Have you ever had an Online Stalker?

1. 82

   Gordon Hamiltonposted 14 years ago

   By this, I don't mean someone who pesters you on Facebook, or other social networking sites. I mean - quite literally - someone who seeks you out around the Web and messages you/tries to friend you/tries to contact you in any way they can, through any medium available to them?
   
   My "Online stalker" first appeared sometime in the late Summer of last year, maybe August or September. This person calls themselves Maria and claims to live in Spain - that is the only two bits of information I have been given and clearly have no way of knowing if either is genuine. "She" - if it is indeed a she - has contacted me in so many ways I have to at least give ten out of ten for doggedness and ingenuity. I once got the best part of twenty messages in a single day, through half a dozen or so different sites!
   
   I am lucky in that this person seems to bear me no malice but the constant requests of asking me when I will next be in Spain, will I meet up, etc, are annoying.
   
   Until about an hour ago, I hadn't heard from "Maria" in at least a month. I have tonight received a message via a site that I forgot existed and which I briefly wrote for in the early part of 2008. Yes - you've guessed it: from Maria.
   
   Has anyone else had an experience like this - maybe a threatening one! - and if so, how did you deal with it?

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   1. 69

      marwan asmarposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      This is surely very disturbing and very wired. No thank God no stalkers here!

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   2. 78

      IzzyMposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I've never experienced this, but it sounds awful! If you feel threatened, however, there is a way to track this person down. All those sites she left messages on will have her IP address, and from that it is not too hard to track down the computer she is using - if it's an internet cafe that's kinda hard, but most times it's a home address.
      That's how the police track down internet pedophiles. No matter where you go online you leave a traceable footprint.
      
      I have to say from what you say it is not a police matter, after all she is only wanting you to go to Spain and she might even be tracking the wrong person. But if any threats are ever made, the police have a cyber department to deal with this sort of thing.
      
      A lot of websites aren't happy giving out IP addresses without a court order.

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2. 71

   ddsurfscaposted 14 years ago

   Yes I have, it was a friend of my oldest son, and I don't know why he took to following me around the internet.  He had some sort of way he could tell if I was online, and no matter where I went or what I was doing he would be there wanting me to talk with him.  I believe he was just lonely, but it was indeed a bother because no matter what I was doing  he was popping up in the middle of it.  I could not write in peace, for that matter I could not even play checkers in peace but eventually he got tired of my boring conversations, (on purpose they were boring), but it took the better part of a year.

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3. 67

   Joy56posted 14 years ago

   friendly stalkers, dont seem to hang around for too long, i have had a couple of those alright

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4. 61

   Jonathan Jancoposted 14 years ago

   Online? No. But have had plenty in real life.

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5. 60

   dingdondingdonposted 14 years ago

   That sounds scary. IzzyM has good advice however, if "Maria" is making you feel threatened.
   
   The closest I've come to an online stalker is an online friend who began to frighten me. We talked every other day and at first he seemed like a regular guy but he started to freak me out. We'd normally talk about tv shows we both liked, or music we were both fans of, but he started to talk about creepy stuff like wanting to purposefully cause car crashes. Then he said he'd been to jail before for trying to stab someone. I blocked him from my messenger, got a new email address and cut off contact with him. He was scaring me.

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