Beware of how technology can make it easier to track youby Aimee Heckel
He e-mailed her a photo of himself holding a gun with a Google map of her house, she says.
He threatened to come to Colorado and rape her.
He threatened her kids, and called her son derogatory names.
That's when Amber decided to get a restraining order, wipe away her entire online presence and start over. Hopefully this time, she says, he won't find her.
But it's hard to erase all virtual footprints, says the 30-something local woman who asked to remain anonymous for her safety. After all, the man whom she accused of cyberstalking her found her address, phone number and boyfriend's e-mail address without her help. All she did was accept him as her Facebook friend; they never met in person, but he seemed friendly as he moderated a Facebook group that she joined.
She will never let a stranger into her life like that again, Amber says.
"I was scared for a minute, honestly, but then I was just pissed off," she says. "He touched a nerve, for sure."
As Americans become increasingly more plugged in, it has become easier for perpetrators to use that technology for nefarious purposes, according to law enforcement. For police, this changing face of partner violence demands innovation and constant training to keep up with the trends. But it can also open up new avenues to trap cyber-perps, and even help tech-savvy victims protect themselves and secure a stronger court case.
The U.S. Department of Justice estimates hundreds of thousands of people have been victims of cyberstalking.
One study found about one-third of college students reported some kind of computer-based harassment, but experts say more research is needed. Plus, harassment can just be a one-time incident, unlike stalking, which generally indicates a pattern of events.
Stalking becomes illegal -- beyond curious browsing through pics or Googling a lost love -- when the repeated contacts are coupled with a credible threat, or when they cause the victim "serious emotional distress."
Officials say cyberstalking cases are extremely underreported. Boulder County doesn't track cyberstalking specifically, but the district attorney's office reported 29 felony stalking arrests last year. Many of them involved technology.
Johnson conducts statewide trainings on tackling cyberstalking. He's considered one of the most computer-savvy DAs across the state.
"A lot of stalking is vested in power and control," Johnson says.
Unlike Amber's case and the high-profile news stories about delusional fans stalking celebs, Johnson says most cyberstalking cases don't involve strangers.
In February, a 37-year-old Boulder man was arrested on suspicion of breaking into his ex-girlfriend's apartment for several months and installing voice recorders in her home and spyware on her computer to monitor her.
One local man, a pilot for Frontier, was accused of stalking a flight attendant coworker, remotely accessing her e-mail, creating fake online personalities and hacking into her work account to learn her flight schedule. He was convicted and is currently serving a one-year sentence with 10 years probation, officials say.
Johnson is currently working on a case involving a City of Longmont employee who was arrested on suspicion of using an online dating site to find women and then stalk them, according to Johnson.
Johnson says the man dropped hints throughout the relationships about his roof-repair skills, and when the relationships went bad, he sabotaged their appliances and drilled holes in their roofs so they'd call him for help.
Johnson says it seems every cyberstalking case involves new and different kinds of technology.
One of the most popular techniques: installing a keystroke logger on a computer or cell phone to record what a person types, including passwords and e-mails. Some software can even turn on cameras and speakers remotely and monitor every phone call.
That's just the beginning.
Tracking devices, or GPSes, are another "favorite way to stalk," Johnson says. In one local case, a stalker bought a wristwatch embedded with a dime-sized GPS unit, designed to help parents keep track of their children. The man removed the device and sewed it into the lining of a woman's coat so he could follow her.
Often, GPS units installed on cars disrupt the vehicle's electrical system. In the past year, Johnson says Boulder County has seen five cases where people brought their cars in for service and the auto shop found a tracker on the car.
Then there are products like Spoofcard.com, a calling card that changes the phone number that shows up on caller ID, changes the caller's voice and records the calls.
From the Web site's testimonials:
"I've used the Spoof caller id when my boyfriend (during that time) was just ignoring my phone calls (even when i blocked my number) he still didn't answer. ... I called my exboyfriend with HIS house phone number and HE HAD ANSWERED the phone call without hesitating!! and he was just tripped out about it. he had thought that i was AT HIS HOUSE!! which i found quite exciting!!"
Although the number of stalking cases in Boulder County is down from 2006, authorities agree stalking isn't on the decline.
Without a doubt, it's increasing, says Tom Eskridge, a partner with the High Tech Crime Institute in Florida, which trains law enforcement and military in digital media investigation and forensics.
"More people are becoming comfortable with technology, and more software is sold under the guise of protecting your children," Eskridge says. "But 99 percent is sold to people who want to spy on the wife."
He says law enforcement has seen an increase in the number of "portal devices" (such as cell phones or laptops with wireless Internet access) seized and examined for civil cases, often involving someone stealing intellectual property from a company.
"The data mining that's available -- you don't have to waste money on LexisNexis anymore. You have Google. You can get most everything you need," Eskridge says. "The days of privacy are over."
A constant race
This leaves police in a constant race with ever-evolving technology. Boulder County has a dedicated unit for computer forensics. Instead of looking for floppy discs and bulky hard drives, investigators now search for thumb-sized SIM cards, MicroSD memory cards, international servers that complicate search warrants and muddle the laws or Internet-based storage, referred to as cloud computing.
"The law doesn't protect you internationally. I put it in the cloud, and you don't know where it's at. Now what are you going to do with your law?" Eskridge says. "There is no supergalactic Internet police."
But in the same way that technology makes it easier for stalkers to track victims, it can help police follow the trail of stalkers. Think back on the different devices that perpetrators use: GPSes, Spoofcards, spyware, fake e-mail addresses and Facebook pages. Police can use all of these, too, says Johnson.
"We're using technology to catch these guys. Although they might be savvy, there's so much on a computer that will trap you," Johnson says.
He refers to a local man was arrested on suspicion of stalking his girlfriend and her teenage daughter. The man was accused of taking compromising photos of the girl through a peephole in her wall, editing the photos to look vulgar and sending them to her friends.
But technology -- a court-ordered tracking device on his car -- ended up catching the man and helping the case against him, Johnson says. The man's sentencing is Sept. 3.
Victims can use technology to protect themselves, too, Johnson says. If you're being harassed, he recommends saving instant messages, e-mails and voice mails. Block calls and e-mails. Turn on your Web cam when you're gone if you think someone is sneaking into your house or installing stuff on your computer. Or pick up a night-vision, motion-activated wildlife camera at a sporting goods store, and mount it to your porch.
The easiest thing to do is change passwords and user names, and pay attention to what you do on your computer.
"If you're surfing online for a restaurant, and then you go and that person is there, make that connection," Johnson says.
The National Network to End Domestic Violence recommends stalking victims use public computers at a library or coffee shop to avoid keystroke-capturing.
And although it might be impossible to prevent, make it more difficult to be stalked, advises Eskridge. Don't put personal info on your Facebook or Twitter, like your birthday, e-mail address or your live location, which just broadcasts that your house is empty.
"You've got people who put so much personal info about themselves, pics of themselves, and some weirdo happens upon your site and falls in love with you. Now, Houston, we've got a problem. And a lot of it is our own doing," Eskridge says. "Let's step back and think: What did we gain by putting that info on the Internet?"
AND UNFORTUNATELY MANY POLICE, ATTORNEYS, JUDGES, OFFICIALS and OTHERS - do not take this seriously; believe they will 'just go away' and ignore pleas for help. - EOPC
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