Computer Crimes Cynthia Simmons Began Receiving Unwanted

Computer Crimes

Cynthia Simmons began receiving unwanted communication from an unknown assailant. She did what the experts recommend: she changed her email address, instant messenger identity and other online identifiers, nothing stopped the computer harassment. She believes the offender to be her ex-boyfriend, Jacob Myers, but even searching her computer and comparing the offending emails to that of Jacob Myers, the evidence has not been sufficient to obtain a search warrant to search Jacob Myers' computer.

It appears that Ms. Simmons is the victim of cyberstalking. According the NCSL, "cyberstalking is the use of the Internet, email or other electronic communications to stalk, and generally refers to a pattern of threatening or malicious behaviors." She, Ms. Simmons, has been receiving calls to her home propositioning her for services and she found out that someone had placed her contact information on an escort service website. Stalking is a serious crime, whether done with a computer or not and almost every state has a law on the books against stalking and several states now have laws against cyberstalking.

In the past few days Ms. Simmons has been contacted via e-mail on how to stop the harassment. She was told to send $9.99 through PayPal for four different payments. However, when the identify of the account holder was discovered, it was traced to an account that had at least one incident of identity theft. Since she was told to pay money to stop the harassment, that is a clear case of extortion and since it was via the internet, that would be cyber-extortion. Cyber-extortion is used frequently against businesses or corporations, but it can have a devastating impact on individuals. If someone has damaging pictures or damaging personal information against Ms. Simmons, and this would be easy for a former boyfriend to have access to, it can be used to damage her reputation both personally and in the business world. It would be tempting to pay the $39.96 to stop the harassment, but rarely does it end with one payment or the first figure that is asked and once you have made the payment, that is something else to hold over your head.