Britain's First "Web-Rage" Attack

brown-eyed slug writes "The BBC is reporting what is claimed to be Britain's first "web-rage" attack. A man drove seventy miles to assault his victim with a pick-axe handle after they exchanged insults in a Yahoo! chat room." From the article: "Det Cons Christopher Creagh, of the Metropolitan Police, said: 'This is the first instance of a web-rage attack.' Det Sgt Jean-Marc Bazzoni, of Essex Police, added the case demonstrates the importance of protecting one's identity on the internet. 'Mr Jones had posted pictures of his family on the web and had chatted to Gibbons on an audio link,' he said. 'It demonstrates how easily other users can put two and two together and also shows how children could also find themselves in danger.'"

Comments

London, that great cesspool ...

[Marcion]

... into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Re:That is why.....

[ettlz]

on that note .. please don't /whois please please pleeeeeeease!

Whois record for pleasepleaseplease.com.

Re:That is why.....

[dfenstrate]

No one was ever talking about dueling. To reiterate: Some UK pansy thinks it's illegal to track down someone who has wronged you and demand restitution. I say such actions are perfectly rational and the point out in many states in the US you can go even farther.

Sometime's it's pretty crystal clear that you've been wronged. You don't need an objective third party to sort the truth out, you need it set right.

I'd say tracking down the offender and giving him a chance to set things right is rational. If he can solve it himself, than it's better than clogging up the courts and relying on the police to sort out petty crimes.

Note that the OP didn't mention that he threatened the perp in anyway, and he wouldn't have to. Merely being identified is probably enough to scare such fraudsters into compliance as they have a lot more to lose than the money if the wronged party goes to the cops with a positive identification.