Cyber-stalkers can be found lurking in phones, computers

TECHNOLOGY has helped people escape from domestic violence through online help, but the wireless world and the Internet have also helped abusers to stalk and trap their victims.

"We've had people die as a result of cyber-stalking," said Cynthia Fraser, a Washington, D.C.-based technology safety specialist. The member of the National Network to End Domestic Violence "safety net project" is in Winnipeg to teach people on the front lines of domestic violence how to deal with "techno-stalking."

The stalkers are listening in on cordless phone conversation and using "spyware" to track and monitor their prey's computer use, said Fraser.

And it's happening here.

Last year, a Winnipeg man in his 30s admitted to stalking his ex-girlfriend and listening in on her private phone conversations by parking outside her apartment block armed with a high-frequency scanner.

Manitoba justice officials said at the time the case was one of the first of its kind in the province.

Kevin Rose was sentenced to a period of probation after pleading guilty to the rarely used charge of "intercepting private communications." Police caught him in the act, arresting Rose as he sat in his car behind the woman's apartment. He had a scanner attached to the visor and was wearing an earpiece, according to court documents. The 28-year-old victim had no idea her phone chats were being monitored.

"It's kind of scary," said Sheila Hillier, with the Interlake Women's Resource Centre in Gimli. "Most people have cordless phones," said the social worker in Winnipeg for a gathering of the Manitoba Family Violence Consortium, the umbrella group for 33 provincially funded agencies.

She sees the victims of cyber-stalking and domestic violence -- including children, the silent witnesses.

"Often they take responsibility for the violence," said Hillier, who is relieved her agency just received provincial funding to hire a counsellor to work with the children of domestic violence. The province said it is going after the root of the "terror" that is domestic violence with a four per cent increase in funding this year for working with children affected by it. They may have "serious, emotional and behavioural problems," Family Services and Housing Minister Gord Mackintosh said at a Consortium press conference. "One of the impacts is they may go on to do violence against others... or become victims themselves." Domestic abusers may use their kids "as pawns in an abusive relationship" to control or threaten their victims, Mackintosh said. That's why the Winnipeg Children's Access Agency is needed to provide safe, supervised visits, he said. There's a growing number of court orders that won't allow parents to see their kids unless it's a supervised visit.

"At times, we've had waiting lists of up to eight months," said the agency's executive director Mary Dawson.

Mackintosh said the province boosted the funding by $167,000 to double the agency's capacity. Now it has been able to double the number of families it works with to 72 from 36 per week, and the hours of visits to 144 from 72 per week, said Dawson.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Tips for the techno-stalked

If you think you may be monitored on your home computer, be careful how you use it, since an abuser might become suspicious.

Spyware is a computer software program or hardware device that enables an unauthorized person (such as an abuser) to secretly monitor and gather information about your computer use.

Email and instant/text messaging are not safe or confidential ways to talk to someone about the danger or abuse in your life. If possible, call a hotline instead. If you use email or instant messaging, please use a safer computer and an account your abuser does not know about.

Computers can store a lot of private information about what you look at on the Internet, the emails and instant messages you send, Internet-based phone calls you make, and web-based purchases and banking.

Remember that "corded" phones are more private and less interceptable than cordless phones or analog cellphones.

-- Source: National Network to End Domestic Violence

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 3, 2009 A4