Online Harassment and Defamation of character

[LaurainColorado]

I will try to keep this short but I feel that you need all the information to make an educated call on what I should do next.

I used to run a message board with another woam who lives in MD. I found that she stole money from our donations bucket and I blew the whistle on her by emailing all of the board usres (575 people). I have the proof - screenshots from our joint paypal account. I then opened my own message board.

Since then, she has been calling my home repeatedly. She also ended up mailing all of the same users with a chat transcript between the two of us. I was fairly belligerant, my mistake.

Today I got to work and found out that she submitted a complaint about me to my corporation. I work for one of the largest companies in the world, so this is not something that I am taking lightly. She claimed that I was stealing from the company - which I was not.

Is there any legal recourse from my end? She called my house so much yesterday that I had to take the phone off the hook. She continues to say things about me on the internet. I feel that I could lose my job if this continues.


What can I do??

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I will try to keep this short but I feel that you need all the information to make an educated call on what I should do next.

I used to run a message board with another woam who lives in MD. I found that she stole money from our donations bucket and I blew the whistle on her by emailing all of the board usres (575 people). I have the proof - screenshots from our joint paypal account. I then opened my own message board.

Since then, she has been calling my home repeatedly. She also ended up mailing all of the same users with a chat transcript between the two of us. I was fairly belligerant, my mistake.

Today I got to work and found out that she submitted a complaint about me to my corporation. I work for one of the largest companies in the world, so this is not something that I am taking lightly. She claimed that I was stealing from the company - which I was not.

Is there any legal recourse from my end? She called my house so much yesterday that I had to take the phone off the hook. She continues to say things about me on the internet. I feel that I could lose my job if this continues.

This is very serious. You may want to write her a letter, certified return receipt, stating that your company received her letter and as of X date they have conforonted you about this. You might want to state that she knows perfectly well that the statements are untrue, specifically regarding certain claims, and demand that she make an immediate retraction and apology to your company. You may want to mention that she will ultimately be liable for any consequnces and has a chance to mitigate damages before this might occur, which will include but not limited to your losing your job and also any inability to obtain another job which will obviously be challenging without a letter of recommendation from your previous employer.

Personally, I might have handled things a little differently in the earlier stages but from this point on you probably want to handle them as such and be more careful in the future! Good luck!