CYBER911 EMERGENCY:

CYBER STALKING: WHY DO THEY DO IT?

It might surprise you to know just how likely it is that you will become the
victim of a stalker. One in ten! Yes, one of every ten on the Internet today
will become the victim of a cyber stalker.

"Cyber stalking," which is simply an extension of the physical form of
stalking, is where the electronic mediums such as the Internet are used to
pursue,
harass, or contact another in an unsolicited fashion. Most often, given the
vast distances that the Internet spans, this behavior will never manifest itself
in the physical sense but this does not mean that the pursuit is any less
distressing. There are a wide variety of means by which individuals may seek out
and harass individuals even though they may not share the same geographic
borders, and this may present a range of physical, emotional, and psychological
consequences to the victim.

The "contact" of a stalker can range from unwelcome advances and obscene
offerings, to disparaging, demeaning, slanderous, vile, or threatening comments
made in a chat room, on a bulletin board, through Email, instant message, or any
other on-line communication medium. The big problem is that you never know
when, or whom, or how far they are going to go in pursuit of their deranged
goal, whatever that might be. What starts out as a seemingly innocent exchange
can
progress to name calling to threats to…? You just don't know where it is
going to end.

The cyber stalker can come from anywhere. From a chat room, a newsgroup, a
bulletin board, or email. Virtually any medium of communication available
on-line affords them the opportunity to pick a victim. This is not to say that
all
cyber stalkers go looking for victims, some of them become cyber stalkers after
being spurned by someone they were attracted to or wanted to impress. This is
why we must be watchful of our communications at all times.

Remember: The goal of a cyber stalker is CONTROL. Your task is to reverse
this situation. Keep control of who you communicate with on the Internet. To do
this, you may like to consider the advice below. Remember, the time to deal
with cyber stalking is before you become a target.

If you are being harassed online by a cyber stalker, the chances are that you
are not the first person they have stalked. Cyber stalkers, like other
predators, are opportunists. They know what they are looking for and how to get
it.
"Stalking" is a "power" crime, the stalkers has the power to make you suffer
and enjoys that power. Stalkers' self-esteem rises when they attack your
self-esteem. The more pain and suffering they can cause, the better they feel
about
themselves.

The best protection against becoming a target of stalking is not to reveal
anything personal that you might have in common. Often, stalkers are mentally
unstable, paranoid, delusional, and extremely jealous, and have extremely low
self-esteem. Stalkers may display selfishness, malice, sadism, be very cunning
and arrogant. Most are anti-social, and to put it in layman's terms, be a
"control freak", enjoying manipulating other people. They crave power over
others,
and enjoy the type power that hurts other people. Harassment is common enough
in live chat on the Internet.

The three most common ways it can start are:

1) sexual harassment;
2) a flame war (argument that gets out of hand);
3) users that show their technological power by attacking innocent users,
channels, or even networks.

Those who regularly start flame wars online are rude and obnoxious people,
often having poor social and communication skills. Their idea of fun is throwing
obscene abuse at another just to upset them. These kind of harassers are
often loners who don't have a companion, or who are in a miserable relationship,
and their attempts to attract your attention is often clumsy and crude. Care
should always be taken when turning them away, as they are highly sensitive to
rejection and humiliation, and could cause a vendetta to start against you.
Understand that although clumsy and crude in most cases, the stalker is not
stupid, they are very organized and usually experienced in their war against
you.

Stalking is a form of obsession. The difference between a normal cyber
harasser and a cyber stalker, is this: harasser moves on to others and forgets
you
and a stalker will come back to stalk you another day. The Internet enables the
stalker, his/her powers, in most cases, merely a knowledge of the technology
is all required to have the ability to stalk another user. Most stalkers,
having been rejected desire to instill fear in users, therefore, upsetting the
normal enjoyment of the Internet.

The best way to be prepared is to understand beforehand how to react, and the
appropriate steps to take once you realize that you have become a victim. The
first is to remain calm and objective, not reacting to flames with flames,
threats with threats, just not reacting. Remember, to react is to feed the fire.
Once someone begins a campaign the best course is to simply and calmly speak
to them one time, whether by email, chat, bulletin board, or whatever method
is being used, and tell them that you no longer wish to have any communication
with them whatsoever. If you can bear to just ignore the communications, you
stand a greater chance of the offender just getting tired of being ignored and
going away.

Read tips on how to protect yourself after you are being harassed/stalked at
Cyber911 Emergency:

http://wiredsafety.org/cyberstalking_harassment//index.html



Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting
different results.

~ Albert Einstein


Fallen Officer: Kenneth L. Collings
http://hometown.aol.com/azterri/kenny.html


AZTerri
http://profiles.yahoo.com/arizona_terri


End Verbal Abuse Group Leader
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/End_Verbal_Abuse


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]