Find the Blackmailer

[Dementia Participant]

I read a CNN article about a girl who was blackmailed to the point of suicide.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/12/world/americas/canada-teen-bullying/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

My request is that you find the person who did the blackmailing. I am not asking you to break any laws to do it. This is a sad story, and i know that there are those here who have the ability to find this guy. Unless he’s very good at hiding his online presence. Once you find him i suggest you report him to authorities. You can do this creatively, but again try and keep it legal.

Thanks.

[dynamik Participant]

This isn’t 4chan…

[Eleven Participant]

@ajohnson wrote:

This isn’t 4chan…

Ironically, I wouldn’t be surprised if the person who did it is from 4chan.

[dynamik Participant]

I’m sure there’s good and bad, like any large community. I was referring specifically to the semi-regular vigilante justice acts like this: http://gawker.com/5622237/how-4chan-brought-the-evil-british-cat-lady-to-justice

[Dementia Participant]

Not from 4chan, and not requesting for any death threats. Wasn’t aware of the 4chan vigilante human flesh search engine. I requested non-vigilante assistance for the girl who killed herself due to depression.

[m0wgli Participant]

I saw the following article about this today:

“The internet vigilantes: Anonymous outs man, 32, ‘who drove girl, 15, to suicide by spreading topless photos of her'”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2218532/Amanda-Todd-Anonymous-names-man-drove-teen-kill-spreading-nude-pictures.html

[shadowzero Participant]

Guess you got your wish. Hopefully Anonymous didn’t finger the wrong guy.

[jimbob Participant]

There are good people in law enforcement who are capable of conducting an investigation of this sort. What’s more they have powers to gather ISP logs and other information with a warrant to discover the identity of the culprit.

This is a sad tale but taking upon yourself (or expecting it from another) to investigate this type of incident may be counter-productive and potentially harmful. If evidence is tampered with e.g. unauthorised access to a mail account then the proper judicial process can be put at risk. Legal questions such as what laws have been broken arise and there’s often not a good, tested answer at this time.

I share your feelings but this is not a road I suggest we go down. The only exception to this would be in the case of investigative journalism or a privately contracted investigator. Both should be aware of the law and how to conduct an investigation with a view to handing it over to law enforcement if need be.

[Author]

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