Facebook, police take harassment claims seriously

ROCHESTER - Facebook harassment may seem a trivial pursuit to some but it’s no game to Rochester Police, who say they’ll aggressively prosecute harassment of any kind if evidence is found that someone has broken the law.

An Autumn Street resident recently called Rochester Police to complain about her ex-daughter-in-law, who was posting as her, according to a February Rochester Police log. The woman said she felt harassed and wanted police to make it stop. The responding officer suggested the woman contact Facebook and/or to delete her daughter-in-law’s account from her page.

Lori Richardson of Portsmouth, a social media expert, said Facebook hacking of this sort can happen to anyone. It even happened to her.

“Someone took my name and made a Facebook account with my name and my picture,” Richardson said earlier this week. “I didn’t see them do anything harmful. I didn’t even know they had done it. But one day I got a message about people I might want to connect to, and one of them was me.”

Richardson said it was kind of creepy and unnerving to see how easy it was for someone to set up a fraudulent Facebook account using her picture.

She said once she realized it she contacted Facebook and within a couple of days the “Facebook Police” had corrected the problem and banned the fraudulent account.

She said she also had friends of hers contact Facebook and vouch for her which speeded up Facebook’s enforcement of the incident.

“Within a couple of days it was gone and it didn’t hurt me in any way, but it’s scary to think I could grab your photo and start an account. People really have to pay attention to their Facebook pages.

Richardson is the president of Score More Sales of Portsmouth (scoremoresales.com) and works as a sales training and social selling consultant.

She said the incident the Rochester Police Officer responded to could have been as simple as the daughter-in-law “tagging” her.

Tagging is when you “tag,” or identify and say something about, the person in a picture, which links through to the “victim’s” Profile Page and timeline, making it visible on other “friends” news feeds.

One Facebook user said if that happens and you’re not happy with the post, simply “untag” the post and “unfriend” the perpetrator.

Richardson said you can also adjust your settings to restrict access to your profile page information.

“It’s surprising to see how many people allow strangers total access to their profile page,” Richardson said.

She said if someone tags you inappropriately you can remove the tag and you should report if to Facebook.

She also said everyone should pay attention to their pages and all of the posts.

Rochester Police Capt. Paul Toussaint said the Autumn Street woman’s complaints about Facebook harassment were nothing unusual for city police officers to have to contend with.

“We get a lot of Facebook complaints,” Toussaint said. “It’s the new form of harassment. Some (of the complaints) are frivolous and some are legitimate.”

He said there are a lot of high schoolers who cyberbully each other, but there are also many adult cases of harassment.

He said if police find evidence that someone has been harassed on Facebook they would definitely bring charges forward against the individual. Harassment is a misdemeanor, most often punishable by a fine.

The applicable statute is RSA 644-4, which reads in whole:

    644:4 Harassment. – 
    I. A person is guilty of a misdemeanor, and subject to prosecution in the jurisdiction where the communication originated or was received, if such person: 
       (a) Makes a telephone call, whether or not a conversation ensues, with no legitimate communicative purpose or without disclosing his or her identity and with a purpose to annoy, abuse, threaten, or alarm another; or 
       (b) Makes repeated communications at extremely inconvenient hours or in offensively coarse language with a purpose to annoy or alarm another; or 
       (c) Insults, taunts, or challenges another in a manner likely to provoke a violent or disorderly response; or 
       (d) Knowingly communicates any matter of a character tending to incite murder, assault, or arson; or 
       (e) With the purpose to annoy or alarm another, communicates any matter containing any threat to kidnap any person or to commit a violation of RSA 633:4; or a threat to the life or safety of another; or 
       (f) With the purpose to annoy or alarm another, having been previously notified that the recipient does not desire further communication, communicates with such person, when the communication is not for a lawful purpose or constitutionally protected. 
    II. As used in paragraph I, "communicates'' means to impart a message by any method of transmission, including but not limited to telephoning or personally delivering or sending or having delivered any information or material by written or printed note or letter, package, mail, courier service or electronic transmission, including electronic transmissions generated or communicated via a computer. For purposes of this section, "computer'' means a programmable, electronic device capable of accepting and processing data. 
    III. In any complaint or information brought for the enforcement of RSA 644:4, I(f), it shall not be necessary for the state to negate any exception, excuse, proviso, or exemption contained therein and the burden of proof of any exception, excuse, proviso, or exemption shall be upon the defendant. 
    IV. A person shall be guilty of a class B felony if the person violates RSA 644:4, I(a) under circumstances involving making telephone calls to a telephone number that he or she knows is being used, at the time of the calls, to facilitate the transportation of voters to polling places or otherwise to support voting or registering to vote.