federal/state internet harassment?

[sarah12]

What is the name of your state? WV

A few months ago someone I know made a myspace profile pretending to be me. They took a pic of me and made a profile that basically looked like my real profile except in the "about me" sections they put slanderous things. Like saying I was a slut and my occupation is a hooker. Of course it wasn't true. They deleted the page after about a week.
Plus they sent me messages on myspace from different profiles. All theirs. Harassing me. Calling me names. etc. But none of them were threatening me. Just severely flaming me. Is this considered harassment maybe identity theft?

They also posted a blog about me on their real page which is no longer there saying I was a slut etc.
They also sent my family who is on my friends list messages slanderizing me. Of course no one believed it. But my friends list is private so they had to use some code to view my private list. I know their are ways to do that. So is that stalking?

Have they broken any laws in doing this? I have no way to prove this but they also gave my old phone number out to some random men on a website and told them they were me and to call me. So one night I got a ton of calls from random men. Once they found out it wasn't me that gave them my number they just hung up. So I changed my number.
Now I haven't gotten any messages for about two months. And no phone calls for about six months. All of the webpages and blog are currently deleted.

Was this breaking any laws? I have copies of the page and messages sent to me. Can I do anything?

 

[Eekamouse]

You could stop doing whatever you're doing that makes people so mad that they feel the need to make fake webpages about you in retaliation...

There's not a lot you can do legally and since you don't even know who did it, you don'r even know who to point fingers at.

 

[sarah12]

You could stop doing whatever you're doing that makes people so mad that they feel the need to make fake webpages about you in retaliation...

There's not a lot you can do legally and since you don't even know who did it, you don'r even know who to point fingers at.

Who says I did anything to make anyone mad? Five years ago I dated someone for a pretty long period. Their ex girlfriend that they broke up with months prior to even meeting me apparently still hates me. And I'm married to a totally different man anyway. So there. Some people are just psycho. She has a restraining order against her from my ex who when they broke up she spray painted his car and set some clothes on fire on his lawn! lol. And since she doesn't know my phone number anymore or my address or where I work I'm assuming this is her only way to mess with me. I was asking if they comitted a crime. Do you have an answer to my question or not?

 

[seniorjudge]

Q: I was asking if they comitted a crime. Do you have an answer to my question or not?

A: I don't think there are any statutes covering this; it's a first amendment thing.

 

[sarah12]

Really so what are "internet stalking and harassing laws". What does a person have to do to qualify as someone comitting those crimes? And what about internet identity theft or pretending to be someone you aren't on the net. I've read a couple stories where people got in trouble for that. Like this one man I think from VA did that to his ex wife on a dating site, sent a bunch of men to her house saying she wanted to be raped, then he was faxing pornographic pictures to her work under her e mail. Apparently he hacked into her e mail. Anyway he got arrested and is in jail for 10 years or so. Of course this hasn't happened to me. And that case was way more serious. But she did have men calling my house after her pretending to be me. And she did make a fake profile pretending to be me like the man did to his ex. So anyone have any input on it?

 

[quincy]

There is probably very little that would be worth your while doing at this point, Sarah, since the harassment seems to have stopped. Either your harasser got bored and moved on to bigger and better things (or found another poor soul to target with her devious, devilish work), or she was informed that what she was doing was potentially illegal and she decided to stop before she was made to stop. Whatever the case, everything seems to have resolved itself on its own, and your best course of action now is to just move on yourself.

It is illegal, by the way, to identify someone online and make defamatory comments about them. Defamation is not just mean words said, though, and most mean words tend to fall under "opinion" (fair comment and criticism), which is protected free speech. If no one who read the posts made about you believed what was written, then the comments cannot really support a defamation action. You must be able to demonstrate a reputational injury, one that affects you at work or in your community - and I see no evidence from what you have posted that that is the case.

If a similar situation were to occur in the future (hopefully it won't), you can collect and present evidence of defamation on the website in a court and, with good evidence, which would include demonstrable reputational injury, a judge will issue an injunction, to have MySpace (or whatever site) identify the poster, and to have MySpace (or whatever site) delete the defamatory content.

You couldthen, potentially, sue for defamation - although defamation suits require a lot of time, a lot of money, and are only successful with solid proof of reputational injury. Suits such as this, therefore, are not easy to bring and not easy to win. The Virginia story you mentioned gives a good example of what may be needed to bring a successful suit.