
Ask HN: My wife keeps being harassed in WhatsApp, what can I do? - stdcall83
My wife receives constantly receives harassment messages in whatsup for couple of months. it seem to originate from different local phone numbers.
Once in a while the number is switched, but the content is the same.
Looks like all the numbers are from burner phones.<p>What I tried:
* Used Truecaller type apps to identify the person, but no results.
* I created a mock website and sent a link to the person behind it, hoping that he will press the link and I could track his IP. but unfortunately he&#x2F;she didn&#x27;t press the link.<p>Anyone has any idea how can I identify the person behinds this ?
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codegeek
Forget technology solutions. Depends on who the harasser is. I would respond
to them with something like "You have been reported to the police and feel
free to keep doing this". I would still report this to the police even though
I know they won't do much until it becomes a real threat but a record with
police is a good start.

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necovek
Assuming you tried going through whatsup first, report them to police or cell
operator, let them deal with it: they might have access to which actual phones
(IMEI) have been used for those numbers, and if those devices have also been
used with non-burner numbers.

If they are indeed multiple burner _phones_ (different IMEI numbers), then
police it is: they can get IP and similar data from whatsup, etc.

Remember, you don't need to know who is harrasing her, just for them to stop!

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stdcall83
Went to the police, twice. they did nothing. how do I go through whatsup ?

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hackermailman
You're supposed to go through a lawyer when dealing with the police otherwise
they just brush you off. Said lawyer will tell you not to escalate (like
sending embedded payloads), and to document everything for the future. You
went to the cops twice and gave up, imagine how many times this harasser has
tried to screw you over, probably phoning in fake harassment claims to every
police station they can dozens of times in hopes you get screwed over somehow
by them. That's the petty game harassers do all the time. Should this person
ever confront you in the physical world, and you do something violent to them,
they will absolutely be lying to the police about it trying to put all the
blame on you.

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technological
One potential solution.Assuming you are in US , get a Google Voice number and
change your wife WhatsApp account to that number (Account - Change number).
This way she would not lose all her chat history and continue use new number
which the person won't know. You route calls from old number in Google voice.
So everything will be usual just the person harassing will not have her new
number

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umtksa
how about spaming the harraser with whatsapp bots? If you are using iOS you
can do it without a library or service just use siri shortcuts to make a
spammer. like send 100 messages for every recieved message here is a easy to
use spammer i found on github (not tried)
[https://github.com/gaultierlecaillon/whatsapp_spammer](https://github.com/gaultierlecaillon/whatsapp_spammer)
edit: added link to github repo

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richardknop
Change phone number and open new WhatsApp account.

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dyeje
Blocking them as they come up or changing accounts seems easiest.

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Tepix
WhatsApp?

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stdcall83
Yep. sorry.

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max_
You can send them an image payload with spyware embedded in it

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stdcall83
Tell me more

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max_
[https://securelist.com/png-embedded-malicious-payload-
hidden...](https://securelist.com/png-embedded-malicious-payload-hidden-in-a-
png-file/74297/)

~~~
nao360
This is probably really obvious but just in case: be careful you don't break
any laws in the process. Would be a shame to land in as much hot water as the
perpetrator. Good luck!

