How I Handled My MySpace Cyberbully

I had always thought MySpace was a fun space. I enjoyed posting messages and reading bulletins from family and friends. But one day while at work, my life got flipped upside down. I had added a person I thought was a friend, as she's a high profile person, nearly everywhere you go, she's there. She lives online claiming to be helping, or so I thought. My friendship with her went unnoticed for a period of about a year, when all of a sudden I received a threatening email and false reports against my MySpace account.

MySpace didn't listen to the false reports against my account, and I was at least unharmed in that respect, but the problems didn't stop there. This so called friend kept her games up of false reports against me, and closed my Windows Live Spaces. The closure of my Windows Live Spaces didn't really bother me as I felt no one read it anyway, and I always have things backed up and got a way cooler address now then I did before. So that turned out for the better, plus she doesn't know the new location of the Windows Live Spaces.

I decided it would be safe for me to block her on MySpace, so I did thinking it would end there. Then I decided to better protect myself I would report her to MySpace for her attempt in cyber bullying me. I was relieved in thinking that MySpace would do something about this action against my well being, even if we did find out the threat was empty.

My various attempts of getting MySpace to communicate with me earned me the automated response of:

Hello,

If you feel the harassment you are experiencing is threatening, please file a complaint with your local police department. Please document and record all instances of harassment/threats and have the police contact us for more information.

In addition, please block the person/people that are bothering you on MySpace. This will prevent them from commenting on your page or sending you private messages over the MySpace.com system.

To block a user you will need to go to their MySpace profile page . Underneath Send Message is a Block User button. Clicking that will block the user from leaving comments on your page or sending you messages.

Please note, MySpace has several privacy features that can also be utilized. From your home page, go to Account Settings and click on PrivacySettings.

If you feel a crime has been committed please contact your local Law Enforcement Department.

If you have already contacted Law Enforcement, please have them contact us so that we can assist them in their investigation. If the police are unable to contact us, please reply to this email and provide us with the contact information of the officer involved with this matter. Please include a case report number, the department's main phone number and the name of the officer assisting you so we can expedite your request.

Thank you,
MySpace.com
Customer Care

Rather disappointed in their auto response, I had to file the complaint several more times hoping to reach a person who could read at least. The funny and sad thing is... they had the nerve to attach a feedback survey to the above response that I received at least five times! Did they seriously think I was going to give them a good review when I didn't even get a HUMAN?

I don't feel my life is threatened by any means, but I dislike the fact that this person who appeared to be helping people has this horrible vile side to her. Her communication with me (one sided) was filled with lies, as were her personal blog entries explaining to people what she "didn't" do. As though she knew she was about to be exposed, but sadly the thing is, I know if I do, she will only become worse. So I'm trapped in being cyber bullied, and her fooling loads of people into thinking she's perfect. If only they knew.

I am shocked and sadden that MySpace support against cyber bullies is nothing more then telling people to call the cops and block the person. They don't warn the other person who is threatening, and harassing people online. It's no wonder that MySpace is all over the news about attacks and abused others have received through their site. It also takes about 2 days to get any contact back from MySpace, by then a person could be dead. At least with Facebook you get contact within a day, and often times within several hours. I realize Facebook has a higher level of respect for their members, but shouldn't MySpace have better responses to attacks through their pages then an automated "apply block"?

So now I'm left with her reading my blog entries on MySpace pretending I don't know that's what she's doing, and hoping she won't abuse my friends in the manor she did me. It's only a matter of time now before she becomes a stalker following me around forums. She's already a member of this site too. I am hoping coming forward standing up and letting others know, will stop it all before it worse.