UPDATE : The ISP in question has now launched a full investigation into the individual concerned below. Several other ISPs, websites and individuals have expressed similar experiences and are helping. Results are expected next week; this is by no means isolated to ISP Review.

It's a sad, yet quite often true, case that there are some truly vindictive and evil people on the Internet. These are individuals that seem to lack a moral centre of any kind and care not for the feelings of others.

So imagine our utter disgust when a frequent abuser (hate mail etc.) of ourselves, some of our forum members and the odd ISP and other website (he’s well recognised), responded with the following e-mail after I announced the death of a family member yesterday:

----- Original Message -----
From: "Pete C*******" <****@***bb.net>
To:
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2003 3:32 PM
Subject: Oh Dear


Can't really say i am sorry for hearing your news - you spend all your time being nasty,unreasonable and immature - you really do deserve all the bad luck you can get.

Maybe you'll think about this the next time you get on your high horse and play higher than thou tactics - afterall what goes around comes around.

Adios.

Perhaps the worst thing of all is that Pete C******* is an official staff (we believe he works in ‘support’) member for the largely respected UK ISP [NAME REMOVED].

Many of us have also had much more personal and direct threats made against ourselves, such as the one below:

I wonder if you will delete me when i knock your door pal, keep victimising me like this and ill use the address i was given yesterday and come knocking.

And that's a promise.

Clearly this is not the way for anybody, let alone the representative of an ISP, to behave. We even had to consult the police after concern for the safety of our various family members arose from the above message.

ISP Review has not once reported on any complaints or bad news against the ISP itself, we haven't had any need. Indeed both services are, quite frankly, very good. Thus the faults of Mr C******* should not be held against the service, yet it is a disgrace that he should be allowed to communicate in such a way.

For the record, anybody having problems with a potential Internet Stalker like this (the above is only a comparatively tame fraction of the abuse we’ve seen and received) should note the following advice (Thanks to North Dorset Police):

1) Log EVERY message sent or received for up to 12 months or 2 years, the longer the better.
2) NEVER respond to abusive messages sent to you personally.

Remember, it’s against UK law to send hate mail to people via the post or e-mail. Anything that clearly bridges the bounds of common decency (threats, hate mail and abusive words) can be included in the above.

In the past few days some of our volunteer helpers have also begun receiving death threats and threats of grievous bodily harm, however we don't think this is linked to the same person. The serious nature of these threats may lead to a police investigation.