Victim of online bullying - Anything I can do?

Jonty71

Hello everyone

It has been a long time since I last posted, due to one thing or another such as ill health.

I am not sure if I should be posting this here but I do not know where else to post or try. It is concerning online bullying. I feel embarrassed posting this here, a 42 year old man but I hope someone can help.

Please bear with me on this long post.

I am a UK citizen, a researcher and collector in the ocean liner community. Over the years I have contributed to many authors books, articles, papers, even radio and television. Lately I have become the target of online bullying by a small group of persons on Facebook who have also taken to posting elsewhere online. Since the end of winter this year, I have been stalked online, harassed, serious allegations have been made against me, threats made towards me and with my already deteriorating health, the whole situation has become a living nightmare for me making each day a day of being under attack from these people and the groups they are part of. Each day is the same, I seem to be trying to clear my name. It is getting too much and I do not know where to turn. Some have said I should just walk away and leave these vile individuals to get on with it, but it is doing me damage, not only to my name but psychically. I do not want to walk away from the community, but I need to clear my name and stop this once and for all.

I have taken screen captures of the comments and allegations made. I have even passed them onto my local police back in April. Although they showed concern, I was told to ignore them and carry on regardless. However, the damage is done and is continuing to be done. A lot of the individuals doing this are in the U.S and of course as much as it is to walk away, I cannot.

Any help or advice on what I can do, who to speak with would be so very greatly appreciated. I am at the end of my tether, very upset over the years of building up a reputation that is being smashed to pieces by twisted individuals within the community and it is effecting my health considerably.

Thank you all

Chickabiddybex

It's very difficult to offer advice without knowing the full details. You could set your Facebook to private. Where else do they post things about you?

Poppie68

Internet/cyber bullying is a Federal crime in the US, the FBI can and will deal with it.... Maybe it's possible for you to contact them via email if your local police wont deal with it. Or you could try True Vision, on report-it.org.uk...that is a site set up by the Association of chief police officers...

Jonty71

Hello and thank you for your reply.

As I am within the liner community, that is where they are concentrating their attacks on me.

It all stare off very bizarrely and without warning. I run a ocean liner group on Facebook. I let one gentleman in at the end of March 2013. His very first posting was shipping related, asking a question which I answered. His second posting was on a photograph of mine where he went on the attack. As I collect original period Titanic photographs, postcards and merchandise, he went on the offensive with me over a photograph of a item in my collection that I watermarked (to prevent image theft). Straight away he was calling me a fraud, plagiarist, thief and throwing in many insults along the way. I tried to defuse the situation but as he continued his attacks, I removed him from the group. Within minutes he sent me a private message stating he would expose my name, throwing insults and fowl language in. That same night he went over to a ocean liner group posting up a similar message asking people how does he report me and stating he would go around the net and expose my name. Up to that point, I had never had any communication with this person.

Day after day he would post up images from other groups or websites including Google Images, Yahoo for example and claiming the image shown had been stolen by myself. When he started to get removed from other Facebook groups, he went on the offensive with people there, those who had created that particular group. He over stepped the line when he complained about a original photograph I own that I watermarked (not ©) where he claims I am claiming copyrights, hence feeding his continued postings of copyright thief and plagiarism. As I have authored some works, and using my own collection and words, his comments have done a lot of damage. During this time he resorted to posting he knew people who would cause physical harm and another post that I had abused someone.

His attacks on me is daily and this weekend he started a page on Facebook which is aimed at me and people who, friends, have steppe in to correct this gentleman and his vile accusations.

As I posted above, I have screen captured his comments for use as evidence, reported posts and pages to Facebook to have Facebook respond (to only a couple, not all) that they felt it did not breach their T&Cs.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

the police dont have enough resources to internationally track and prosecute these indeviduals although the have commited a crime under Uk durestiction these cant be enforced oversee's, uk indeviduals however can be tracked back especially over facebook.

with facebook, report the indevidual who spread damaging posts about you, report, and block them, facebook do acknowladge reports and do ban indeviduals accounts but it takes time and consistant reports.

with online forums contact the admin, and list the account usernames, and use the report post functions, again it will take time but the site admins can also ban accounts and also in certain conditions block the IP address from the machine from making new accounts on the site.

it would be upto you to sue for slander etc, i doubt a solicitor would take on oversee's indeviduals, but uk indeviduals shouldnt be a problem.

Jonty71

Poppie68 wrote: »

Internet/cyber bullying is a Federal crime in the US, the FBI can and will deal with it.... Maybe it's possible for you to contact them via email if your local police wont deal with it. Or you could try True Vision, on report-it.org.uk...that is a site set up by the Association of chief police officers...

Hello Poppie68

Thank you for your reply and the added information. I will look into contacting the FBI and see where that leads me and in turn, I will look at True Vision. Thank you very very much.

MrsPBikerChick

OP, it doesn't matter who you are, how old, etc - bullying is bullying and its wrong, end of, so please don't feel your issue is any less serious because you're an adult or because its via the web. IMHO Trolling is the lowest of the low because its so easy for pathetic individuals to sit behind a keyboard and upload a torrent of abuse without even having to register the impact their words are having and knowing the likelihood of them being called on their actions is very small.

Firstly, it is clear this is having a serious effect on you. Please, please talk to someone - a friend, partner, relative, colleague or even your GP - so at least the problem is out in the open. Keeping things pent up and getting more and more upset or even depressed will not do you any favours and will make e problem seem a million times worse.

Do you know why these idiots have decided to target you? I'm not for a second saying you deserve it or anything - no-one deserves to suffer harassment - but it might give you a clue as to anything that might put a stop to it if you know the reasons behind it in the first place. Unfortunately, though, you might just be unlucky enough to be the butt of what some little, ahem, toerag thinks is a joke.

If the trolling (I.e. cyber bullying) is causing you issues at work then ask to speak to your boss privately and explain what is happening. You might want to show him/her the screen shots to demonstrate what you're saying. That way you know they will know to take anything untoward originating from these people with a healthy dose of salt. Likewise family and friends.

You mentioned a lot of the abuse is originating around Facebook. As suggested, tighten up your privacy settings to limit the chance of these people even being able to contact you. Facebook also has anti-bullying policies in place after a couple of rather infamous teenager cases so please report these people to Facebook. Keeping the screenshots will help to back up your case. You might also want true friends and family on your FB to report any troll posts they see as abusive.

If the trolls were in the UK then the police would be obliged to act under the Protection from Harassment Act but if they're in the US its more difficult. It may be worth asking the police whether its possible to contact the US police where these idiots are to step in, or perhaps contact them yourself. I don't know if this would be possible but its worth asking.

As Chickabiddybex says, it's difficult to offer more than general advice without knowing the specifics but I hope this helps a little.

Poppie68

Jonty71 wrote: »

Hello Poppie68

Thank you for your reply and the added information. I will look into contacting the FBI and see where that leads me and in turn, I will look at True Vision. Thank you very very much.

Good luck i really hope you can get it sorted.:)

Takeaway_Addict

Hope you get it sorted, chin up.

Jonty71

MrsPBikerChick wrote: »

OP, it doesn't matter who you are, how old, etc - bullying is bullying and its wrong, end of, so please don't feel your issue is any less serious because you're an adult or because its via the web. IMHO Trolling is the lowest of the low because its so easy for pathetic individuals to sit behind a keyboard and upload a torrent of abuse without even having to register the impact their words are having and knowing the likelihood of them being called on their actions is very small.

Firstly, it is clear this is having a serious effect on you. Please, please talk to someone - a friend, partner, relative, colleague or even your GP - so at least the problem is out in the open. Keeping things pent up and getting more and more upset or even depressed will not do you any favours and will make e problem seem a million times worse.

Do you know why these idiots have decided to target you? I'm not for a second saying you deserve it or anything - no-one deserves to suffer harassment - but it might give you a clue as to anything that might put a stop to it if you know the reasons behind it in the first place. Unfortunately, though, you might just be unlucky enough to be the butt of what some little, ahem, toerag thinks is a joke.

If the trolling (I.e. cyber bullying) is causing you issues at work then ask to speak to your boss privately and explain what is happening. You might want to show him/her the screen shots to demonstrate what you're saying. That way you know they will know to take anything untoward originating from these people with a healthy dose of salt. Likewise family and friends.

You mentioned a lot of the abuse is originating around Facebook. As suggested, tighten up your privacy settings to limit the chance of these people even being able to contact you. Facebook also has anti-bullying policies in place after a couple of rather infamous teenager cases so please report these people to Facebook. Keeping the screenshots will help to back up your case. You might also want true friends and family on your FB to report any troll posts they see as abusive.

If the trolls were in the UK then the police would be obliged to act under the Protection from Harassment Act but if they're in the US its more difficult. It may be worth asking the police whether its possible to contact the US police where these idiots are to step in, or perhaps contact them yourself. I don't know if this would be possible but its worth asking.

As Chickabiddybex says, it's difficult to offer more than general advice without knowing the specifics but I hope this helps a little.

Hello MrsPBikerChick

Thank you too for your message. The group some of the trouble makers come from including the person who is attacking me regards my group as a rival, in which it is not. Some do not like collectors who watermark rare images, so they like the rip into people if they see a image they want without the watermarking. With the latest change in copyrights and making things for accessible for people to use other peoples photographs, a lot of collectors have resorted to watermarking their images. They clearly took offense to me doing the same, but being that I run my own group, they singled me out and I became their and this specific persons target.

It isn't so much the group and the comments of rivalry, to me that is all childish and something I have tried not to get involved in discussion with. It is the severe accusations they make to win votes and get total strangers to comment which then spirals out of control. One person says something, someone repeats, others join in, next you know you have dozen or so ripping into you and yet they do not even know you or even exchanged a single word with you. They clearly are having fun at other peoples expense and for some time, they have been getting away with it. I have tried to remain civil and post publicly that their attacks contain no truths and requesting they stop. They just lap it up and continue even more.

Chickabiddybex

The best thing to do is report to Facebook everything he posts that is bad. Block him where you can. Ignore him 100%

Or get whoever you know with the scariest looking profile picture to send him profanities. It's probably not the best thing to do but it's what I would probably do XD