Nasty facebook msg.

LegacyUser

5 months ago someone sent me a offensive message on facebook from a made up account. I considerr the message to be very slanderous. It said real nasty **** about me. They deleted there profile before I could do anything about it but I printed off the msg and I still have it.

I think the person who sent this is my ex boyfriend new gf, I was in touch wit my ex alot and she didn't like it.

At the time I went to the police and they didn't take me seriously, pretty much told me to just forget about it cos it's facebook and I'm wasting there time. I plan to follow this up with the garda ombudsman. I found this msg very offensive and it's there job to invetigate it.

I know this msg can be brought against the sender in court for slander and I think the police should investigate and see who sent the msg, surely it's up to them to take it up with Facebook and allow me to sue this bitch for slander??

My friends think I've left it to long now to do anything about it.

Have I?

Has anyone been thru this and got a win case?

Do I have to follow it up within a certain time before its to late??

I think it might be a 6 month limit to follow up so I need to do this now.

LegacyUser

Please don't waste any more Garda time with this.

They have far more serious things to investigate than someone who may have sent you a mean message on facebook months ago!!

Forget about it and move on.

Accusing your ex's girlfriend of this could end up with her taking a slander case against you!

poozers

im sorry but i wouldnt know much on the legal end, but any form of harrassment like that is extremely serious, at least it should be!!! id say act on it as soon as you can, like monday morning...go down to your local citizens information and ask them what needs to be done and how to go bout it...they are really helpful!! personally, any form of bullying makes me sick to the stomach, and i feel really strongly about it, so YES do something now before its too late

poozers

Kelly.eireann wrote: »

They have far more serious things to investigate than someone who may have sent you a mean message on facebook months ago!!

i disagree with this cos there are cases where people have done serious harm to themselves, even committed suicide because of things like this ... even if it is only facebook, its the same as getting an abusive text message, or even phonecall...

Ickle Magoo

As per the forum charter, we cannot offer you any legal advice and no-one posting should attempt to....if you wish to know anything about that side of things you will have to contact a solicitor. :cool:

LegacyUser

poozers wrote: »

i disagree with this cos there are cases where people have done serious harm to themselves, even committed suicide because of things like this ... even if it is only facebook, its the same as getting an abusive text message, or even phonecall...

The op has allowed 5 months to pass without self harming or suicide so I'm sure she can manage to push it to the back of her mind now.

I think anyone who considers suicide after receiving an abusive text really needs to talk to a counsellor for reasons other than the text.

tenchi-fan

Op, if you're looking for trouble you're sure to find it.

Do you honestly expect the gardai to waste time investigating a facebook message, possibly sent from an internet cafe, using a fake account... and as for wasting the time of the office of the ombudsman, I think it's absolutely disgraceful that you would even consider going down this path to settle an old score.

Now you're talking about winning a case. It brings personal injury lawsuits to new lows.

The garda technical unit investigate crimes involving exploitation and abuse of children, downloading child pornography and child grooming.

It's time for you to grow up. There's more to life than making enemies on facebook.

Shelga

OP stop referring to a private message sent to you on Facebook as slander. It isn't. For it to be slander, the insults/lies/whatever would have to be communicated to someone other than the recipient, eg in a public setting. I agree that whoever sent you the message is a horrible coward, but it was a one off. I agree completely that it would be an utter waste of Gardai time for you to pursue this further. And remember, you have absolutely no evidence that it's the new girlfriend who sent it, so were this to become public, you could end up looking like the one with sour grapes.

dudara

Slander is a civil action - so the Gardai won't get involved in that. In addition, as another poster has pointed out, it is also a public action. As this message was not disseminated in a public manner, but instead sent privately, it does not count as slander. Instead it is bullying or harassment.

Have you contacted Facebook about this? They take on-site bullying/harassment quite seriously.

But for now, if I were you, I wouldn't go around accusing this girl without basis. It's going to make you look like a fool.

LegacyUser

hi again. has anyone had luck prosocuting someone through facebook?
i msged facebook at the time but they just sent back some auto response days later saying i could block this person or something but the person was long gone by then.

has anyone been told who it was by facebook? im not sure if i can do anything now as its been so long i doubt facebook will help me. thats why i got the police involved at the time.

tenchi-fan

Lisahic887 wrote: »

hi again. has anyone had luck prosocuting someone through facebook?
i msged facebook at the time but they just sent back some auto response days later saying i could block this person or something but the person was long gone by then.

has anyone been told who it was by facebook? im not sure if i can do anything now as its been so long i doubt facebook will help me. thats why i got the police involved at the time.

Op, it's great to hear you're taking all the advice on board.

Facebook probably get queries the whole time from 13 year olds with grievances against other girls in their class.

They're not going to waste one second investigating whether jessie called lisa a slut in chat or whether mark fraped john (omg). Facebook gave you good advice: block the person and get over it.

You don't have a case. And if you did, you don't have the resources, knowledge or support to get a prosecution.

In short, just like your boyfriend told you, facebook told you, boardsies told you and the gardai told, it's time to move on, get over it, and don't waste anyone else's time.

LegacyUser

You know technician you've clearly never been thru anything like this . It's very traumitizing to get a nasty msg from someone u don't even know and you can't even reply or ask questions cos they quit facebook before you get the chance.

This bullying is something I take very seriously. Only a coward would have done this to me in that way. If that girl had a problem with me why not say it to my face. I know it was her and ive told her so to but I need to find out who I can contact to investigate this further.Is it facebooks duty to investigate something like this?


Thanks poozers for your advice.I don't get how everyone can take this so lightly. Try being on the receiving end and see how you like it.

I'm not looking for legal advice I just want to know if anyone been thru this same situation?

I'm pretty broke so would have to try and get free legal aid to do this and i don't know how to even do that.

Neyite

She sent you that message to get a reaction, and its working a treat. Right now she is winning hands down. You are coming off like a psychotic loser, and she is playing you lovely.. She will get to be the poor nice girl victimised by the crazy ex of the boyfriend, down the pub, all over some message she will say (and you cant prove) that she hasnt a clue about.

But you havent been taking anybody's sensible advice on board here - you should, even if its only to stop youself playing right into her hands.

Zen65

Lisahic887 wrote: »

5 months ago someone sent me a offensive message on facebook from a made up account.

............

I know this msg can be brought against the sender in court for slander and I think the police should investigate and see who sent the msg, surely it's up to them to take it up with Facebook and allow me to sue this bitch for slander??

Op,

There is so much wrong with your post it's hard to know where to begin. I don't want to knit-pick the details, and I cannot offer you any legal advice but please consider the following:

It was 5 months ago. By now you should have calmed down about it.

It was not slander, nor was it libel (slander refers only to the spoken word). It was a private message so the laws of libel do not apply. That's why the Gardaí (rightly) don't want to have anything to do with it. The message was not a threat to do you harm (or at least you have not described it as such), so it is not a criminal act.

There are so many serious crimes committed in this country which have gone unresolved, and there is a limit to what can be dealt with by the fairly small number of Gardaí in the country, so spending their time on this would be a complete waste of public funds. It would be like holding an inquest to identify the author of every piece of graffiti ever written.

On the other hand, by jumping to conclusions as to who it was sent you the message, you open yourself up to the possibility of committing a crime yourself, i.e. the crime of false accusation. You have no case whatsoever against this girl, but if you ever publicly said (by "public" I mean to any third party) that she sent it to you then she would have grounds to take a civil case against you.

I think the only approach you can take now is to move on with your life and get over it. Dwelling on this is most unhealthy for you. The sender has probably long since moved on and forgotten about it, and the longer you let it eat you up the more power you give to this person, whoever they may be.

Be at peace,

Z

LegacyUser

OP, I think you'll be disappointed to learn that you won't get free legal aid for a complaint like this. Do yourself a favour, try and forget it. It happened 5 months ago - you're letting this person win by being obsessed by it.

It's been 5 months. Let it go. If you want to make sure it doesn't happen again do the following steps below:


Click on Account on the top right hand side of your page and then select Privacy Settings.


Click "View Settings" under Connecting on Facebook.


Make sure everything there is either set to Friends Only or Friends of Friends. Now only those connected as your "friends" can send you messages.

Facebook has these means in place to prevent things like your case occurring, so I don't think you can approach the cops if you haven't done it yourself.

LegacyUser

This is ridiculous. OP, to answer your question, I doubt you will ever find anyone on the face of this earth that has prosecuted someone on facebook due to them sending a 'mean message'.

Perhaps if you received a death thread, or were murdered as a result of the message, the Gardai would have some interest but otherwise you're just wasting everyone's time, particularly as you didn't set your own privacy settings to stop unknowns sending you personal private messages.

Learn a lesson here, in future take more time to look over your privacy settings and stop this from happening again.

You seem to just have a sue-happy attitude, like you could make money from this situation, rather than seeking some kind of justice.

Everyone has given you the same advice except for poozers, and that seems to be the only post you've read.

AnonoBoy

Facebook will only reveal a person's details to the Gardai if legally obliged to as part of an investigation. The Gardai are not going to launch an investigation into this because it is only a trivial matter for them.

Sorry to tell you this OP but nobody is going to investigate this for you. It happened 5 months ago. The account is deleted. It was only one message.

You need to let it go.

LegacyUser

Well said, Anonboy, couldn't agree more!

I for one don't want to see my taxpayer's money wasted on free legal aid to take on lack of Garda investigations into facebook messages and Ombudsman investigations into Gardai who fail to investigate facebook messages.

Some people really need a kick of reality!

C-J

As a lawyer, i'd like to point out that no slander occurred here. no solicitor in the land would take on this case. I would recommend you move on, sticks and stones and all that. If you persist in your accusations against this girl then you will be the one at the recieving end of court documents from her legal team. *shudders in horror at the jeremy kyle generation*