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Net revenge Feature
Net
revenge
More and more people are
exacting revenge via the Net.
This month we take a look into the
murky world of online vengeance
WORDS: DAN OLIVER
IMAGE: ERIK DREYER/GETTY
HE NET’S A FUNNY PLACE. GO INTO
any chat room and you can see people
pouring out their hearts and souls to
strangers on the other side of the world.
People feign friendship and gang up on ‘newbies’;
relationships are intensified, lasting a fraction of
the time they would offline – conversation just
seems to dry up after the initial A/S/L excitement
(that’s age, sex, location in case you don’t know). ➜
T
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Feature Net revenge
C A S E S T U DY
Take your pic
NAME: “John” French
LIVES: London
AGE: 36
AFTER SIX YEARS OF
marriage I found out
that my wife had been
cheating on me. I was
totally devastated. She’d met this
guy and she told me she loved him –
that was it.
We’d messed around with a digital
camera about a year earlier and I still
had the pics on my PC. When I
mentioned this to a friend of mine he
told me I should put them on the
Internet. I had seen a few sites where
you could post naked pictures of your
other half, so I found the images and
sent them in. A few days later the
pictures appeared on the site.
Since my wife’s address book was
still on my PC, I pasted the link into
an email and sent it to her friends
and family with the subject: ‘Your
friend and loved one’. I couldn’t stop
laughing about it, but unfortunately
the images were taken down when
she complained.
● There really are sites out there that enable you to
send stinky material to people you hate
victims as ‘marks’. The introduction to one
such site explains the kind of people you are
dealing with when Net revenge is on the menu,
claiming: “The ‘mark’ is anyone who has done
something unpleasant, foul, unforgivable, or
fatal to you, your family, your property or your
friends. Never think of a ‘mark’ as a victim of
dirty tricks. Think of the ‘mark’ as a very
deserving target for revenge.”
You could well be forgiven for just sitting
back and kicking up your heels, safe in the
knowledge that no one would attack you, and
even if they did, that their details would be
logged; after all everything online leaves a trace.
Because of this over-familiarity, tempers can
get frayed and heated arguments often take
place between people that weren’t even aware
of each other’s existence moments earlier. The
TYPICAL NET USERS
problem with the Net is that you never know
MIGHT NOT SEEM LIKE THE
who you may be insulting or who may take
offence to what you have to say. It pays to
MOST THREATENING GROUP
watch your step, but if (perish the thought)
OF PEOPLE, BUT CROSS THEM
you do end up getting on the wrong side of
a Net nutter – BE AFRAID!
AT YOUR PERIL
Internet revenge is the new black and the Net
is the tool of choice for an increasing number
The problem is that not only do these sites give
of people who want to get their own back.
tips on how to get at someone, they also
Typical Net users might not seem like the most
demonstrate how to avoid detection.
threatening group of people, but cross them at
“One secure way of ‘getting even’ through
your peril; with the help of the Net they can
the Net, is by using a computer that doesn’t
launch a scathing attack at a moment’s notice
force you to give away a username and
from any online PC.
password, and where nobody can confirm that
“There are many ways to get someone back
you were at the terminal, behind that keyboard
over the Net. You can do a bit of email
at that specific time,” explains one
DIDYOU
bombing, subscribe them to hundreds
revenge-fuelled Web site. “This situation
“
”
KNOW? becomes real when you’re at a public
of pornographic mailing lists, use DoS
See one man’s attempt
attacks to slow down their computer
at online revenge at:
www.psychoex
(not used so much today) or ‘flame’
girlfriend.com
them on public message boards,”
a regular poster at the newsgroup alt.revenge
told me. “I often get revenge simply by
humiliating people with a witty Shockwave
cartoon and posting it on my Web site, then
sending lots of people the URL. The thing
about the Internet is that it can be used in two
ways – as an anonymous weapon for tasks such
as mail bombing, or as a public forum to
humiliate the target.”
It’s not just newsgroups and chat forums
where people get together and espouse the joys
of Net revenge; there are hundreds of Web
● The Avenger’s Handbook is one of the most
respected works in the revenge community
pages dedicated to it too; and they refer to their
Ten sites with revenge in mind...
1 REVENGE LADY 2 CYBER
ANGELS
www.revengelady.com
Revenge Lady provides
advice and information on
the ancient act of revenge
and specialises in the lurve
department. You can ask
Revenge Lady for tips or
simply view the archives for
some good tips.
www.cyberangels.org
For every action there is an
equal reaction and the Cyber
Angels are there to help
victims of online revenge.
If you feel you’ve been
unfairly treated, make this
your first online stop.
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September 2002
3 PAYBACK
www.thepayback.com
This is more of a revenge
portal – or a ‘rortal’, if you
like. You can read spiteful
stories or browse a number
of revenge-related products
in the online shop. There's
even links to some funny
vengeance videos.
THE
4
AVENGER’S
FRONT PAGE
www.ekran.no/html/revenge
A mass of revenge-related
info abounds, with hundreds
of pranks. Special note goes
to the eleven Commandments
of Revenge – these people
are not to be messed with!
5 REVENGE
TIME
www.revengetime.com
This site has been lovingly
designed using Flash
technology and is well worth
the wait for each section to
download. The 'bathroom
video' suggestion is a
particular favourite of ours.
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Net revenge Feature
terminal at a library, or in an Internet café,
where nobody knows you or can prove that
you were at the terminal at that specific time.”
A brief search on the Net not only throws up
instructions on how to get revenge using
computer skills, but also brings back a number
of online operators that will provide
‘alternative’ services. These include the postage
of a dead fish to an enemy, or even something
worse in a box. In the words of Big Brother’s
Alex ‘That’s disgastin!’
So there’s plenty of ammunition out there for
would-be avengers, but what drives these
people to feel they need to take such drastic
measures against others and what kind of hairbrained schemes do they end up employing to
try and get one over on their ‘mark’? Our
individual case studys reveal a little more on
the background to these Web rage incidents,
but first take a look at our run-down from one
to seven of the most spiteful, cunning and
downright devilish acts of Net revenge.
Don’t be too hard on your mark though, just
remember that they could easily do any of
these things to you too. Sometimes it’s just best
to cut your losses and run.
C A S E S T U DY
Fast forward
NAME: “Jim” Williams
LIVES: South Wales
AGE: 26
IT WASN’T REALLY AN ACT OF
revenge, I just thought it would be
funny to get this bloke called Steve
into trouble at work.
I was temping at the council offices at the time;
they’d let me use the machine of one of the girls
that was on maternity leave, and I was using her
email account. She must have been on some
office mailing list because every now and then an
email would come around with a crap joke in it or
a useless cartoon. A few days before I was due to
leave a really nasty email was sent around out of
the blue, having a real dig at the boss and it came
from Steve’s account. I couldn’t resist forwarding
it on to the boss. I don’t know what happened to
Steve, but I bet he doesn’t send that stupid list
around any more.
6 USENET
alt.revenge This is a
newsgroup where only the
most avid revenge fanatic
should consider entering.
New users are viewed with
suspicion, with the group
falling into two main groups:
those seeking advice and
those giving it.
Seven revengeful sins
EMAIL BOMBING This is the act of
repeatedly sending emails to the mark’s
email account. There are nasty programs that
can do this, but if you’re sending the messages
from your regular home email account – beware!
You can be traced. REVENGE RATING: Nasty
1
FLAMING This isn’t the most advanced
form of revenge online but it can be pretty
effective. Simply enter a newsgroup or forum
and tell everyone what a nasty person the
mark is. Alternatively you can alter your Net
settings so that your enemy’s name is displayed
in place of yours. REVENGE RATING: Bad
2
THE HOMEPAGE TRICK Whilst a
colleague is away from their desk, open
their Net browser and go to Tools ➙ Internet
Options. Here you enter the URL of a funny or
embarrassing site. REVENGE RATING: Mild
3
LONELY HEARTS Put out a few contact
ads with your mark’s name and email
address included. Use every source available
such as dating services and newsgroups. You
can also find classified sites to use too.
REVENGE RATING: Nasty
4
C A S E S T U DY
Chat rage
NAME: “Fiona”
Tutchener
LIVES: East Anglia
AGE: 29
YOU GET SOME REALLY
sad cases in chat rooms
and one night when I
was online this guy started coming
on to me. When that happens I
usually just ignore them but he was
sending me personal messages and
telling me how much he’d love to
meet up, as he’d noticed that we
shared the same home town.
He kept saying how boring his wife
was and how he thought we could
have a great time. In the end I had to
put him on ‘ignore’. Then he started
bad-mouthing me in the main chat
lobby and I got really angry.
I found his email address in his
user details and spent the next hour
or so surfing between porn sites,
subscribing his address to the dirtiest
ones I could find. Then I went onto a
gay newsgroup and posted a request
for ‘a friend’ followed by his contact
information. Hopefully his wife saw
some of the replies!
PUBLIC HUMILIATION If your mark has
let you take embarrassing pictures of them,
spread their secrets far and wide via a Web site
or a third party. Be sure to pass on the URL to
everyone that knows them.
REVENGE RATING: Nasty
5
EMAIL TOMFOOLERY People say silly
things when using email, not realising
that others will turn their words against them –
take advantage of this and save all your emails.
You never know when they’ll come in handy.
REVENGE RATING: Bad
6
SEND SOMETHING SMELLY There are a
number of sites on the Net that enable
you to send really disgusting and smelly objects
to your arch-enemies. However, they do cost
money though. REVENGE RATING: Nasty ■
7
7 REAL
REVENGE
8 AVENGER’S
HANDBOOK
realrevenge.com/index.htm
According to the good
people at Real Revenge
they put the 'practical' in
'practical joke', and take the
job of providing revenge
products, services and
advice very seriously indeed.
www.student.uit.no
/~paalde/revenge/TAH.html
Since 1993 the Avenger's
Handbook has been the bible
for online revenge-seekers.
Featured within it you’ll find
all the information you need
for on and offline vengeance.
THE ULTIMATE
REVENGE
9
LIST OF
10
AGAINST
PRACTICAL JOKES THOSE WHO
www.lysator.liu.se/jokes
/practical.html This isn't the
easiest site to find your way
araound – but hidden within
are some funny and quite
disturbing acts of revenge.
Do not try at home.
September 2002
DESERVE IT
members.tripod.com
/PingTheNaven/
Each paragraph takes on a
new colour, font and size. It's
a step-by-step guide to
revenge – in a civilised manner.
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