www.escapinghades.com/cyberstalking.html -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 1/16/2001
Last Visited: 2/6/2003
But when phone calls from men asking for the young girl persisted, followed by a hang-up when asked who was calling or why, Deborah and her husband, Mike, were alarmed.
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A few weeks after the calls began, a neighbor complained to Mike about his daughter, who had written "hello" with sidewalk chalk on the neighbor's driveway.Having had other run-ins with this neighbor, Mike thought this man could be behind the menacing phone calls.And, suspecting that the Web might be involved, Mike looked online for clues.
What he found were nasty messages claiming that his daughter was soliciting sex.Attached was the Boehle's home phone number.The subject line in one of the postings - Hello on the driveway - led Mike to the neighbor, who apparently was sending out the messages in the girl's name.
The Boehles turned to local police, who advised that the family simply get a new phone number and keep their daughter inside.But Mike and Deborah, who wish to conceal their daughter's identity, moved to a new community and enlisted the help of a neighboring police department's Computer Crime Unit.
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"This is especially important if you think you may be in physical danger," warns Detective Mike Sullivan of the Naperville County Police Department."Although not all law enforcement agencies are fully equipped to handle these cases," he adds, "they can direct you to resources that are." Contact the offender's Internet service provider.Almost all ISPs have terms of service that don't allow the transmission of content that is harassing.