Legal issue

[Crazycat690]

I'm not going to go in on details but I've got a legal question, if anyone knows the answer I'd be happy to hear it.

So the situation is this, a "friend" is threatening to press charges against me unless he gets a certain amount of money before the end of the year, behind this is a very small prank, however, I was wondering isn't that kind of blackmailing pretty illegal? It's all very silly but he wont listen to reason, I don't know exactly how to research this myself but if doing this kind of blackmailing is in fact, illegal, then I would probably be able to convince him to back off?

Please help against this very bad person!

 

[Valkyrie101]

I'm not a legal scholar by any means, but I'm fairly sure blackmail is illegal in Britain.

 

[Crazycat690]

I'm not a legal scholar by any means, but I'm fairly sure blackmail is illegal in Britain.

Well I live in Finland^^ But I'm sure the laws are fairly similar in the western world

 

[The Stonker]

I'm not going to go in on details but I've got a legal question, if anyone knows the answer I'd be happy to hear it.

So the situation is this, a "friend" is threatening to press charges against me unless he gets a certain amount of money before the end of the year, behind this is a very small prank, however, I was wondering isn't that kind of blackmailing pretty illegal? It's all very silly but he wont listen to reason, I don't know exactly how to research this myself but if doing this kind of blackmailing is in fact, illegal, then I would probably be able to convince him to back off?

Please help against this very bad person!

Tell him that he has no proof that you pulled this prank or any evidence at all.
Plus that he has threatend you to take a small prank to court except he pays you money is blackmail and should be regarded as an offense and if he decides to take it too court then record him actually saying " I want you to pay me moneyz if you don't blablabla".
Then he will pay up the court cost and everything will be fucked.
Of course he's just a dick.

 

[effilctar]

I'm not going to go in on details but I've got a legal question, if anyone knows the answer I'd be happy to hear it.

So the situation is this, a "friend" is threatening to press charges against me unless he gets a certain amount of money before the end of the year, behind this is a very small prank, however, I was wondering isn't that kind of blackmailing pretty illegal? It's all very silly but he wont listen to reason, I don't know exactly how to research this myself but if doing this kind of blackmailing is in fact, illegal, then I would probably be able to convince him to back off?

Please help against this very bad person!

Long story short: if his property was damaged/ruined due to said prank, you're screwed. If he needed medical aid as a result of said prank, you're screwed. Almost any other situation, I believe this includes him needing yet refusing medical aid, you're clean, he has nothing.

EDIT: Also, if the latter is the case, try and get him blackmailing you recorded, or get a witness and sue him.

 

[Crazycat690]

I'm not going to go in on details but I've got a legal question, if anyone knows the answer I'd be happy to hear it.

So the situation is this, a "friend" is threatening to press charges against me unless he gets a certain amount of money before the end of the year, behind this is a very small prank, however, I was wondering isn't that kind of blackmailing pretty illegal? It's all very silly but he wont listen to reason, I don't know exactly how to research this myself but if doing this kind of blackmailing is in fact, illegal, then I would probably be able to convince him to back off?

Please help against this very bad person!

Long story short: if his property was damaged/ruined due to said prank, you're screwed. If he needed medical aid as a result of said prank, you're screwed. Almost any other situation, I believe this includes him needing yet refusing medical aid, you're clean, he has nothing.

EDIT: Also, if the latter is the case, try and get him blackmailing you recorded, or get a witness and sue him.

Okay I better just say what prank I did^^ I altered his Facebook profile to him liking men, yes that's it, and told him later. Anyway I do think in our modern age you can proove it was done on my computer, I couldn't resist it, he was for some wierd reason still logged in on my computer...

Anyway then he did the mistake to try blackmail me via facebook, so I do have the messege where he says, "money or police" so if he decides to go the the police I have some pretty good evidence

So no physical property was destroyed, and he's probably healthy too^^

 

[Hairetos]

I'm not going to go in on details but I've got a legal question, if anyone knows the answer I'd be happy to hear it.

So the situation is this, a "friend" is threatening to press charges against me unless he gets a certain amount of money before the end of the year, behind this is a very small prank, however, I was wondering isn't that kind of blackmailing pretty illegal? It's all very silly but he wont listen to reason, I don't know exactly how to research this myself but if doing this kind of blackmailing is in fact, illegal, then I would probably be able to convince him to back off?

Please help against this very bad person!

Long story short: if his property was damaged/ruined due to said prank, you're screwed. If he needed medical aid as a result of said prank, you're screwed. Almost any other situation, I believe this includes him needing yet refusing medical aid, you're clean, he has nothing.

EDIT: Also, if the latter is the case, try and get him blackmailing you recorded, or get a witness and sue him.

Okay I better just say what prank I did^^ I altered his Facebook profile to him liking men, yes that's it, and told him later. Anyway I do think in our modern age you can proove it was done on my computer, I couldn't resist it, he was for some wierd reason still logged in on my computer...

Anyway then he did the mistake to try blackmail me via facebook, so I do have the messege where he says, "money or police" so if he decides to go the the police I have some pretty good evidence

So no physical property was destroyed, and he's probably healthy too^^

any reasonable judicial system would lol his case into oblivion, but I dunno. I stopped expecting reason in today's world long ago.

Wikipedia offers this legal information:
In Finland, defamation is a crime, according to the Criminal Code, Chapter 24, Section 9, Clause (1), § (1), with a penalty of imprisonment of up to six months or a fine. When the defamation occurs in public, the crime is ?aggravated defamation? (Chapter 24, Section 10), with a maximum punishment of two years in prison or a fine. In addition, there?s also a crime called ?invasion of personal reputation? (Chapter 24, Section 8), that deals with the public dissemination of information that can harm one?s private life. However, personalities involved in the fields of politics, business, public office or public position, ?or in a comparable position?, are specifically not protected by this article.

 

[LooK iTz Jinjo]

Yeah he has no claim. You changed his facebook preferred gender? He has no claim whatsoever. Let him go to the police because while that may be silly, immature etc. it is by no means a prosecutable offense. He can't even get a civil suit out of it unless he can prove substantial damages were caused...

 

[effilctar]

Snip

HA! Sounds like he's trying to do you for defamation of character, which is absolutely ridiculous. He has as much a case as a kid in a playground complaining that a girl called him smelly.
Defamation is either maliciously revealing a harmful secret entrusted to only you; or the publication of a statement made specifically with malicious intentions. If he tried to sue in as either a crime or a tort, you could easily defend by basically saying it was a private joke among friends and that boys will be boys, and then press counter-charges against him for extortionate blackmail and the stress/grief it has caused you.

Chances are in civil court it will be dealt with as a crime rather than a tort, and there is quite simply nothing criminal about changing one thing, as no statement was actually made at all.

 

[Crazycat690]

Snip

HA! Sounds like he's trying to do you for defamation of character, which is absolutely ridiculous. He has as much a case as a kid in a playground complaining that a girl called him smelly.
Defamation is either maliciously revealing a harmful secret entrusted to only you; or the publication of a statement made specifically with malicious intentions. If he tried to sue in as either a crime or a tort, you could easily defend by basically saying it was a private joke among friends and that boys will be boys, and then press counter-charges against him for extortionate blackmail and the stress/grief it has caused you.

Chances are in civil court it will be dealt with as a crime rather than a tort, and there is quite simply nothing criminal about changing one thing, as no statement was actually made at all.

Wow thanks guys Anyway I told him about that if he went to the police after attempting to blackmail me, he'd get into worse trouble, then he said "oh I was only joking, fooled you!".

So yeah it's been resolved, but I gotta say the information I've gotten here is very helpful, if I could I'd send you all a special Xmas cookie But you'll have to be happy with my gratitude

 

[t4nz1t]

It looks like you have this mostly wrapped up but I was wondering how you accessed his Facebook page? By that I mean if you did so by any means that could be considered "hacking" then you might be in trouble.

However, if he left his FB page up on a PC in an area of his home (or on a lap top somewhere else) and didn't secure the terminal in anyway, then there shouldn't be any problem.

Even if he did have an actionable tort or criminal case, you shouldn't give in to his monetary demands. Sure, he wants 100 euros today but, if you pay out, what will stop him from making the same demand tomorrow?