Stalking and abuse online...

[Guest]

Hey all.

I don't want to turn this into a rambling rant. So gonna try to condense it. Like condensed milk. Ha!

Anyway, there's a weird guy online, who I have known since 2004 from multiple video games related forums, and I don't know him personally. He lives in Western Australia. I'm from Edinburgh, Scotland.

Basically, the long and short of it is that this idiot (who is 36) keeps making all of these accounts to harass me on forums, YouTube and wikis. Does things to get my attention and often posts bizarre or vile comments, logs in to look for my posts, and subscribes me to porn sites. Also tries to deface my filmography on movie databases, list my online pseudonyms, or contact producers I met, and says I only get to be an extra because I go using my retard checks to help fund their productions.

I know the guy's real name, as he posted a picture of himself and a dog. I then found him on Twitter after I remembered a guy from Australia, after I got an IP address he used with a company named Spark, in New Zealand. He was known to me in 2004 to about 2006 on a site about a game called "Resident Evil." Back then, he wasn't quite as obnoxious, however. But he knew all of these trolls who hated on me.

On a relationship advice forum, roughly about 5 years ago, he spammed it up with multiple accounts, because the admin retired the moderators. Now he is doing it again on a dead anxiety forum as well, and posting my address, and making fun of my mother being on dialysis. He will occasionally harass others too, if they happen to log in and ask why the forum is full of these posts from this nutter. He even lists my phone's and computers as well, which is rather creepy, if he sees my posts on other sites.

On YouTube, he makes videos with references to things about me and sometimes uses clips from my videos. But he removes these when I flag them. Also, he throws a hissy fit if my friend or I close a YouTube channel.

There's a wiki I use to edit pages about horror films, and he used a gazillion identities over the last 2 or so years to edit the same pages I was, just to be subscribed to each one. You don't get to tag them unless you edit them first. Then he comes back posting dumb comments, or attempting to revert my edits. When I reported him like 9641 times, I think even the admin got fed up, and quietly hinted that I just have to live with it.

I called the police in Australia. They say because I am in the UK, they have no jurisdiction to arrest him. But he never stops.

So, could I try hiring a solicitor from his country, or state?

[jaguarsuk]

I called the police in Australia. They say because I am in the UK, they have no jurisdiction to arrest him. But he never stops.

Typical of Police really, they could have gone and warned him about his behaviour.

Sadly I doubt you'll get much joy out of Police Scotland because in my experience the police's attitude to online behaviour is that it's all a little too tedious for them to deal with. They don't believe you can be harassed to such a point that they should be involved and think you can just 'block' someone then they magically go away.

However, in the first instance I would contact them and ask them via the Australian Police to issue a warning under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. Tell them that while the harassment is online, it's effect is taking place in Scotland and that is why it falls under their jurisdiction.

So, could I try hiring a solicitor from his country, or state?

You could speak to both a solicitor in Scotland and one in Australia to see what might be done, probably best to try to find ones that will do a free consultation.

[atticus]

The international aspect makes this already difficult situation so much harder.

Can you try self-help processes to cut off engagement with this person? I know that this may be easier said than done.

[Guest]

My mother said to just "completely disappear" from these sites and that way, he cannot know about my business. I'm very open and honest online, which is a bad thing because it allows someone like him to connect the dots. Recently, I even tried to get my user names changed on these other forums I went on, but then he still knows it's the same profiles. So it's not really a solution.

He must not have anything better to do with his time if he lists my phone's models, my IP addresses, nicknames, and all the rest of it. He even claimed to know all my family member's names too, from probing on Facebook.

Although I did say to people that gaming forums have ended up pointless anyway. There's hardly any activity on them. The more active ones have too many shills and trolls inhabitanting then. From my experience, the police do nothing. But forums went downhill because of the rise of sites like Facebook and Twitter.

[Guest]

I actually meant to say "inhabiting" and it seems you cannot edit posts once submitted.