Facebook threats from fake profiles

#1 · 31-03-2017 01:39PM #1

Okay so since last few months someone has been making fake facebook account and messaging my wife with abuses. That person seems to have done a background check on me and knows alot of personal information about me which he is manipulating and telling my wife. At first ive ignored but its gotten to the point where my wife has gotten death theats and rape threats.

I am extremely annoyed at this and cant figure out who he is. I want to persue this legally and want to report it to authorities and take legal action but im not sure where to start. Do i contact a lawyer? Do i call the police?

Any suggestions guys?

gumbo1 · 31-03-2017 01:42PM

Contact the guards and tell them that your wife is receiving threats. That will start the ball rolling. Take screen shots of the messages that are being sent and print them off. If you do figure out who it is don't take the law into your own hands!

Tokyo · 31-03-2017 01:43PM

ManUnited123 wrote: »

Do i contact a lawyer? Do i call the police?

Probably both pointless exercises, to be honest. You could inform the police as a matter of course, but I doubt they will be able to do much.

ManUnited123 wrote: »

Any suggestions guys?

Tell her to turn of her Facebook account for a while. Starve them of oxygen by giving them nowhere to post, and they'll hopefully give up pretty quickly.

Mollyb60 · 31-03-2017 01:51PM

Can you report the bogus accounts to Facebook? Get them banned for sending threatening messages? I don't actually know if that's possible or not.

ManUnited123 · 31-03-2017 02:03PM

Also, that person is probably not from Ireland so im not sure how to go on about it

Pat Mustard · 31-03-2017 02:06PM

ManUnited123 wrote: »

Any suggestions guys?

Implement all privacy settings on your account and your wife's account, change the name on your accounts, make your photos inaccessible, take down profile photos (which identify the account as yours), disable tagging in photos, block anybody from posting on your page who is not on your friends list, report threats to Facebook and report to the guards.

Not a lot is likely to happen out of that but there isn't a lot more to be done.

I wouldn't tend to go to a solicitor with this problem, at this stage but that is a matter for you.

JackTaylorFan · 31-03-2017 02:14PM

ManUnited123 wrote: »

Also, that person is probably not from Ireland so im not sure how to go on about it

I reckon they are in Ireland, if they know so much info about you as seem to think. This is serious stalker territory. Report it to the guards, that's the least you should do. The authorities need to start taking online abuse more seriously anyhow.

sashafierce · 31-03-2017 02:28PM

This post has been deleted.

JackTaylorFan · 31-03-2017 04:00PM

sashafierce wrote: »

I would drop an idle threat, tell them you have their IP address and will soon have their identification and the guards will be in touch.

I would caution against engaging. Idle threats only serve to escalate things.

I'm pretty sure the Gardai can request FB to release the IP address if they believe the incident serious enough. Still think reporting it to them is your best bet, OP.

xabi · 31-03-2017 04:03PM

Death threats and rape threats, seriously, straight to the cops.

freshpopcorn · 31-03-2017 05:26PM

I wouldn't be sure it's a man even. Have you ever had a falling out with anybody in the past.
Is their a chance you could be friends with the person that's doing it on facebook?

ManUnited123 · 31-03-2017 06:56PM

mike_ie wrote: »

Tell her to turn of her Facebook account for a while. Starve them of oxygen by giving them nowhere to post, and they'll hopefully give up pretty quickly.

I dont see why me or my wife needs to stop using facebook?

If someone harrassed you in real life would you say to them to just stay at home?

ManUnited123 · 31-03-2017 06:58PM

Mollyb60 wrote: »

Can you report the bogus accounts to Facebook? Get them banned for sending threatening messages? I don't actually know if that's possible or not.

They delete the account and create a new one so i dont get a chance to report to facebook. Few times i did but facebook just asked me to block the person. Which is kind of pointless as the person makes multiple fake accounts and sends messages and for some reason you cant stop receiving messages from unknown people on facebook.

ManUnited123 · 31-03-2017 06:59PM

Pat Mustard wrote: »

Implement all privacy settings on your account and your wife's account, change the name on your accounts, make your photos inaccessible, take down profile photos (which identify the account as yours), disable tagging in photos, block anybody from posting on your page who is not on your friends list, report threats to Facebook and report to the guards.

Not a lot is likely to happen out of that but there isn't a lot more to be done.

I wouldn't tend to go to a solicitor with this problem, at this stage but that is a matter for you.

I refuse to change the way i use social media only because someone else is harrassing me.

ManUnited123 · 31-03-2017 07:00PM

JackTaylorFan wrote: »

I reckon they are in Ireland, if they know so much info about you as seem to think. This is serious stalker territory. Report it to the guards, that's the least you should do. The authorities need to start taking online abuse more seriously anyhow.

No, im not fron ireland. Just moved here a few years back and this person knows my history from a long time back so theyre definitely not from Ireland which makes it a little difficult to catch them i suppose

njs030 · 31-03-2017 07:03PM

Change your wife's settings so only her friends can message her. Once they can't contact her they'll give up.

If you refuse to change anything to stop the person while admitting it's hard for them to be stopped I'm not sure what you're expecting to happen...

ManUnited123 · 31-03-2017 07:03PM

JackTaylorFan wrote: »

I would caution against engaging. Idle threats only serve to escalate things.

I'm pretty sure the Gardai can request FB to release the IP address if they believe the incident serious enough. Still think reporting it to them is your best bet, OP.

Do you think i should engage a solicitor for this? Im not sure how seriously guards will take this but i do want to take legal action incase this happens again as me and my wife have had enough of this for the past few months. We want to start legal proceedings on this

Scraggs · 31-03-2017 07:05PM

Alter your message settings so only friends can message you. Don't engage with this person at all as they crave the attention and feed off it. Report to Gardai, I've had this issue in the past and they took it seriously. I'm not sure what a solicitor could do if it's a fake account.

ManUnited123 · 31-03-2017 07:05PM

freshpopcorn wrote: »

I wouldn't be sure it's a man even. Have you ever had a falling out with anybody in the past.
Is their a chance you could be friends with the person that's doing it on facebook?

Dont have a falling out with anyone but the person seems to think ive been messaging her wife or something like that which is completely out of order and untrue!

njs030 · 31-03-2017 07:05PM

ManUnited123 wrote: »

Do you think i should engage a solicitor for this? Im not sure how seriously guards will take this but i do want to take legal action incase this happens again as me and my wife have had enough of this for the past few months. We want to start legal proceedings on this

Against who op?

ManUnited123 · 31-03-2017 07:06PM

notjustsweet wrote: »

Change your wife's settings so only her friends can message her. Once they can't contact her they'll give up.

If you refuse to change anything to stop the person while admitting it's hard for them to be stopped I'm not sure what you're expecting to happen...

You cant restrict who sends you messages on facebook. Ive tried this and aparently anyone can send messages to anyone on fb. You can block people but thats pointless as the person creates new ID everytime

ManUnited123 · 31-03-2017 07:07PM

Scraggs wrote: »

Alter your message settings so only friends can message you. Don't engage with this person at all as they crave the attention and feed off it. Report to Gardai, I've had this issue in the past and they took it seriously. I'm not sure what a solicitor could do if it's a fake account.

Would love to know how!

Scraggs · 31-03-2017 07:07PM

ManUnited123 wrote: »

You cant restrict who sends you messages on facebook. Ive tried this and aparently anyone can send messages to anyone on fb. You can block people but thats pointless as the person creates new ID everytime

You can.

Edited: cross posted. I have it on my profile, I googled how to do it.

ManUnited123 · 31-03-2017 07:08PM

notjustsweet wrote: »

Against who op?

Whoever is using the account!

which ofcourse i dont know

ManUnited123 · 31-03-2017 07:09PM

Scraggs wrote: »

You can.

Can you let me know how as i did quite a bit of research on this but wasnt able to.

Aparently we were able to before but not anymore but i could be wrong. Let me know how

road_high · 31-03-2017 07:12PM

I've my settings set to block messages from random nutters...works a treat.

JackTaylorFan · 31-03-2017 07:14PM

road_high wrote: »

I've my settings set to block messages from random nutters...works a treat.

This person does not fit the MO of a random nutter though. It seems obsessive.

JackTaylorFan · 31-03-2017 07:16PM

ManUnited123 wrote: »

They delete the account and create a new one so i dont get a chance to report to facebook. Few times i did but facebook just asked me to block the person. Which is kind of pointless as the person makes multiple fake accounts and sends messages and for some reason you cant stop receiving messages from unknown people on facebook.

They can still trace old accounts back to the IP address and you should still have a copy of the messages received.

JackTaylorFan · 31-03-2017 07:20PM

ManUnited123 wrote: »

No, im not fron ireland. Just moved here a few years back and this person knows my history from a long time back so theyre definitely not from Ireland which makes it a little difficult to catch them i suppose

Sorry, didn't see this. Yeah, I'm not sure the Gardai have much power in this instance. Sorry to say, blocking may be your only option.

ManUnited123 · 31-03-2017 07:36PM

JackTaylorFan wrote: »

Sorry, didn't see this. Yeah, I'm not sure the Gardai have much power in this instance. Sorry to say, blocking may be your only option.

Which is kind of pointless as the person keeps making new fake accounts so

njs030 · 31-03-2017 07:36PM

ManUnited123 wrote: »

Whoever is using the account! which ofcourse i dont know

Well exactly.
You're asking should you go to a solicitor to start legal proceedings against an unknown person in an unknown country.

The gardai can ask facebook to provide them with the IP address.
Or
You can set your wife's fb messages to strict filtering which means any messages from non friends will go to her other folder.
Or
There's also the option of deleting them unread which takes the power away from the sender.

Facebook threats from fake profiles

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