To wonder how much it takes before the police...

[HerRoyalHappiness]

Take stalking seriously?

I began talking to a guy. He told me after 2 days he was in love with me. We'd never met and only ever spoke on Snapchat, where I have my location turned off. I never gave him any details except my first name.
I told him that was creepy and moving waaaaay to fast and told him I was blocking him. I then blocked him.

I thought that was the end of it.

Then he popped up in my message requests on Facebook, so he'd found my surname.

I ignored and blocked and reported it to the police.

Since then I've had to block 16 fake accounts that he's set up on Facebook and Snapchat.

I've reported every single one to the police including the message "do you know who I am. I found you on here didn't I, watch out"

And the police still "cant" do anything.

How much more am I going to have to deal with before its taken seriously? What if he finds my address? I'm alone with 3 children.

Hes clearly deranged enough to harass me and right now I wouldn't put anything past him. I've begun sleeping with a knife in my bedroom just in case.

I shouldn't have to lice like this. In constant fear of a man I've never met.

AIBU to think online harassment and stalking should be taken more seriously?

@Toomanyradishes thanks. I'm sorry that happened to you.

Email your Crime Commissioner. Email your MP.
The message you have mentioned is totally unacceptable and menacing.

Why can't you delete your social media accounts for a couple of months? There's plenty of ways to keep in touch these days with family etc

I also agree with @WorraLiberty - there's so much info on here about you. I don't know you in real life of course but I instantly recognise your name and it's just common sense to not divulge so much on a public forum

Bloody hell @HerRoyalHappiness that's awful!

My DH got himself a stalker when a girl he briefly went out with as a teen and never saw again (dated for a month or two at aged 17 and DH was 19) FIFTEEN years ago. She sent him a friend request and within a month was messaging him over and over saying things like she knew our kids weren't his, that his wife was a cheater and that the kids belonged to a man in my old hometown 200 miles away. (Except I hadn't been to my home town alone since meeting DH two years before we had our first of three kids.) It was all info she had gleaned off Facebook, both mine and DH's.
She sent a couple of dozen messages getting more nuts each time. She even invented a child that they had supposedly had together (completely fake, her parents confirmed she only ever had two kids, under primary age.

It was nothing more than messages but when she messaged my daughter's account (that DD only used to get candy crush lives from her GPS and us so couldn't see 'her' messenger) we went to the police. They read the silly messages and agreed to basically warn her off!
We never really expected a result. Turned out, she was, according to the police officer, "somewhat..... belligerent and disagreeable and did not wish to take our advice" and so the officers decided to pursue the matter instead of simply warning her and allowing her to away.

She was actually charged and found guilty in court for stalking! And this was a hopefully harmless (though clearly deranged with her huge rants and made up stories on DH's messenger) mother of two young kids. Of course we had no idea how deep her crazy well went so the police were our only option just in case she did come to find us.

The fact that this man has pretty much stalked and found you and made what sounds to me like a threat to a lone woman means the police should fucking well take this seriously! Have you been in contact with a single officer or are you a name in a report somewhere? We had a specific officer dealing with us and I have to say it helped. I printed the conversations off and presented them in person and it provided a clearer picture than me simply retelling it.

I think @WorraLiberty was showing you how easy it is to get information. She found all of that out within a few minutes. She was trying to help you.

@TangerineDreams that sounds horrendous! I'm so glad the police pursued it.

I've only spoken to the same officer twice. The last one I spoke to said they'd have a word with my ex and basically try and figure out if it's him or not. I dont know when that will happen but they said they'd do a face to face visit and basically say look, if its you, you need to back off.

I think it's odd to trawl through posters' history looking for information - I couldn't be any less interested - but yes, there are people who do this. Hence, why name changing is useful and posting personal details should be limited.

I hope the issue is sorted for you, OP, for your peace of mind.

Thanks @Userguaranteed

The police have just phoned. There's an officer coming to see me face to face about this so hopefully they're taking it a bit more seriously now.

It's my ex. He used a friend of a friends photo and name so it would look like a real person. He broke down in tears to the officer who went to see him last night.
The police have said I have a strong case for harassment if it continues. For now he's been warned to only contact me about the children, nothing more.
They've referred me on to victim support. The officer was very apologetic that she didn't come last night but said it was late and she didn't want to scare me turning up so late at night. She said she understands why I'm so paranoid but I'm not allowed weapons in the bedroom with me as then it'll be classed as premeditated.

Hopefully now my ex knows we're onto him and he's been warned off he'll leave me alone.

What an awful experience op. I hope it stops now he's been found out. 🤗

So do I
Hopefully he's been warned off by the police turning up. I dont think he expected that. It was thanks to people on here and my best friend mentioning it could be him that I mentioned his name to the police. So thank you MN for your wisdom.

Thank goodness you know who it is. Much better than a nameless threat. What the hell did he think he would gain by being a creep? At least the police are aware of him now.

I've no idea. I'm guessing the hope was I'd run to him in need and he would be the Knight in shining armour.