ID :
158380
Sat, 01/29/2011 - 22:39
Auther :

Malaysian woman falls prey to Indian cyber stalker

By P. Vijian

NEW DELHI, Jan 29 (Bernama) - What began as a causal online chat,
degenerated into a nagging nightmare for a Malaysian woman who is now forced to seek help from the Indian police and Interpol to act against a Bangalore-based cyber stalker.

When the friendship took on a horrendous turn after the man became
obsessive, the woman in her 40s, who works in the corporate sector in Kuala Lumpur, decided to fend him off.

Spurned by her rejection, the man, believed to be a freelance information technology consultant at a top commercial bank in India, started to bombard her with abusive e-mails and phone calls, threatening to seek revenge.

"I sensed some abnormal tendencies in his thoughts and actions which were obsessive in nature, and I decided to disconnect with him. This provoked him.

"He started sending me hate emails and stalking me on the phone. The more serious of his actions was that he had hacked into my chat rooms, facebook, and my office and personal email addresses to stalk me and also to collect email addresses of my colleagues, friends and relatives," the victim said in a lettersent to the Chennai-based Malaysian consul-general's office Friday.

The woman, who wished to be known only as 'B', has sent a copy of the letter to Bernama.

"I am languishing in distress...if I stop communicating with him, he will send emails damaging to my reputation to over 100 email addresses he claims to have collected.

"I seem to be facing a wall at every turn for help, despite me providing proof of the blackmail," she lamented in her the letter.

Both of them had been online chatting since last November.

The man, alleged to be a divorcee, continued his bullying tactics despite numerous requests from the woman to keep a distance from her and stop his menace -- which she said had reached a worrying stage.

The victim has even lodged a police report and referred her case to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, but yet to receive positive response. She has also approached the Indian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur for assistance.

When contacted, a senior official at the Cyber Crime Police Station in Bangalore told Bernama that since the case involved a foreign national, the victim had to file a case through the Malaysian authorities.

"There is nothing much we can do now. She has to file a report with the Malaysian police who will then contact the Interpol and once we receive the directive from CBI (India's Central Bureau of Investigaton), only then we can take action.

"It could take weeks to months. We receive a lot of such complaints," said the unidentified official.

X