Working to Halt Online Abuse: Help for those with personal cyberstalking terrorists.
WHOA is a volunteer organization founded in 1997 to fight online harassment through education of the general public, education of law enforcement personnel, and empowerment of victims. We've also formulated voluntary policies which we encourage online communities to adopt in order to create safe and welcoming environments for all internet users.
Our volunteers work with people currently experiencing online harassment, and help others to learn how to avoid such harassment or minimize its impact if it does occur. Our president, Jayne Hitchcock, regularly speaks at various conferences and seminars, training law enforcement personnel and other interested parties. She also lobbies for better federal and state laws to deter cyberstalkers and give victims more options to stop harassment. Jayne and some of our other volunteers are also available for press interviews.
Working to Halt Online Abuse (WHOA) has been around since 1997, helping people to fight against online harassment. Jayne A. Hitchcock, President of WHOA, recommended that anyone being harassed online should visit and fill out the "Need Help" page at WHOA. Hitchcock is a former cyberstalking victim.
An adult woman contacted me, stating she runs a fairly large website and that a group of people were cyberstalking her.
The biggest thing is to respond only once to the harasser, politely asking them to stop. A simple "Please stop communicating with me" should do it. They don't have to explain and they are not being rude. Then do NOT respond after that, no matter what.
Keep everything they get that is harassing or links to sites with the harassment and report it to the right people, whether it's an ISP, the web site host, a moderator, etc.
In this woman's case, I would recommend she get a PO Box or something like Mailboxes, etc to use for her mailing address for domain registration, putting up on profiles, etc. Also get a free voicemail/fax number from j2.com it's free because it's in your area code; if she wants one in her area code, it's a small monthly fee and use that everywhere online as well.
She should get an unlisted phone number and only give it to people she knows and trusts. If she doesn't have one, get an answering machine w/caller ID and do not pick up any numbers she does not recognize. If they really want to contact her, they will leave a message. If it's a harasser, then she now has proof to go to the local police with and file reports.
Links: http://www.haltabuse.org/
http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/free-speech-privacy-cyberstalkers-help-those-