Types of Cyberstalkers

                  McFarlane and Bocij (2005) conducted one of the most exhaustive studies on cyberstalkers and stalking victims and found four types of stalkers that emerged from their data.  The four types of cyberstalkers are the vindictive cyberstalker, the composed cyberstalker, the intimate cyberstalker, and the collective cyberstalker (Pittaro, 2007).  The vindictive cyberstalker is a type of cyberstalker that is malicious.  Offenders in this group harassed or threatened victims far more often than offenders in the other groups.  This group was more likely to use spiteful tactics that were intended to continuously harass victims through excessive spamming, email bombing, and identity theft.  They were the only group that used Trojans to gain access to the victim’s computer and deliberately infect the computer with a computer virus (McFarlane and Bocij, 2005; Pittaro, 2007). 

                The composed cyberstalker targets victims in a calm manner.  The cyberstalkers in this group harass victims to cause constant distress through a variety of threatening behaviors.  The intimate cyberstalker group pursues victims based on infatuation and obsession.  This group is the most diverse, because some of the offenders had a previous relationship with the victim.  Collective cyberstalkers consist of two or more individuals who pursue the same victim (McFarlane & Bocij, 2005).  The computer skills of this group were high when compared to the other three groups (McFarlane & Bocij, 2005; Pittaro, 2007).  

References

McFarlane, L., & Bocij, P. (2003). Cyber stalking: defining the invasion of cyberspace. Forensic Update, 1(72), 18-22.

Pittaro, M. (2007). Cyber stalking: an analysis of online harassment and intimidation. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 1(2), 180-197.