21.3 Cyberstalking Case Example

21.3 Cyberstalking Case Example^[3]

Jill's troubles began after she dumped Jack. Jack "accidentally" sent a defamatory e-mail to a list of mutual friends containing personal information that was very embarrassing to Jill. He claimed that he had intended to send the e-mail to Jill and must have addressed the e-mail incorrectly. After this incident, Jack seemed to overcome his difficulty in addressing e-mail and started to bombard Jill with offensive missives. He also forced his way into her apartment one night and, although he did not threaten to harm her, he refused to leave. Jill called the police but Jack left before they arrived.

Jill continued to receive offensive e-mail messages from Jack and a mutual friend told her that Jack claimed to have a compromising video of her. Jill also heard rumors that Jack was somehow listening in on her telephone conversations, monitoring her e-mail, and videotaping her in her apartment. She became so distraught that she lost sleep and became ill.

Authorities informed Jack that he was being investigated and they arranged for all e-mail messages from him to Jill to be redirected into a holding area so that they would be preserved as evidence and Jill would not be exposed to them. Nonetheless, he continued to harass Jill in person and through the Internet by sending e-mail from different addresses. He also targeted Jill indirectly by forging an e-mail message to her friends making it seem like Jill had sent it. Her friends were surprised and troubled by the content of the messages and asked Jill why she had sent them, at which point she reported the forgery to the police.

The police obtained log files from the e-mail server that Jack had used to forge the e-mail and found that he had connected via AOL. The police then obtained a search warrant to obtain the identity of the individual from AOL who had been assigned the IP address at the time in question. AOL confirmed that Jack had been assigned the IP address at the time, and provided account information and e-mails stored on their servers:

    ONLINE ACCOUNT PROFILE    Screen Names:        CyberStalker            xxxxxxxxxx    Name:                JOHN DOE    Street:              153 Main Street    City:                New York    State/Zip:           NY 10023    Country Code:        US    Evening Phone:       [phone]    Daytime Phone:       [phone]    Account Status:         **TERMINATED**    Account Type:           NORMAL    BID Country:            us    Date Account Created:   00-05-13 10:45:16 EDT    Date Account Cancelled: 00-05-29 19:23:32 EDT    Last Screen Name Used:  CyberStalker    Last Logout Date:       80-01-01 00:00:00 EDT    Last Node:              Internal Ethernet    Billing Method:    Credit Card #:          xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    CC Expiration Date:     xxxx    CC Name:                JOHN C. DOE    Account History:    Date/Time: 00-05-29 19:23                     Recorded By: AOLSTAFF1    Problem: OPSSEC (DNR): Legal Action (SW) Account Status Changed    Response:    Date/Time: 00-05-27 16:26                     Recorded By: AOLSTAFF2    Problem: Disable Member PW Reset Per Legal    Response:    Date/Time: 00-05-27 16:25                     Recorded By: AOLSTAFF2    Problem: Updated Account Groups Account Group Info Changed    Response: OLD INFO: // PR Index // PL Index // Affinity //    Date/Time: 00-05-27 16:25                     Recorded By: AOLSTAFF2    Problem: Updated Account Limits Account Limits Changed    Response: OLD INFO: // Max Cents = 0 // Max Minutes = 0 //    Date/Time: 00-05-27 16:24                     Recorded By: AOLSTAFF2    Problem: Screen Name & Password Changed Account Password(s)    Response:    [END OF REPORT]    Usage Details:    00-5-28 12:59    CyberStalker     0      10      0.00        0.00        0.00    00-5-28 08:09    CyberStalker     0       7      0.00        0.00        0.00    00-5-27 23:56    CyberStalker     0      37      0.00        0.00        0.00    00-5-27 22:49    CyberStalker     0       5      0.00        0.00        0.00    00-5-27 17:00    CyberStalker     0       7      0.00        0.00        0.00    00-5-27 14:38    CyberStalker     0       5      0.00        0.00        0.00    00-5-27 14:08    CyberStalker     0       2      0.00        0.00        0.00    00-5-27 11:24    CyberStalker     0       4      0.00        0.00        0.00    00-5-27 00:39    CyberStalker     0      31      0.00        0.00        0.00    00-5-26 20:37    CyberStalker     0      56      0.00        0.00        0.00  00-5-26 16:37      CyberStalker     0       3      0.00        0.00        0.00  <cut for brevity> 

At this stage the police had enough evidence to obtain a restraining order. Additionally, Jack's employers decided to fire him because he had been neglecting his duties at work and had used their network to send many of the offending messages.

After being fired, Jack seemed to have even more time to carry out his campaign of harassment. In a successful effort to continue to antagonize Jill without violating the terms of the restraining order, Jack persuaded a friend that he made on the Internet to communicate certain things to Jill through e-mail. He also sent several packages to Jill's family that he claimed contained material that would disgrace her and cause them to disown her. Her family handed the packages over to the police unopened. Jill continued to suffer from the stress of the situation and her family had a natural concern for her health.

Although the police were ready to charge Jack with cyberstalking, Jill decided that the efforts to discourage his behavior were not having the intended effect of stopping the harassment. Jack's behavior had not escalated but had not decreased in intensity either. Rather than risk making matters worse by increasing the negative pressures on him, Jill decided not to bring charges against him. Instead, Jill moved to be physically distant from Jack.

With no target in plain view and no job to occupy his time, Jack had little to do. Although he threatened to follow Jill, he did not carry out this threat. His e-mail and AOL Buddy list that were obtained during the investigation indicated that Jack was developing online relationships with two other women. If Jill had pressed criminal charges, investigators would have contacted these other women. However, since Jill had dropped the charges against Jack and there were no complaints regarding his treatment of these other women, no further action was taken.

One of the most interesting aspects of Jack's behavior was his steady determination. He did not seem overly concerned by the negative pressures that were brought to bear on him (restraining order, losing job, threat of prosecution). His behavior did not intensify noticeably, nor did it decrease in intensity. Also notice that Jack changed his modus operandi when necessary. Each time one method of targeting Jill was thwarted he figured a new way to target her.

^[3]This case example is based on abstracted lessons from various investigations. Any resemblance to actual incidents is coincidental.