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LiveCamNetwork_Blocks_Chat_Room_Stalker
| LiveCamNetwork Blocks Chat Room Stalker
(CyberSpace) August 10, 2005 - Baltimore police had to place a
resident under warning for harassement and obstructing the
operation of an online business after multiple complaints were
placed by Toronto webmaster Jen, of LiveCamNetwork.com.
"Even after a series of calls to the Police there and at the
guy's ISP I couldn't get a reaction, actually," said Jen. "I had
to bring a lawyer in and contact the Baltimore Computer Crimes
Department."
The activity actually got 2much.net president Mark Prince's
attention when he noticed that chat hostesses on the 2Much MBase
Network were logging off early, while regular customers and chat
room guests complained by e-mail.
"They weren't complaining about the log off," said Prince, whose
company built LiveCamNetwork. "They urged her to log off. He was
getting too sick to ignore."
The situation began when a user who nicknamed himself RichRaven
asked one particular chat hostess at the popular live video chat
site for a personal meeting. "She turned him down, of course,"
Prince said. "And she was right to do so."
"RichRaven" then went on a harassment campaign which lasted for
weeks and annoyed or offended chat hostesses and their chat room
guests, but was essentially harmless.
"The poor loser really wanted attention, and he couldn't get
that final bit which was seeing the girl live, in the flesh,"
Prince said.
Jen eventually found that ignoring him, no matter how virulent
the offending tirades, did the trick - but only temporarily. "He
ended up coming back twice as bad."
Prince soon found this RichRaven had once been a client, so he
wrote a polite request to cease the harassment or his
information would be turned over to the proper authorities. "I
didn't think anything could be done, really," said Prince.
"Especially after the regular Baltimore police told Jen there
was nothing they could do because site and business were in
another city."
Unfortunately things got worse after Prince wrote to the
chatroom harrasser. "He wrote me back all offended, asking how
we'd gotten his personal information, saying he'd sent my email
to his congreesman, his lawyer, the police."
Which is when RichRaven's attacks intensified. "Telling others
in the chatroom that I am a pimp or that they're fools is one
thing," Prince said. "Then he starts talking about wanting to
see my mother fucked by dead men, and he himself wanting to use
a knife as a strap-on with this one chat hostess."
The strap-on tie-in to the movie "Seven" unnerved Prince;
RichRaven, who lives near a Baltimore primary school, also
complained to a chat hostess that she wasn't "young enough".
"That's when I had enough, and called the lawyer in and asked
about how to put a stop to this guy," said Prince. "That's when
the Computer Crime people called me back from Baltimore. They
knew exactly how to handle it."
"I should have contacted them [Computer Crime] from the first.
They established an initial contact, letting him know they're
aware of him," said Jen. "After that official legal steps could
take him into the judicial arena. I hope he wants to avoid that."
"This was the first time it happened to us, and luckily it was a
nut from another city," said Prince, who worries about the new
2257 regulations and the US Department of Justice's stand on
just who is responsible if things turned worse for the chat
hostess.
"I could register a domain name for ten bucks, start buying
content and get anyone's info that I cared to," said Prince.
"And so could RichRaven. Now in Canada we have laws against
distributing personal ID, but by signing a waiver, or by working
out of the US, performers are seriously at risk from lunatics
like this."
2much sites have since seen their security beefed up with
increased user-screening and e-mail validation security among
other means.
While LiveCamNetwork has not heard from RichRaven since the
police knocked at his door, Prince is still not confident these
measures will deter him. The cyber-stalker has been able to hide
behind a dozen IP addresses and used different computers, which
allowed him to return to the site repeatedly under various
pseudonyms.
"He's out there, he could do this at anyone else's site," he
said. "Those are the people that need filters on their
computers, permanently."
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About the author:
Jones is the 2much.net MediaGuy, consulting and advising on many
aspects of online site management, as well as writing all the
press releases for 2much and its base of clients
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