Alexis Green breaks down over stalking horror

Technology is widely seen as a positive thing. It has transformed people’s lives, made connections stronger, enabled breakthroughs in things like science, and helped people to live longer. But with all things good, must come bad.

Today, speakers can add items to your shopping lists, luggage can be tracked via Bluetooth, and music can be enjoyed without a wire. But now, large portions of the population are using gadgets for ulterior motives, namely, to stalk and track their victims.

Many have experienced this. But most will not have heard of it. Ex-Love Island star Montana Brown revealed last month that she received a notification on her phone telling her an AirTag — a 10p-sized Apple device used to locate and track items such as keys, luggage or pets — was tracking her location.

After posting about the discovery on her social media channels, the 27-year-old said “the sheer amount of comments and messages” she had received since made her realise “this is clearly something that happens quite often”. Unfortunately, she was right.

The misuse of tracking devices is on the rise, a trend that the National Stalking Consortium has described as “extremely dangerous”.

These tracking devices are both hard to detect and cheap to buy. Apple AirTags are available on Amazon for as little as £30. Some can be found on websites like Amazon for as little as £6.99.

The Suzy Lamplugh Trust, which supports victims of stalking, was founded in 1986 by Paul and Diana Lamplugh following the disappearance of their daughter Suzy, who they believe was stalked before her murder.

Tallulah Belassie-Page, a spokesperson for the Trust, told Express.co.uk that it has seen a rise in “tech-enabled” stalking, adding: “Perpetrators cotton on to these trends and unfortunately abuse them. There is a lot of technology out there that can be manipulated in the wrong hands.”

A hundred percent of the cases that come through the National Stalking Helpline — which has helped more than 65,000 people to date — have some kind of cyber element.

“Several” of these calls have included reports of AirTags being used, with “tech-enabled stalking on the rise”.

Cyberstalkers have used tracking as a part of their criminal activity for years — through methods of GPS — but Charlotte Hooper, the director of The Cyber Helpline, told Express.co.uk AirTags are providing stalkers with easier and more effective methods compared to what was seen only a few years ago.

Developers have recently updated the devices with safety features, alerting iPhone users if one has been travelling with them for an extended period. And for Android users, an app can be downloaded to identify any such tracking device. However, as Ms Hooper noted: “[This] only helpful if you have a suspicion that you are being tracked in the first place.”

While the numbers show an increase in stalkers using methods related to AirTags, the spike could just be a result of more victims becoming aware of the methods used, she added.

Apple came under fire when the AirTag was first released in April 2021, but it was not until last year that safety features were introduced.

“Manufacturers are not allowed to sell a car that hasn’t been rigorously safety tested for a range of real-life scenarios,” Ms Hooper said. “Why can smart technologies be sold without the same rigorous testing? The culture of releasing smart technologies first and fixing security issues later is putting people’s lives at risk.”

Other GPS trackers, she pointed out, have little to no safety features at all.

Ms Hooper added: “It is vital that companies selling tracking devices and those that have the capability to assist in searching for them, such as phone manufacturers, collaborate with each other to explore and create effective safety features that are accessible to everyone.”

Stalking is no longer a case of being followed in the street but is defined by the Department of Justice as “a pattern of repeated and unwanted attention, harassment, contact, or any other course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear”. As with crimes like sexual violence, stalking is about power and control.

In the UK, one in five women and one in ten men will experience stalking in their lifetimes. From April 2021 to March 2022 alone, 1.8 million people in England and Wales were affected.

During the year ending March 2022, a total of 7,889 people reported having been stalked at least once since the age of 16. The majority — 71 percent — were women.

A total of 2,728 claimed to have previously been a victim of cyberstalking at least once since they were 16 with 25 percent saying an incident had occurred within the previous year.

Stalking in any form is “incredibly emotionally damaging” with many suffering from symptoms consistent with PTSD, and 91 percent of victims experienced mental health issues as a result of being stalked, according to a study conducted by the Trust in 2019.

In some cases, the stalking goes on for years with one anonymous victim sharing their horrific experience: “It has been going on for nine years and generally comes and goes anyway. In the last year, it has only been through social media.”

Organisations like the Suzy Lamplugh Trust are hoping to raise awareness as some victims don’t realise what they are experiencing is stalking.

Today, victims can receive repeated, unwanted messages through social media — even if they have blocked the perpetrator.

Bluetooth devices such as Amazon’s Alexa and Apple earphones are also being hacked by those known to the owners. One victim told the Trust that they went to the police after the perpetrator took over their TV and Amazon Echo.

Some even send small amounts of money, typically a few pence, via online banking to continue hounding their victim when they have been blocked on all other channels.

Tech-enabled abuse through the use of smart devices, Bluetooth earphones or speakers is typically used in the context of a former intimate partner as they previously had close access to the victim.

But it isn’t necessarily restricted to an ex-partner and, commonly, people who fall victim to strangers or acquaintances are left out of the conversation when they too need support.

“That’s what we’re here for,” Ms Belassie-Page said. “We live very public lives now on social media and perpetrators may have very easy access to victims. And that’s not fear-mongering, it’s just to make people aware of how they’re posting online and kind of trying to stay more private.

“It’s important that victims feel empowered to say what they’re experiencing is actually stalking. It is not because of these products that victims are being stalked, but they make it easier to gain constant access to them.

“The onus shouldn’t be on the individual to take themselves offline or keep themselves safe. It’s not acceptable — victims are having to silence themselves. Instead, the onus should be on the tech companies to make their products safe by design, to ensure that violence against women and girls is acknowledged within the design process.”

While those experiencing stalking may be high, the numbers suggest that many cases are going unreported.

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Ms Belassie-Page claimed from the Trust’s experience police often don’t take cyberstalking as seriously as in-person stalking, and it is often mischarged as malicious communications. Or, a victim will simply be told to come offline and not to post in the first place.

According to the Police Recorded Crime and Outcomes open data tables, there were 118,411 reports of stalking to police in the year ending March last year, amounting to just 7 percent of all estimated cases in England and Wales in that period.

Last year, a super-complaint was launched against the police by the National Stalking Consortium, alleging that online behaviours are not gathered by police or not deemed to be sufficient evidence to amount to a crime.

The report stated: “This can mean that vital evidence proving the crime of stalking is being missed or excluded thus lowering the chances of the perpetrator being convicted.”

The UK’s national stalking helpline can be reached on 0808 802 0300. The Cyber Helpline has developed a Cyberstalking Action Plan to help victims of cyberstalking.

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