How we turned the tables to catch my sister’s Bumble stalker

Post by majormajor » Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 1:12 AM UTC

giraffe_lady wrote: post #77

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> nothing would have come of it had they not traced the guy Notify the cops. Track the guy down. Go to the station and request someone come out with you. This takes cops off the desk, which they’re rarely against unless you’re a nutter.

> unless you’re a nutter. Or undocumented, or a member of another group for whom interactions with the police are potentially dangerous. Or for that matter, what if you are "a nutter?" People with mental illness also get stalked, and also deserve protection. Going in person to the police station is unwise for so so many reasons for so many people. If this approach works for you then cool, for you. It's not going to w…

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 1:17 AM UTC

bigpeach wrote: post #12

ketzo wrote: post #3

Maybe obvious, but uh: don’t fucking do this! I get it, I'm an older brother, I would wanna go ballistic too. But the fact that these guys skipped over "notify the police" and went straight to "seek out in-person confrontation" is insane! Stalkers are not people in their right mind. Staking out and planning to “citizen’s arrest”(???) someone who has repeatedly visited late at night to threaten and harass is NOT SAFE…

I thought this too. But you can feel incredibly powerless if all you do is “let the police handle it.” Even in this instance, nothing would have come of it had they not traced the guy. Prosecution of crime happens after a crime is committed. Cops can’t do much if you’re worried someone will harm you or a loved one. Even if stalking is illegal, cops won’t / can’t feasibly spend the resources investigating and punishin…

Post by yreg » Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 1:21 AM UTC

naturalauction wrote: post #84

yreg wrote: post #72

> Side note for Bumble — this is what we would call an “entity resolution” problem, leading to safety problems for your platform. When someone installs your app, you need to detect whether they have already installed it previously. If they have, then their activity (including blocks and people who have already declined them) should be linked to this new account. What is Bumble supposed to do if the user asks them to…

One approach on iOS is to store unique identifier in the “Keychain” (or iCloud itself) which is data kept in the cloud tied to a user’s Apple ID account. Of course this is only an impediment to a determined stalker (who could create a new Apple ID). But a determined stalker could also use a fake name and get a new phone number. See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25276393/how-to-ban-an-i... for more details.

Post by zoklet-enjoyer » Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 1:40 AM UTC

Post by ceejayoz » Tue, Jan 24, 2023, 1:44 AM UTC

Eisenstein wrote: post #90

fphhotchips wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As per the article, they definitely did call the police beforehand. Clearly the police had taken little, if any, action. It's hidden, but it's there: "my sister had already had a couple of police visits about the previous incidents".

What did they do besides doxing him and confronting him online that helped? None of their 'let's catch him' antics were helpful and were actually stupid.