Terror on the Net

(Part 1)

As personal information becomes easier to access, the Internet offers a virtual playground for those bent on creating fear and destruction.

Bettye, a retired fine artist living in Oklahoma City, recalls a Sunday church service in the early 90s when an unfamiliar face approached her after closing prayer.

"The woman introduced herself as the photographer who had taken photos of our choir performing a few weeks before," Bettye explains. "She asked if she could email the photos to me for final selection in our church directory."

Like many older Americans then, Bettye didn't own a computer so she offered to give the woman her home mailing address – unlisted information in the phone book at the time.

"The photographer said, 'Don't worry about it. I'll look you up online,'" Bettye says. "I was flabbergasted. I had never even been on the Internet. Why would my address be listed?"

In short order, Bettye visited a friend she terms "computer savvy" to learn more about the online world.

"It sounds silly now but I couldn't believe the amount of information I saw on my husband and me that we had worked so hard not to advertise," she says. "That's when I realized any expectation of privacy we use to enjoy was long gone."

The New Age of Cyberstalking

According to cyberstalking expert Alexis A. Moore, founder of the national advocacy group Survivors in Action, cyberstalking is such a relatively new phenomenon that law enforcement has yet to broadly define it.

Threatening emails and text messages, false posts on social network sites, online bullying, and financial theft are just a few ways cyberstalkers can unleash an anonymous reign of terror with little fear of reprisal. What's more, the Internet provides cheap, easy tools that can aid them in destroying the lives of their victims.

"Individuals can be cyberstalked for the most minor reasons by people they've angered in the past," Moore writes. "Victims can be targeted because they dumped a guy after dating less than a month, fired an employee, were part of a business deal gone wrong, or parked in the wrong parking spot."

For those who have left a domestic violence situation, however, the Internet offers a virtual gateway for abusers to continue their scare tactics online. In what may be the most highly publicized accounts of cyberstalking, domestic violence survivor Susan Zarriello continues to experience the long-lasting effects of her ex-husband's wrath.

Married to Madness

Fifteen years after Susan Zarriello divorced her abusive husband David, she was living the life she had always imagined. Now remarried, she headed up her own graphic design firm in Severna Park, Maryland.

"One day out of the blue I got a call from my sister Jennifer," Susan says. "I think my heart stopped right then and there."

The date was June 12, 2006. In a shaky voice, Jennifer told Susan she'd received a phone call from David, who announced he planned to "reclaim" his wife.

"He developed dozens of websites using my name and posting the vilest information you can imagine," Susan says.

One website featured a counter that marked the days Susan had left to live. Still another described in morbid detail specific parts of Susan's body that would need to be replaced after David reclaimed his wife. Even more disturbing, David recorded podcasts on many of the sites, giving the eulogy at her funeral.

Susan approached local police for help but quickly learned that David's ramblings and veiled online threats were protected under his First Amendment right to free speech. "As long as he wasn't threatening my life there was nothing the police could do."

For three years David continued his campaign to terrorize Susan on the Internet. Then one day Susan noticed an alarming change in his messages about her. "He was no longer talking about me," Susan says. "He was now talking to me."

In part two of Terror on the Net, we'll take a closer look at preventive measures to guard against cyberstalking and what you can do to protect yourself online.