(SMS bullying affects a lot of children and is NOT okey -more information)
- Step one: File a police complaint
- Step two: Contact your phone company
- Step three: Block communication
Some believe that you need to receive threats of physical violence prior to filing a police complaint, this is not true. Currently 44 states have provisions which are related to phone harassment including SMS. As an example an offender in Ohio got 180 days in Jail for telephone harassment.
When do you do it?
You file a complaint as soon as you feel that the intent of the messages is to harass. Once you have a police file on hand it will facilitate the subpoena of records (force phone company to reveal identity of the offender). Oftentimes the phone company will not provide any information on the offender unless you have filed a complaint with the police first.
In order to improve your chances of filing a strong police report you can bait the offender. You can use the following baiting technique to prove that the purpose of the SMS messages is to harass you. Reply to the SMS message with the words "please do not contact me again, by contacting me further you admit that the purpose of your messages is to harass, which may be used to file a police report"
Once you get the postal address of the person you can choose to send an official letter also known as "formal notice", this is done to advise that you will pursue the offender in a civil suit if messages do not cease.
Note: This may not be effective if the person is using a computer to send the messages, because at times the sender cannot receive replies from you (most SMS messages sent through the computer are sent one way), but that does NOT mean that the offender cannot be prosecuted. Police are able to track down individuals who think they are safe behind their computers. They subpoena web-sites to provide IP addresses used to access SMS sending sites and the subpoena ISPs to track down the home address of the harasser.
Contact your phone company?
Certain phone companies have their own security departments which are equipped. These people will advise you on how to better deal with these unwanted SMS messages. They can help you either block certain calls or provide clear guide-lines of what you can do. This is individual to each company. If the agent does not know what you are referring to ask to speak to the manager or call back to speak with another representative.
Block communication
If you own an android smartphone you can download an application called Mr.number and block specific numbers from calling and texting you.
Think of a smartphone as a small computer which you hold in your hands. If you ever considered getting a smartphone this may be a good time. You can create a list of people which are allowed to send you SMS messages and all others will be blocked automatically. iPhones currently do not have application which can do this.
Important Points:
- Please do not keep quite if you’re getting harassing and/or threatening messages. There are many tragic examples of when phone harassment grew into physical assaults and lives have been lost. If you or someone you know is receiving SMS messages take pro-active actions and always let the authorities know about what is happening.
- Record the times when messages were sent and don’t delete them
- This article is NOT related to phone calls and SMS messages from companies such as telemarketers and debt collectors, these fall under a different category.
Reference:
http://www.ncsl.org/IssuesResearch/TelecommunicationsInformationTechnology/CyberstalkingLaws/tabid/13495/Default.aspx
http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs2a-cellcalls.htm