Digital Murder: Former Friends and Spouses Destroying Each Other Online
PALM DESERT - You work all your life to develop your reputaton, but in a single keystroke, it can be tarnish forever because of digital harrassment.
It's your face and your name, but the statements are false! As the worldwide web expands, the cases of digital abuse continue to increase.
Two women, neither showing any sign of physical harm, but both say they've been abused.
"I was really hurt, embarrased," says an internet harrassment victim who wishes to remain annonymous.
The wounds go more than skin deep.
"It's an emotional rape," says Sue Scheff, another internet defamation victim.
Both women say they are victims of internet defamation. They're sharing their stories to help others.
"You need to learn that what goes online stays online," Scheff says.
The internet. for most of us is a place we go to work, and sometimes play.
"It's really impossible to prevent someone from posting information about you or your business online," says Technology Law Attorney Rebecca Grassl Bradley.
From message boards, to business review sites, to blogs, it's basically a freedom of speech free for all. The comments aren't always positive and there's not much you can do to remove them.
"Under fed law, it's difficult to impossible to do that because they're immune or protected from liability under the Communications Decency Act," Bradley says.
Sue Scheff of Florida chronicles her landmark internet defamation lawsuit in her book "Google Bomb". Scheff won $11.3 million in 2006 after a woman posted false statements about her and her child advocacy group, "PURE".
"She wrote "Sue Scheff abuses children, I kidnap kids, I exploit families, I'm a con, I'm dangerous," recalls Scheff.
When she decided to fight back it wasn't an easy process.
"Anybody can sue anybody, the fact is you have to have a lot of money," Scheff says.
Despite the eventual multi-million dollar payout, Sue says her life will never be quite the same.
"They did destroy me, really for 5 years, I mean even today, you can google me and find some horrific stuff about me out there about me," Scheff says.
Another victime, who asked we hide her identity, says her ex-husband posted their "private" pictures on a "fake" facebook page for everyone to see.
"He was trying to degrade me," the victim says. She says removing the pictures was frustrating. "You have to go through a process to prove you did not do this. It's not an easy process, no one to talk to on the phone, it's all through email."
So how do you prevent this from happening in the first place? Ken Hanson has helped hundreds of businesses learn to brand themselves through his marketing firm Hanson Dodge. He says people need to create their own "brand" online.
"Your online reputation is for all practical purposes, who you are," says Hanson. "The irony here is that you have to be online in order to protect yourself from internet defamers."
"Probably be helpful for everyone to google themselves and see what's out there," Hanson suggests.
Another good idea is to sign up for google and "twitter" alerts.
"You can recieve an alert whenever anything positive or negative is posted about you online," says Bradley.
Even if you take these steps, this form of "digital murder" can happen. But thanks to trailblazers like Sue, authorities are becoming more aware of it and it's getting easier to fight back.
"I spent 5 years in the dark, not coming out, not sharing story. The more I can share, help others..the better," Scheff says.
Internet defamation is still a relatively new problem, but there is some help out there. One group is called "Civilination". It's a non-profit group that offers victims advice and guidance.
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Digital Murder: Former Friends and Spouses Destroying Each Other Online