A Friend is Being Stalked

Even more of a reason. Contact the authorities, IMMEDIATELY. No one here can help in any better way.

Oh Geez...that's a different story. Entirely Different. Call the Police.

If your friend is in the states, she needs to buy a gun and get training with it. Otherwise all the cops will do is draw a chalk line around her. When seconds count, the cops are minutes away.

Court restraining order.

Theoretically harassing someone online can be a very serious crime, but you'll probably need some kind of RL case history for it to be taken seriously.

1. What Des said. This applies to SL. Ignore, ignore, ignore.

2. What Brenda said. If your friend has ANY evidence of RL stalking, contact the police IMMEDIATELY.

3. What Chris said. In an emergency, the police aren't fast enough. Be prepared to defend yourself.

Took to the 2nd page before someone said AR.

Using multiple avs to stalk is a violation of terms and LL can certainly compare the IP addresses of the logins.

Freezing is a nice weapon and lets everyone else come to visit you since you arent locking them out (and locking yourself in).

Great, send an already unbalanced person over the edge. Mute/Ban/Eject...

I wish LL had a better system for tracking multiple griefer alts.

Oh wait!.. I didn't mean go stalk them!

I meant just switch into a new avatar and forget them.

How long does freezing last? Til they log out, or you unfreeze them?

I read that completely wrong. Since I had a stalker harassing me once, I get over emotional about the issue.

Nah, I think I wrote it wrong.

The motivation of someone stalking you is usually to control you.

The stalker loves reactions of fear and anger- it shows he is important in your life. If you alter your life because of what the stalker is doing, it confirms to the stalker that he has power over you. Every thing you do to oppose the stalker is evidence to the stalker that you are thinking about him. Everything you do to fight the stalker makes him happy and encourages more stalking.

That is why ignoring the stalker is often the best way of dealing with the stalker. If the stalker cannot find any evidence that he is controlling you or influencing your life, he gets frustrated. He will seek to move on to another target.

Unless it has changed it doesn't last very long at all. But then it has been over a year since I froze anyone. Eject and ban work just as well.

I like the idea of using an alt for a while - and go to completely different places.

Sometimes a cool down period is enough.

Tell the friend being stalked to also keep a diary, even if it's very brief accounts of what happens each time in a simple text format on her computer. Log the dates/times/locations/SLurls there, too.

If it goes RL that could be an important record.

Some cops will take this seriously and some will not. Hopefully her local dept. will.

I am glad to see no one posted the "so what why is it a big deal" reply such topics often get. Especially if it's internet-only harassment, people tend to be quite dismissive.

Make sure she auto logs all the chats so she has written prof of what this person has said also pics of anything done to her or to anything that is hers. I dont know the laws in her country but since the person knows her in RL then the law maybe able to also act on her being harassed OL. From experience it does in Australia Someone knew me in RL and started harassing me in a chat program they had a nice visit from the police after they sent me a pic of their RL guns.

If they threatening you with physical violence or intimidation then call the police like what WindsweptGold says .

If they just giving you the verbals or getting in your face, then do what Desmond says. Ignore and dont engage. Stone-cold indifference works. Is hard to do sometimes but is a battle of emotions. Yours and theirs. And when you win this battle, not just with them but with yourself also, then like Desmond says is very liberating.

Well they are not only verbally harassing, but griefing in the form of putting spinning cubes on the person's head, etc. I can see their point about it being hard to ignore that.

In RL, it might be easier in some ways to block the person (although a very dedicated, psychopath can ruin someone's life for decades - but I think that level of obsession is thankfully rare. It also takes the stalker either living on the road/homeless or having endless funds usually). In SL, they can become a new av every few minutes if they wish, and continue.

It's why I like the idea of making a new or alternate avatar, and using that for a while. Change your pattern, places you go, etc. It isn't fair or right but hopefully it will cool things down.

I would first report each incident to the owner of every shop or sim it happened in as well.

If i understand, it's also best to keep any logs if the person harrasses the other person,and go to edit,preferences,communication,only my friends or groups can see me online.

Because in the past someone harrassed me and i got scared and stuff and reported the person and hid my online status.

One time in a sand pit someone was trolling by putting fire all over me and putting a girl in a cage. I muted him and he couldn't get the scripts on me after that. The girl fought back and her friend reported it to the sand pit owner.

If all else fails, tell them to come and stalk me. I can put them to work - plenty of testing to do.

hehehehe caws i do!

when the gteam actually had meetings u could learn a LOT from them Lindens! hehehehe. year one my first response was to buy better weapons and talk bigger sh@t! (generally worked). but it left me open to the very best weapon in the game! (LINDEN LAB).

1. My first response now is to talk big sh@t then mute! caws it annoys them to no end not gettin the last word. if they make alts and continue to yap AR them( harrassment and alt abuse).

2. ABUSE REPORTING is the best weapon in the game. i feed all my enemies to the Lindens. it hit me that i was an insitgator in most crap in sl. it was something i started but not world war 8. i was usually responding to somebody i instulted as an aside, or whose gal pal liked me too much or some turd hattin on my swagga (clothes, ao , big boy toys, gals etc). so usually my enemies were already pumped and irrational and jumped outside the tos with only the slightest nudge.

3. land powers, ban eject is without a doubt to hasty a response. once Zara Linden made it clear that if the rules of the sim were clearly spelled out you could use huds weapons etc at ur discretion, FREZZING being the best set up... it was GAME ON! You're King in YOUR castle!

4. as for real life stalkers etc...the principle is the same
feed em to the cops and for once chrissy norse is right, tool up and dump on them busters!