How cyber stalkers Obtain Your Personal Information Laws Lag Behind Technology Making Prosecution Difficult

Today anyone can conduct an internet search typing in such key words as:

• license plate records
• people locate
• employment locate
• bank account locate
• employment locate
• phone record trace
• social security number trace
• property records information

Searching with these words will bring up hundreds of internet-based data furnishing companies that supply consumer records online. Some even provide these types of records for free. Experiment a little and you'll quickly discover that you don't need to hire a private investigator to obtain personal information; with a little ingenuity and the help of the internet, you can find it yourself.

Internet-based information brokerages and data furnishing companies are surfacing all over the country. The information age has created a new revenue source for those who provide consumer records. Data furnishing is a billion dollar industry that includes the three national credit bureaus, companies like Lexis Nexis, Accurint, Choicepoint and the thousands of others that pop up daily. All provide consumer private records with the click of a mouse.

Currently, a convicted felon in California is operating one of the nation's largest information brokering businesses. Yet the hands of local law enforcement are tied because information brokers are neither licensed nor regulated nearly as well as they should be. Simply stated, anyone at any time can hire one of these data furnishing agents or an information broker and obtain data that the majority of us believe is private.

In California, legislation has been introduced that will mandate licensing of all information brokers that sell a Californian's private records and information to a third party. Such licensing is not presently in place, enabling many of these so-called information brokers' practices to remain unnoticed by law enforcement and our nation's law makers.

Over the years members of the justice department, local and state law enforcement including the FBI and political figures have all express concern over this subject and are exasperated over the lack of laws governing cyber stalking. But they all have had the same response: They aren't aware of anything that protects people's records. Most of the time they shake their heads and say it's crazy how easy it is to get access to personal information on the internet.

A Dangerous Trick - Caller ID Spoofing

Many people erroneously believe they are safe from cyberstalking because they are rarely online. But technology has extended beyond the reach of the computer and where technology goes, cyber stalkers can follow.

Caller ID spoofing is simple to do.

Google the topic and you'll instantly locate sites where you can purchase the technology yourself. By buying pre-paid time, you can then call someone else, changing the number and the name you're calling from on their call display. The person picks up the phone thinking they're talking to National Bank, and instead it's a stalker after personal information. Using these tricks, cyber stalkers can locate victims by fooling friends and relatives into revealing the victim's whereabouts. Or they can obtain critical personal information to access a victim's private records.

In one case, a woman received two texts from what purported to be her bank, asking for personal information. She responded without thinking about it, only to find out later that someone broke into her bank account and paid all of her bills several times. Nothing that could be proven as "stolen". As far as the bank was concerned she was the one who chose to pay bills several times. But it left her completely broke until her next payday -- over two weeks away. Even worse, now an identified person had her social security number and other key pieces of information that allowed him to do it again. And there was nothing she could do to have him arrested.

Legislation banning caller ID spoofing has been created and passed in the House and referred to the Senate, but as of this writing it has gone no further. Until laws are on the books banning the sale of caller ID spoofing technology, it is simple to purchase this technology anonymously online.

The Murphy Case: One Example of Cyberstalking in the Courts 

 

Seattle is one of the few places that has created a cyberstalking law, thanks to the diligence of US Attorney Kathleen Warma and the FBI. Joelle Ligon -- one of the savviest survivors -- persisted in her fight though her cyberstalker sent harassing emails, put up fake ads in her name saying she wanted sex, questioned her legitimacy at her workplace, and endless other torments. He turned out to be an ex that she had broken up with 14 years earlier.

Warma, after being turned down twice for a warrant, researched a little-used 1997 amendment to the Federal Telecommunications Act that outlaws online harassment. She built a case of 26 felony counts against Robert James Murphy.

They caught a break when Ligon emailed Murphy to ask if it was him threatening her, and he responded, "No it wasn't." Stupidly Murphy sent that message from the exact same computer he'd used when posting and emailing threats. Once they had his computer, they had him cold.

It took the FBI office literally thousands of man hours to investigate. Warma has said that to be successful there had to be a very determined investigative team, prosecutor and victim to secure a conviction simply because the nation's laws are antiquated and there is not a set protocol to date for prosecuting cyberstalking cases involving the use of technology.

While many cyber stalkers never see a day in court, Ligon successfully lobbied for a cyberstalking law in Seattle and saw her tormentor fined, assigned to community service and given five years probation. It's a bittersweet ending that her tormentor didn't see jail time, even with the help of a US Attorney and the FBI. But Ligon at least had the satisfaction of obtaining closure in her cyberstalking case and an acknowledgment of wrongdoing.

Most cases don't get this far.