Online harassment.. what can I do?

[Tina]

Basic story.. i have been friends with a guy (we'll call him Bill) my whole life. he's 22.. i'm 27. he has always had a crush on me but i never felt the same. we are like brother/sister in my eyes. he got a girlfriend four years ago. i was friends with her at first but then i realized she was actually insane. i slowly cut contact with her. Bill is a liar and a cheater. he has cheated on her the whole relationship. 10 times she's caught him. sometimes when Bill has been drinking, he will send me some texts revealing his feeling towards me as well as some sexually oriented jokes. i don't usually respond and if i do it's just politely telling him he's drunk and should talk to me another day. FIVE months ago Bill sent me some of those type messages and forgot to delete them and his girlfriend saw. a week after, numerous fake facebook and twitter account were trying to follow/add me ( my pages are private). i had a feeling it was Bill's girlfriend. one week after that i received hundreds of facebook and twitter messages from perverted men telling me my facebook id was posted on sex forums as well as porn sites. that died down after about a week. the following week Bill called me and asked if his girlfriend had called me. She hadn't. apparently she made up a lie and told Bill that i called her and said Bill and I had been sleeping together. Bill knows i would never say that.. plus it's not true. after that it was all quiet until last night (FIVE months passed).

Last night i received a message on my personal facebook page from one of Bill's girlfriend's friends. it was paragraphs of profanity, calling me every name possible. i guess Bill's girlfriend told her the same lie about Bill and I hooking up. I did not respond. I blocked the friend and about five minutes later i start receiving more nasty messages from the same girl but on a different facebook account. i didn't open the messages. i just went ahead and blocked that account as well.

i logged onto my company facebook (i own a small business) this morning and i see three messages from Bill's girlfriend (she is blocked on my personal but i cannot block her from a business page). i did not view the content of the messages because i don't want her to see that they've been read. i am able to see the first sentence of each and it's of course filled with cussing and trashing me.

I just want to be left alone. I thought it was over with since the texts were five months ago. I know the friend that messaged me those nasty things is a person whom Bill's girlfriend doesnt see often because she lives far away. Do you think it was just a one time sort of thing where they decided hey we're bored let's harass her?

Am i doing the correct thing by not responding?

What are my options if it continues?

This does constitute as harassment, right?

I don't have money to spend on a lawyer.

Do you think they were looking for a negative response and now that they haven't gotten anything and only one message was viewed.. they'll stop?

All help is appreciated. Thank you!

[Johnny]

they sound like idiots

[Malea]

Make sure you save the messages that you could not block from your business account. She can be charged. This is considered online bullying and if you are being harrassed by someone they can be stopped by authorities. So just call the local police department (not 911) and tell them what is going on and show them the messages she left you on facebook. Also, since that is your business account it can be a form of her harrassing you at your place of business. So call the local police and they will stop her from harrassing you, might even offer a restraining order against her. Do it! There was this guy who was friends with my ex who was calling me and harrassing my grandparents ( While I was living with them) and he wouldn't leave us alone. He also made threats. So we called the police and they called him and we never heard from him again. So make sure you let the police know. You will be glad you did. Good luck! =)

[ahsoasho2u2]

Talk to the local police about this to see what can actually be done.