A blog dedicated to education and awareness of Internet trolls and cyberstalkers.You have options. DO NOT FEEL you have to deal with anyone harassing you or stalking you.
Being harassed, trolled or even stalked online can become frustrating. If you don’t know your options, it can feel suffocating and hopeless. I have gone through many phases in dealing with both trolls and cyber-stalkers. Now, I fight back. My first objective is to expose. A troll or a cyber-stalker that goes out of their way to create personas to mislead people online hate nothing more than you shedding light on them. They will offer just about every excuse in the world, even suggest you are the one bothering them. For us here at Troll Police — we get accused of the latter the most. I mean how annoying must it be for a troll to be exposed at their own game? Sound exhausting to do, does it not? But worth it.
In my years of moderating several popular forum boards, I have seen some serious damage done by trolls and cyber-stalkers. From people being emotionally harmed because they were led to believe in a persona that didn’t exist in which they built confidence and trust in, to people being physically threatened and followed online. This sort of behavior knows no boundaries.
We have made it our point to make sure we can do whatever is within our power to expose and educate people online. As we stated in our introductory page, we are not interested in demystifying the psychological profile of a troll or cyber-stalker, in our opinion it’s obvious they have mental issues and a weak grip on reality. What more is there to share?
If you find yourself in a situation where you feel you are being harassed, stalked or bullied, consider doing the following:
1. Discuss the problem with the site owner and see if you can gain their support. If they are a good webmaster they’ll give a crap and help.
2. If they harassment is severe and you are being followed online, PM’d, emailed or even threatened, do not hesitate to contact your local police and see your options. A restraining order might be something to consider.
3. If you can find out their ISP, contact them and report abuse.
Read the tactic page to discover some of the reactions you can expect from a troll or cyber-stalker before and after they have been exposed: Tactics of a Troll/Cyber-stalker.
Follow these links for additional resource:
http://www.ccmostwanted.com/topics/cstalk.htm
http://www.sfwa.org/gateway/stalking.htm
http://www.cyberguards.com/CyberStalking.html
http://www.metrac.org/programs/info/cyber.htm
