September 29, 1999
Web posted at: 10:39 p.m. EDT (0239 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Jayne Hitchcock said she became a cyberstalking victim when someone used her name on the Internet and posted messages inviting personal contact.

There was a message posted on the World Wide Web, "saying that I was available for sex anytime of the day or night and listed my home phone number and my home address," said Hitchcock.

"We lived in Maryland at the time. We actually got phone calls, about 25 to 30 a day, from as far away as Germany."

Hitchcock said she felt she had nowhere to turn for help.

"When I went to the authorities -- local, county, state, even the FBI -- trying to get help, they all looked at me and said, 'We have no idea how to help you'," said Hitchcock.

Hitchcock took her story to Congress on Wednesday, where lawmakers are considering making interstate stalking and harassment over the Internet a federal crime.

"We can't let this kind of abuse continue," Hitchcock told the House Judiciary Committee's crime subcommittee. "I felt like someone had broken into my house, touched all of my things, didn't take anything and left. I felt violated and scared for my life," said Hitchcock.

"We're making that a crime so that we can do something about it to stop that kind of harassment," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Sue Kelley, R-N.Y., would broaden the current definition of stalking to include harassment by e-mail, telephone or any other form of interstate communications.

It would allow authorities to prosecute stalkers for threatening behavior even if there was no explicit threat.

It would toughen sentences for defendants with a previous conviction for a violent crime against the same victim -- and bail for suspects charged with stalking would be more difficult to obtain.

"Recent research has shown that more than 1 million women and more than 370,000 men are stalked every year," said Kelley. "About 59 percent of women victims are stalked by spouses, former spouses, live-in partners or dates."

The Justice Department said fewer than a third of states have anti-stalking laws that explicitly address Internet harassment.

Hitchcock eventually tracked down her alleged stalkers, with the help of friends who traced the offending e-mail messages to three people who were connected to a literary agency.

Hitchcock had become suspicious of the agency and made a complaint about it after it requested $75 to read her submission.

While three cannot be charged with a crime, Hitchcock has filed a $10 million civil suit against them. Since then, her lawyer has received a death threat, neighbors have received phone calls from people asking for information about her and complaints accusing Hitchcock of stalking have been filed with the Maryland Attorney General, the FBI and the Maryland state police.

"It got so bad I had to see a psychotherapist to deal with my fears and paranoia, and finally my husband and I moved to New England," she said.

Her suit is still pending, Hitchcock said, and less than a month ago, she received as many as a dozen hang-up calls daily at her current home for two consecutive weeks.

There are no definitive numbers available on cyberstalking, but law enforcement authorities in New York and Los Angeles estimate that 20 percent of all stalking cases involve the Internet.

Earlier Wednesday, advocates for abused women had asked Congress to renew funding under the Violence Against Women Act, a 1994 law that set aside federal dollars to fight domestic violence.

"There is no question that (the law) is making a difference," said Bonnie Campbell, director of the Justice Department's Violence Against Women Office.

"Communities across the country and all levels of government are creating coordinated, community-wide responses and are setting up the infrastructure needed to improve our response to violence against women," she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.