Internet Harassment?

Question

My wife and I are being harassed and intimidated by an anonymous individual on the Internet. We got married last year and everyone had a great time. Although there are not that many people I know that I would call an enemy, this individual has took it upon themselves to make very derogatory comments towards both of us on the websites for our wedding and wedding pictures. Both these websites allow visitors to add comments to guestbooks and pictures etc.

Originally we ignored the comments but they are becoming a frequent event and I would like to find out who this person is and what we have done to offend them. My wife has been in pieces over all this.

One website I have asked has told me that they do not record IP addresses but the other has told me that this information is available but only to the police for privacy reasons.

My question is, has anyone dealt with anything like this before and if so, where do you start? Local police or a special department etc?

Forgot to say it is someone that knows us and we are pretty sure who it is but we cannot accuse them as we have no proof! It is a bad situation to be in as we see them regularly and we feel as if they are happy to see us one minute and then laughing behind our back the next. On the flip side if this wasn't them, this could ruin many peoples lives and relationships by not knowing who it is!

The websites are open to public use and comments but the individual involved is not just a random person trying to be "funny". This is someone we know and is causing a rift through our whole family at the moment. If we didn't know them I couldn't care less what they put but this person is meant to be a close relative.

I could just shut the remaining website down but is that the best thing to do?

Answer 1

I think the police is a good option. I advise you call the non emergacy number and log everytime you get a comment. I had text messages and logged everytime and they found out who it was in the end and cautioned them. Go for it. harassment is wrong in any form

Answer 2

If you are in the UK.

Firstly have you responded to the remarks and asked the sender to stop sending them. As it is website inviting comments it's important that you've asked them not to post anything.
If you have, this could be classed as an offence under
the Malicious Communication Act 1988
if it fits the following criteria:

an electronic communication, namely **(..SPECIFY..)]_,

which was, in whole or part, of an indecent or grossly offensive nature for the purpose of causing distress or anxiety to the recipient or to any other person to whom you intended that it or its contents or nature should be communicated
This is section 1(1)(b) and (4) of the Malicious Communications Act 1988.

The problem the police have is that you don't have any details of the person responsible and to track them down it would be very time consuming and take a lot of "man hours" chasing an IP address.

You can report the offence though and then it is on record.
Go to your local police station and tell them you wish a crime report to be made. If they are reluctant to put the report on, quote the act and section of the offence and inform them that National Crime reporting standards apply.

It's worth looking at other people on the wedding websites and seeing if they are experiencing similar things. It could just be a bitter individual and not aimed directly at you.

Also as someone else has sugested, it may be worth transferring your pictures and guestbook to another site which is password protected.

Answer 3

If I received this complaint from someone I would tell you to disable the part of the website that allows people to leave comments. If you can't do that, get a new website for your photos that uses passwords and give it only to people whom you want to see it. This really isn't a criminal code harassment (at least in Canada). You invited people to make comments and they did (even if they were nasty). It would be harassment if the person contacted you by email or by telephone. Anonymous comments on a website that is viewable worldwide is not harassment in the criminal sense. In order for police to get the IP addresses they would need a warrant and for that a criminal offence must have occurred. If you could find out who it was you could go after them in civil court for making defamatory comments. Most police services have an information officer that can give you advice about whether or not the police in your country can do something about this, try giving them a call.

Answer 4

the most important thing here is to not let this come between you and your wife. it seems to me that this is the work of jealousy and if it causes damage to your marriage then that person/s have won-so stay strong. internet harrassment is a prisonable offence (in the UK) so what i would do is call the persons bluff (if you suspect a certain party) don't let them know you suspect them-in fact make it appear that you are taking them into your confidence then you can do one of two things-you can tell the person (casually) that all information has been passed to an attourney (solicitor in the UK) who will obtain a court order enforcing the relevant websites to disclose their ip address. OR you can disclose something confidential (something made up) explaining that that person is only one of a handfull that knows what you are about to say-they think they are not the only ones who know this snippet of information-so watch for it appearing on a website then you know who it is-in other words-don't get mad get even. good luck

Answer 5

Do you have a set of rules for people to read before allowing them to post, if not, then how are they to know they are offending you? I fear, that if its your website and you have allowed an open guest book to be signed with comments by visitors then you have openly invited comments, either complimentary or defamatory. If its not your site and someone has loaded them without your permission, then they are in breach of your copyright and should be informed of your intention to sue for damages unless they are removed. If you choose not to have them removed or have the guest book removed, then you are opening yourself up to abuse and comments from any nutter who decides you are 'fair game' for 'winding up'! Don't forget, the website in question is open to the whole world and not just the country of origin or hosting. If the police are involved, they may not have jurisdiction over the area from the offensive comments.

Answer 6

I'm guessing you've used Ringo or Hifive, or something similar to either of those. As a result of making your wedding photos public, you've opened yourself up to troll attacks. You could either remove those photos, thus removing the target of the troll, or if you want satisfaction, you could go the legal route. The latter would include using an attorney to subpeona the websites where the attacks occurred, requiring them to relinquish any IP data they may have regarding who the offender is.

Once you have this data and the culprit has been found, you can drag them into civil court. Though there's no guarantee that you'd win, indeed, you may end up having to pay their legal fees for defending themselves.

Answer 7

Oh for Christ sake.....shut down the website. You know...sometimes people just kill me. Look. Is it all that imporatnt to plaster you and your bride's pictures and wedding junk all over the internet? Is it?
The simple solution is to shut down the site. Now...I'm willing to bet that the IP address is recorded. Yes...the police can get the information however they despise people like you who make complaints over trivial matters like this...and I'm sorry sport...it is trivial.
So....either change the web address of the thing yourself and block this person or....what do you expect if you leave a "guestbook" open for public comment. Its not strictly your domain you know.

Answer 8

I would start with the Website. Contact them and tell them that the pictures are of a private affair, and the photographer does not have your permission to post those pictures on the net. Ask them to remove them. Many ISPs and Web Sites will comply. You may want to get a lawyer involved in the letter writing.

Answer 9

not online, but if you open a case with law enforcement and they feel the comments are a valid problem it is possible for them to contact the website and uphold the persons responsible. But, unfortunatly like a yahoo, msn ect.. website the person can be using a public computer and not have his/her correct personal information. The possibilty of actually catching this person are not good, for now you will unfortunalty need to remove your pictures and choose websites that allow you to only let certain persons access your pictures. Good luck and be careful.

Answer 10

Don't know mate. But my advice is to ignore the individual responsible. If you find out who it is, he will probably say he was "just doing it for a laugh" and the sad thing is, he probably is. Some people don't think far enough into anything to see the effect of what they do.