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Cyberstalking
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[1] Cyberstalkers may initially use the Internet to identify and track victims. 1 They may then send unsolicited e-mail, including hateful, obscene, or threatening messages2. They may abuse the victim directly in live chat situations or flood the chat channel with messages to sabotage the victim’s conversation. 3 In newsgroup situations, the cyberstalker can post statements about the victim or start rumors which spread throughout the bulletin board system. 4 Cyberstalkers can also set up a web page containing personal and/or fictitious information about the victim, and soliciting unwanted contacts.5

[2] Cyberstalkers may assume the victim’s identity online (e.g., in chat rooms) as a means of humiliating the victim. 1 More complex forms of harassment include mailbombs (mass messages that virtually shutdown the victim’s e-mail system by clogging it), sending the victim computer viruses, or sending electronic junk mail (“spamming”).3 Unlike the occasional annoyance of unsolicited e-mail experienced by most Internet users at some point, cyberstalking involves repeated attempts deliberately intended to distress the victim. 4

[3] Telecommunication makes it much easier for cyberstalkers to involve third parties in threatening the victim. 1 In the first successful prosecution under California’s new cyberstalking law, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office obtained a guilty plea in April 1999 from a 50-year old former security guard who used the Internet to solicit the rape of a woman who had rejected his romantic advances. 2 The defendant terrorized his 28-year old victim by impersonating her in Internet chat rooms and online bulletin boards, where he posted messages that she fantasized about being raped, along with her phone number and address. 3 On at least six occasions, sometimes in the middle of the night, men knocked on the victim’s door saying they wanted to rape her. 4 The defendant, who plead guilty to one count of stalking and three counts of solicitation of sexual assault, faces up to seven years in prison. 5 The victim was eventually forced from her apartment, lost her job, suffered significant weight loss, and feared venturing outside her residence (The Los Angeles Times, 1/23/99). 6

[from "Cyberstalking: The Dark Side of the Information Superhighway," Trudy M. Gregorie, Networks (National Center for Victims of Crime), Spring 2000 ]

1

The prefix “Cyber-“ is commonly used to refer to things related to the Internet.
A)True
B)False
2

“Cyberstalkers” are people who unlawfully pursue and intimidate others via the Internet.
A)True
B)False
3

Unsoliticited email is a form of cyberstalking.
A)True
B)False
4

Cyberstalking allows stalkers to involve third parties more easily.
A)True
B)False
5

    They may then send unsolicited e-mail, including hateful, obscene, or threatening messages.
    That publisher doesn't accept unsolicited manuscripts; if they want to see something from you, they'll ask!

"Unsolicited" means
A)unasked for
B)unwanted
C)unpleasant
D)uninformative
6

    Cyberstalkers may assume the victim’s identity online (e.g., in chat rooms) as a means of humiliating the victim.
    He wrote the controversial novel under an assumed name.

In these sentences, "assume" means
A)infer
B)imply
C)adopt
D)steal
7

Which of the following would not be called “cyberstalking”:
A)setting up a false webpage allegedly done by the victim.
B)sending “mailbombs” to a victim.
C)sending a computer virus to the victim.
D)leaving a series of threatening phone messages for the victim.
8

"Solicitation” as used in the final paragraph of the passage means
A)making threats
B)unlawfully committing a crime
C)encouraging or enabling others to commit a crime
D)premeditation





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