Forum Psychology: Stalking

[Fabricus]

During the course of your innings here on ThaiVisa you've almost certainly witnessed examples of stalking. I'll briefly detail two of the worst cases I've seen over the last few years and then move on to something a bit more topical.

The Caledonian

One of the sickest stalkers I've ever come across online was a gentleman I'll refer to as the Caledonian. He was an obsessive riddled with envy and inferiority issues, and his stalking was legendary! Not content with simply stalking online, the Caledonian soon began peddling self-published twaddle about this forum's members over on Amazon.

There's creepy and there's creepy. And then there's the Caledonian!

The Banker

The Banker is a sad little man from the British midlands who arrived in Thailand back in 1998. After an uneventful career he decided to follow his calling as a stalker. His MO was unusually weird: he took the username of another ThaiVisa member and played with the letters to create a new, related name. He then pretended to be his victim's homosexual lover. And if this wasn't creepy enough, he used as his ThaiVisa avatar the same avatar his victim was using on another forum.

What the Banker didn't realize, of course, is that everyone knew who he really was.

Some Quick Questions

1. Have you ever been stalked online?

2. If so, what do you think motivated the creep who stalked you?

Love En Route

There's a video doing the rounds at present called Love en Route. It's about an American who comes to Thailand to mend a broken heart. He's seen a little Thai girl posting photos of herself on Instagram and decides to track her down. Here's the video:

Does This Video Promote Stalking?

According to an article published in the UK's Daily Telegraph, the video condones online stalking.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelvideo/11444242/Thailand-tourism-video-romanticises-Instagram-stalking.html

Questions

1. What do you think -- does the video "promote" stalking?

2. Is any form of social media stalking acceptable?

[CharlieH]

Trolling.

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