it much easier to be a cyberstalker than a stalker in the real world.

Obsession for love
It is often the case that when relationships that begin online or in real life are halted abruptly by one person, the rejected lover cannot accept the end of the relationship. This leads to the rejected one pursuing his or her ex-lover online as well as offline.

One major problem related to obsessional stalking is that since it often starts off as real romance and intimacy, much personal information is shared between both persons involved. This makes it all the easier for the cyberstalker to harass his or her victim by using personal information against him or her or publicizing them.

Obsessions may also start as pastimes or for psychological reasons. These stalkers live in their own fantasy realms, so it is usually unnecessary for the victim to have done anything to attract his or her attention in the first place. Obsessional stalkers are usually jealous, possessive and manipulative people.

Revenge & Hate
It may start of as a mere argument blown out of proportion, leading eventually to a relationship based on intense hatred and a need for revenge. The criminal behavior may also be triggered off as a result of a rude comment posted online. The offending party may regret his or her action immediately but the offended party is not that easy to shake off.

Sometimes, hate-centred cyberstalking is triggered off for no reason at all. This is another indication of the psychological instability of cyberstalkers. Death threats and vulgar messages via email or through live chat messages are a common manifestation of this type of stalking.

Ego-centrism
Some stalkers are least interested in the damage they do to or how close they get to their victims. They are only interested in the process of gaining control over their victims just to prove to themselves or their friends that they can. They do not have any grudge against their victims but are simply using them as a means to exhibit their power and control to their friends or doing it just for the challenge. The unlucky victim is usually chosen at random.

Apart from the fact that they are highly manipulative and risk-taking, these stalkers do not suffer from any mental illness. Most people who receive threats online are fooled into believing that their harasser is more than capable of carrying out their threats. In fact, more often than not, this type of stalker is a child or teenager who cannot possibly have the means of carrying out the threats made.

IMPACT ON VICTIMS
Cyberstalking undermines the reputation and credibility of the Internet as a platform of information and for communication.

Being stalked can be an extremely fearful experience... Receiving messages filled with hatred or obsessive desire from someone whose face they have never seen before can be extremely terrifying. This is even more so if they start thinking that they themselves had done something wrong to deserve such treatment.

The knowledge that one is being continually pursued for whatever reason in the real or in the cyberworld is not something one handle if he or she keeps his or her fear inside. A new user of the Net may be so traumatized by such an experience that he or she may be too frightened to use the Net ever again. The worst thing that could happen is that the victim is convinced by the stalker to meet him or her in the real world and is then raped or assaulted or even murdered in a secluded area.

Such incidents severely undermine the reputation and credibility of the Internet as a worldwide platform of information and for communication.
~~~~~~~~~~~

The Ohio man charged with cyberstalking two Lake Station residents, one of whom is the city judge, will undergo a psychiatric evaluation before continuing with court hearings.

In a hearing Friday in Hammond federal court, Magistrate Judge Paul Cherry ordered the evaluation of Thomas Slapnicker, 26, of suburban Cleveland. Slapnicker's lawyer, Roseann Ivanovich, requested the evaluation.

Ivanovich told Cherry that Slapnicker is an Iraq war veteran suffering post-traumatic stress disorder. Slapnicker is also going through a divorce, Ivanovich said. She said that she was not convinced Slapnicker understands his situation, and she isn't sure he is capable of helping with his defense.

(PTSD is suffered by our victims... and our victims don't react this way. So clinical differences MUST be drawn between combat-related PTSD and trauma-related PTSD. The former's victims tend to act out, the latter's victims tend 'act IN.' - EOPC)

Cherry suspended hearings pending the evaluation.

Slapnicker remains jailed.

The federal investigation into Slapnicker started when someone set fire to Lake Station City Judge Christopher Anderson's car in his driveway about 2 a.m. one morning in late January or early February, said Lake Station Police Chief Mike Stills.

Anderson told police Slapnicker had been harassing and threatening him, Stills said. A detention order filed against Slapnicker in Ohio federal court describes Anderson as a "friend" of Slapnicker's wife. Anderson suggested Slapnicker as a suspect in the fire, Stills said.

Slapnicker has not been charged in the car fire, but he faces charges filed last week in Hammond federal court that he used MySpace and other Web sites to harass two Lake Station residents. Anderson is not mentioned in the indictment, but police have named him as one of the alleged victims.

Slapnicker is accused of using Web sites to invite people to one victim's home for sexual favors. The indictment states Slapnicker posed online as a second victim, using MySpace and other sites, to make that person appear to be a racist pedophile.

Slapnicker is charged with four counts of making threatening phone calls Feb. 12 and two counts of violating a protective order by interstate cyberstalking.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

SUPPORT BOARD FOR STALKING VICTIMS

If you are being CYBERSTALKED or HARASSED EOPC CANNOT intervene for you - CLICK HERE for what to do Do not allow even law enforcement to tell you this is 'not a big deal.' Insist that they file charges and get a copy of the charges! Be a 'polite pest' and follow up frequently. Move up the ladder of command if you have to. Involve local politicians - many Representatives have people in their local offices to help citizens get the services THEIR TAX DOLLARS PAY FOR.


YOU CAN SHARE COPIES OF THE RELEVANT LAW WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT IF THEY DO NOT "GET IT'" (more links to the right regarding the law & cyberpaths, cyberstalking & cyberharassment)


Interstate Threatening Communications and Cyberstalking

• The statute governing threatening communications is 18 U.S.C. § 875.
• Whoever, with intent to extort from any person, firm, association, or corporation, any money or other thing of value, transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years or both (b).
• Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both (c).
• Whoever, with intent to extort from any person, association, or corporation, any money or other thing of value, transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to injure the property or reputation of the addressee or of another or the reputation of a deceased person or or threat to accuse the addressee or any other person of a crime, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both (d).
  

18 U.S.C. § 875 Interstate Communications

• Threatening Communications
• Threatening to injure property or defame
• Intent to communicate
• Communication in interstate commerce
• The communication is reasonably perceived by the recipient as threatening
• Threat of harm to a person. U.S. v. DeAndino, 958 F.2d 146 (6th Cir. 1992) (although not necessarily a specific person).

§ 875(c) Threatening Communications

• Intent requirement for 875(c)
• Intent to communicate
• Reasonably perceived by recipient as threat of bodily harm
• Subjective intent to threaten is not required. U.S. v. Morales, 272 F.3d 284 (5th Cir. 2001).
• Intent to make an interstate communication is also not required. U.S. v. Darby, 37 F.3d 1059 (4th Cir. 1994).
• Interstate commerce requirement -- An internet communication need only travel out of state to fulfill interstate commerce prong. U.S. v. Kammersell 196 F.3d 1137 (10th Cir. 1999).
  

CASES
U.S. v. Kammersell, 196 F.3d 1137 (10th Cir. 1999)

U.S. v. Morales, 272 F.3d 284 (5th Cir. 2001)

A communication is a threat if in its context it would have a reasonable tendency to create apprehension that its originator will act according to its tenor. The threat must be made knowingly which means voluntarily and intelligently and not by mistake or accident. To distinguish political hyperbole from a true threat, “in order to convict, a fact finder must determine that the recipient of the in-context threat reasonably feared it would be carried out.”

The Court found that the language of 18 U.S.C. § 875 doesn’t require intent to communicate the threat to the specific victim.


U.S. v. Alkhabaz, 103 F.3d 1492 (6th Cir. 2001)

• Facts: D posted stories depicting sexual violence to a usenet group. One of these stories involved the torture, rape, and murder of a young woman who shared the same name as one of D’s classmates at the University of Michigan. Some time after, D and his friend (computing from Ontario Canada) exchanged email messages expressing an interest in sexual violence.
• D was arrested under 18 U.S.C. § 875 for sending threatening interstate communications. The District Court dismissed the indictment against D, finding that his stories and messages did not constitute true threats and were protected speech. The government appealed the dismissal of the indictment.

Court ruled these constituted “a communication containing a threat” under § 875(c), a communication must be such that a reasonable person (1) would take the statement as a serious expression of an intention to inflict bodily harm (the mens rea), and (2) would perceive such expression as being communicated to effect some change or achieve some goal through intimidation (the actus reus).”

Cyberstalking Statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2261A
* Whoever . . . [uses] any interactive computer service, or any facility of interstate or foreign commerce to engage in a course of conduct that causes substantial emotional distress to that person or places that person in reasonable fear of the death of, or serious bodily injury to, any of the persons described in clauses (i) through (iii) of subparagraph
(B) . . .

• (i) . . . person;
• (ii) a member of the immediate family . . . of that person; or
• (iii) a spouse or intimate partner of that person;

Cyberstalking Statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2261A
History Behind 18 U.S.C. § 2261A

* Enacted as part of Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA).
* Created the federal crime of stalking, largely in response to highly publicized murder of actress Rebecca Shaeffer.

CASES
U.S. v. Bowker, 372 F.3d 365 (6th Cir. 2004).

* D argued that 18 U.S.C. § 2261 overbroadly included certain protected speech. The Court rejected this challenge as it found that D hadn’t pointed to anything in particular. The court also rejected D’s vagueness challenge, finding that the reasonable person standard in objectively discerning threatening behavior would apprise the reasonable person reading the statute of what conduct was prohibited. Further, it found harassment and intimidation to be words of common understanding.

U.S. v. Bell, 303 F.3d 1187 (9th Cir. 2002).
* “course of conduct” means a pattern of conduct comprised of two or more acts.”

AFF - Online Dating Sexual Harassment Scandal

Do we NEED to give ANY MORE reasons not to use ANY (and we mean ALL OF THEM) online dating services?

Some of them are RUN BY PREDATORS.

FriendFinder's executives will learn a hard lesson: It's one thing to profit from women. It's another to take advantage of them.

A porn star draping boobs over an employee's head. Lapdances on the company dime. $50 million in back taxes. These are just some of the charges Penthouse publisher FriendFinder Networks is facing from an ex-employee.

Natalie Cedeno, the company's former HR director, says that company executives retaliated against her for pointing out violations of labor laws. She was a top executive at the Internet side of the business, deeply involved in its operations for eight years, before FriendFinder fired her without cause in January, she says. She claims the company then tried to withhold the two years of pay she was owed under her contract unless she agreed to stay silent about FriendFinder's misdeeds — a move her lawyer characterizes as "extortion." Cedeno plans to file complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing next month.

And a juicy complaint it will be. FriendFinder Networks used to be called Penthouse Media Group before it acquired Various Inc., the operator of Adult FriendFinder and other online personals sites, in 2007 for $500 million. While they're both porn companies, the office cultures of Florida-based Penthouse and Silicon Valley-based Various Inc. — where Cedeno worked before the merger — couldn't have been more different. That became obvious on May 2, 2008, when the ex-Penthouse executives, now in charge of the combined business, decided to ship in a passel of Penthouse Pets to the old Various offices.

When management announced that the venerable porn magazine's stable of nude models would be stopping by the office to serve ice cream, one female employee objected, as Cedeno tells the story. When they arrived, one of the scantily clad Pets made a beeline for the dissenter. "They came into her office and placed her breasts on her head in an attempt to humiliate her, and they had someone ready to take pictures," Cedeno says. The employee quit soon after the incident.

The evening before Cedeno was terminated last month, she says she brought up at a meeting of executives an employee who had charged thousands of dollars in lapdances to the company — an expense the company's pre-Penthouse management wouldn't have tolerated. "The president laughed and said the CEO had paid for lapdances for investment bankers with company money last weekend," Cedeno says.

But wait a second: Aren't we talking about a company whose main product is porn? What are a few workplace hijinks at a business which makes money off of naked ladies? Well, there's much more than Cedeno's pay at stake. FriendFinder filed to go public last year. It desperately needs the $460 million it hopes to raise in an IPO in order to pay down $420 million in debt. If the company has legal problems and labor issues beyond what it disclosed in its SEC filings, its executives could face heavy penalties, and the IPO would likely be scotched.

FriendFinder Networks CEO Marc Bell did not return a message left requesting comment on Cedeno's allegations. The SEC restricts what companies in registration for an IPO can say publicly about their business outside of regulatory filings, a requirement known as the "quiet period."

According to Cedeno, Various operated Adult FriendFinder and other X-rated adult sites for seven years without drawing a single sexual-harassment lawsuit from employees. The company was as buttoned-down as nearby NASA contractors. Office rules restricted employees from posting any photos on office walls, or even having naughty screensavers. Cedeno says the company's longtime postman had to ask her, after six years of delivering mail, what the company actually did. And founder Andrew Conru, who took no venture capital and therefore owned almost all of the company, is famously mild-mannered. (The raciest he gets: He once told a magazine he'd had a ménage-à-trois.)

Valleywag had previously heard rumblings of discontent at the company. Over the summer, Anthony Previte, a Penthouse executive who was COO of the company, reportedly prompted a mutiny among the Sunnyvale employees by trying (and failing) to replace most of the operations team. We also heard of a messy firing in the sales department. But that was just the tip of the iceberg, according to Cedeno.

Everything changed after Penthouse bought the company and changed its name to FriendFinder Networks, she says. Within four weeks, FriendFinder had its first labor complaint, and soon drew two more. The company's former controller plans to file an age-discrimination lawsuit, Cedeno says.

Cedeno says new management was unresponsive to her concerns. When she pointed out violations of overtime law, the company's VP of operations emailed her, "This garbage stops now." (He meant her complaints, not the violations.) She says she was then ordered to lie and blame pay discrepancies on the company's outside payroll vendor. She refused.

She also says that in January 2008, Rob Brackett, president of the company's Internet group, told her that CEO Marc Bell had complained to him in December — the first day he came to visit Penthouse's new acquisition — that the women in FriendFinder's technology department were "ugly" and that Cedeno should get rid of them and replace them with more attractive workers to keep the male employees happy. Brackett pressed Cedeno, asking her how she was going to satisfy Bell. She refused the request.

The company has admitted in its S-1 filings that it failed to collect taxes owed on Internet purchased in the European Union for years. It has already charged $64 million against the purchase price of Various. (It now reports the acquisition as costing the company $401 million, down from $500 million, thanks to this and other charges.) But it has not disclosed the full extent of its pending tax bills. Cedeno says the back taxes in Germany alone come to $40 million and the company owes $10 million in another European country.

FriendFinder seems to have made a formidable enemy. Cedeno has hired Amanda Metcalf, a former prosecutor now in private practice who's best known for her role in a lawsuit against Death Row Records. I asked Metcalf why she took on Cedeno's case. "Woman done wrong," she replied. If Cedeno proves her allegations in court, FriendFinder's executives will learn a hard lesson: It's one thing to profit from women. It's another to take advantage of them.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Neighbor's WiFi Connection Used to Threaten

EOPC has seen incidences of people's email addresses, sign-ins and even their IP numbers being gotten and used to post on other websites as them - as a way to cause them trouble or use another identity to threaten people they don't even know on the Internet.

Always take precautions to block spyware, viruses, worms, keyloggers and so on from your computer. See a professional to help clean and put blocking software on your computer if need be.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
While the Indian Mujahideen used weak wi-fi (wireless fidelity) security in Navi Mumbai (India) to send terror threats over email, a Khar resident recently did the same to terrorise his estranged wife.

According to the police, Pavan Muthreja, 25, used the wi-fi network of a woman staying in a neighbouring building to send obscene and threatening messages to his estranged wife, aged 22. He even posted scraps making dowry demands. Muthreja's wife had walked out a month into their marriage in September 2008, alleging harassment.

The wife registered a first information report at the Khar police station under sections 498(a) (husband or relative of husband subjecting woman to cruelty) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code.

She approached the cyber crime investigation cell (CCIC) of the Mumbai Police after being allegedly flooded with hundreds of abusive and obscene scraps on her Orkut account. She said Muthreja also posted demands for dowry.

The young woman has told the police that the online harassment began four months ago and even her friends were not spared.

Police traced to a Khar resident the IP (internet protocol) address from which the messages were being posted. They then learnt from the complainant that her husband lives in a building nearby. The police have seized Muthreja's laptop and are examining the data on it.

SOURCE

Online Predator Targetted Mothers

Man acted out death threats against children; More prison time sought

by Mike McIntyre

He is described as a serial predator who scours the Internet for vulnerable single mothers, wins their hearts with a bogus tale of bravado and then terrorizes them and their children.

Terrance Moquin has left a trail of dashed hopes and devastated victims across Canada and in the United States in a 15-year crime spree. Now a Manitoba Crown attorney wants the justice system to fight back.

"He's sadistic, manipulative and relentless in his offences. He appears to be unstoppable, whether he's on parole, probation, on release or, for that matter, even when he's in jail," prosecutor Cindy Sholdice told provincial court Judge Ken Champagne in calling for a seven-year prison sentence.

"He is capable of extreme physical and mental violence against vulnerable individuals."

Moquin, 38, is expected to learn his fate Tuesday morning after being convicted of his latest crimes, which involve befriending a single mother of two children in an online chat room and then assaulting her when the relationship turned sour in 2007. Moquin was on parole and probation at the time and required to report all relationships to justice officials, which he failed to do.

"Over and over and over again... he manipulated his probation officers. They never suspected a thing," Sholdice said during her sentencing submissions last week.

Like past victims, Moquin told the woman his name was really "Lane Kidd," a former U.S. Marine and trained sniper from Texas who had fought in Iraq and moved to western Manitoba to pursue a successful career in the oil and trucking industry. He even proudly showed off his army tattoo.

Moquin's adult criminal history dates back to the early 1990s, when he repeatedly attacked his wife when she confronted him about his penchant for using phone-sex chat lines. He forced the woman to perform oral sex on him while holding a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her in front of their young son, court was told.

Moquin got out of jail in 1998 and quickly befriended a married woman in Red Deer, Alta. He eventually moved into the home -- her husband was on a lengthy work-related stint overseas -- and began to administer "corporal punishment" to her three children, aged 7, 9 and 11.

His most disturbing act involved telling the kids he was going to kill them all and forcing them to choose the means -- a beating, hanging or throat-slitting. Moquin then began to act out the death scenarios, even tying a dog collar around one child's neck and holding him over the side of a staircase, court was told.

He was given two years in prison and three years' probation for those incidents. A parole report claimed Moquin displayed a "callous disregard for the rights of others."

Moquin continued a similar pattern of behaviour following his release, meeting nearly a dozen women in Manitoba through the Internet.

Their romances usually ended when Moquin got caught stealing money from them and/or abusing them and their children, court was told.

Moquin received several short jail terms in the early 2000s, usually not for more than about six months at a time.

In 2005, he befriended a married woman from Minot, N.D. and convinced her to come to Winnipeg to post bail for him after one of his arrests for breaching terms of his probation. She left her husband and children, believing Moquin's story that he'd got into a fight while "defending the American flag" with a rude Canadian, court was told. She was intercepted by police who told her the truth about her online lover.

Moquin has spent the past year in custody, and the Crown is seeking up to six more years in prison. Defence lawyer Jody Ostapiw said her client only deserves another year behind bars, saying he can't be given extra punishment just for being a chronic "liar."

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

MIKE ON CRIME