Click here to return to the Ministrywarning web site regarding convicted criminal and fugitive Ken Parks of Duluth, GA. Parks runs a fraudulent "ministry" and "charity," that he calls ETC Ministries, last known to be operated from his residence in Duluth, as well as unlicensed businesses AtlantaMAXPhoto, Fotos by Ken and Ansisoft. Since 2000, Parks has been consumed with stalking, harassing, and threatening numerous people, including those in his own family, via web sites, chatrooms, e-mail and regular mail. Parks falsely claims he has won all of his pro se (without an attorney) lawsuits against his victims, when in fact the documentation shows he has actually lost his lawsuits.
Although the Internet offers many good things, it has also become a cesspool for the worst criminal types of people. Most of the victims of Ken Parks' multiple-year harassment campaign never engaged in chat forums nor advertised themselves openly on the Internet. One person's name was found on the Internet due to that person's involvement in a non-profit organization which posted contact e-mail information which Parks used to further harass that victim. Parks contacted long-lost former friends to find more contact information for his other victims, and since about 2000 he has persistently and obsessively harassed and libeled numerous people on his web sites and on chat forums. Prior to his cyberstalking campaign, Parks' victims had no contact with him, in some cases for 25 or more years.
The incidents of people like Ken Parks actively looking for stalking victims in chat forums and through fraudulent "ministries" and sensationalist websites are astronomically high, whereas the rates of people like Parks either being arrested or serving any lengthy terms in prison for their cyber crimes are disproportionately low. Parks has been banned from chat forums and has had numerous websites taken down by web host companies due to his violation of their Terms of Service agreements, but he has still tried to obsessively cyberstalk his victims.
Currently, there is a fugitive status arrest warrant in Connecticut against Ken Parks for the crime of harassment. Parks has been warned that if anything harmful happens to any of his victims, he will be the number one suspect and will be investigated thoroughly. State and federal legislators and other officials on states' levels have been working on behalf of Parks' victims and other cyberstalked victims to enact stronger cyberstalking laws and advocate for stronger enforcement of those laws. Until Parks is held accountable for his crimes, the ministrywarning website will continue to be posted as a public warning.
Numerous victim advocates urge people to not get onto chat rooms or otherwise advertise themselves due to the ever-increasing number of victims of cyber crimes. People who are foolish or naive enough to post personal information on chat forums and personal webpages can expect to have cyberstalkers crash into their world. What most people don't realize is that any person -- even those who are not involved in any way with the Internet -- can also have cyberstalkers such as Ken Parks launch Internet smear campaigns against them and harass them through telephone calls and post their addresses on the Internet for other cyberstalkers to see. This is exactly the extent to which Parks has obsessively pursued his victims, even those who had no connections to the Internet whatsoever.
Below are the steps that victims of cyberstalkers can take:
1. Document EVERYTHING related to the cyberstalking incident(s), and bring that documentation to the police. Be clear and organized in your description of everything related to the cyber crime. The more personal information you know about your cyberstalker the better. Many police are overburdened with the seemingly unlimited number of cyberstalking complaints, but be politely insistent that you want action taken in the form of an arrest warrant. Ken Parks' own long-term criminal record helped his victims gain support from law enforcement and other officials so as to get one arrest warrant issued against him for harassment. These victims' state and federal advocates are working to get more arrest warrants issued against Ken Parks, and other cyberstalkers, and see them held accountable for their crimes. Many cyberstalkers have criminal records that stretch back long before the existence of the Internet.
2. Know your state's laws about all the forms of cyberstalking and harassment that qualify as either misdemeanors or felonies. Advocate for yourself and contact your county's prosecutor to help in the processing of your police complaint for arrest against your cyberstalker. Politely cite your state law's to the prosecutor. Further advocate for yourself by contacting your state and federal representatives and senators, your state's attorney general, and other state and federal authorities to seek their support to get laws enforced against cyberstalkers and other cyber criminals. Send a copy of your correspondence to the FBI and to U.S. Attorneys to your federal legislators to enlist their help as you report cyberstalking crimes to the federal authorities.
There are efforts in Congress and in individual states to clean up the Internet and enforce stricter sentences against those guilty of committing cyber crimes. New York Times reporter Tom Zeller, Jr., included this information in a 17 April 2006 article:
State legislatures took notice around 1999 and began passing laws that make cyberstalking a crime. Three months ago, President Bush signed federal anti-cyberstalking legislation. . . . According to Ms. Hitchcock, the director of Working to Halt Online Abuse, federal cyberstalking legislation can provide needed leverage in pursuing what are often complicated cases. Perpetrator and victim might reside in different states, for instance, and the evidence might be in the hands of Internet companies all over the country, or the world. The law also gives the F.B.I. and other federal law enforcement agencies greater purview over cyberstalking.
3. Contact your state's victim's advocate office for any additional help, such as the possibility of getting court-issued restraining orders against your cyberstalker.
4. Be careful of some Internet organizations which claim to assist victims of cyber crimes. Some of these are fraudulent and will only add to your problems. It's safer to go with well-known victim advocate organizations and victim advocate offices which have real physical addresses and proven reputations.
5. Inform family and friends about being victimized by a cyberstalker. The support from family and friends can be invaluable. Discussing the issue with employers and co-workers can be an option but one to exercise with discretion. Not all employers or co-workers are sympathetic to stalking situations. Fortunately for many of the victims of Ken Parks' cyberstalking campaign, employers and co-workers, along with family, friends and neighbors, have all been very understanding and supportive.
6. As much as you may detest the use of firearms, it's a dangerous world and cyberstalking victims should be prepared to defend themselves. Most state laws permit the use of deadly force in self-defense, especially when a record has been established against a cyberstalker who may seek to cause physical harm. Contact an NRA firearms safety instructor. Better safe than sorry.
7. In the case of someone like Ken Parks, who advertises himself on the Internet as a "ministry leader" of his ETC Ministries in Duluth, Georgia, contacting the media is also a good option so as to warn others about the cyberstalkers' Internet tactics to get more victims. Click here for the news article on Ken Parks. Parks also advertises himself on the Internet as being a professional photographer (fotosbyken or Fotos by Ken and AtlantaMAXPhoto or Atlanta MAX Photo) and as a computer specialist (Ansisoft). His ETC Ministries, Fotos by Ken, Atlanta MAX Photo are unregistered (for details click here). Parks' Ansisoft computer business (which was at one time registered) may be defunct. Cyberstalkers who try to pass themselves off as respectable professionals on the Internet are not only a threat to their physical communities but to the Internet community as well.
Like many cyberstalkers, Ken Parks gives every impression that he cannot stand to be ignored and he apparently gets quite a rush trying to aggravate, embarrass, intimidate, and threaten as many people as he can. All the while he claims that he is the cyberstalked victim by those who have successfully exposed him in his own community and on the Internet as the dangerous, harassing, libelous criminal that he is. Documented truth speaks louder than his lies, and the more libelous attacks he obsessively makes against his victims, the more he proves for all to see that he is a mentally unstable cyberstalker.
As many victims of cyber crimes can attest to, there are no guarantees that any or all of these efforts will stop persistent and obsessive cyberstalkers, but many of these steps have either stopped or significantly curtailed some stalkers. Throughout Ken Parks' cyberstalking campaign he has sought to gain attention for himself at the expense of numerous people. What he didn't count on is the attention he has gained from the police in Georgia and Connecticut, the FBI, state and federal legislators and other authorities, and from the collection agencies seeking the thousands of dollars he owes them.
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