How your antagonist can antagonize your protagonist
Computer technology in romantic fiction:
What does computer technology have to do with romance novels?
“You mean besides using them to write your story?”
“Better than a typewriter,” one rioter yelled. Laughter rises through the room.
“Yes,” I answer.
Someone yelled, “You can use computers to find Romance.”
“Ah, good. Now you’re thinking. How many of you have done this?”
Some hands are raised above the crowd.
“Oh come on. There has to be more than a handful.”
More arms slide up and rise higher than heads.
“Okay. Let’s stay on that topic, Social media with a sociopath.”
Imagine if you want, that you have a heroine who just wants to find romance. After hanging out with the losers of the century, she decides there has to be a better way. Unable and unwilling to attempt to shoot Mr. Right by her own judgment, she turns to an online dating service. After all, they guarantee a “happily ever after” or your money back.
After registering for the service, our heroine, let’s call her Jane, sits at home, turns on her computer and logs into the dating website. Once there, she goes over the recommended matches. Finally, she chooses a couple and contacts them. Two days later, Jane goes on her first date.
The two dates with possible Mr. Right are fine, but when they kiss, his toes don’t curl, so he decides to move on to Mr. Wrong. Unfortunately, Mr. Wrong refuses to give up on her. It turns out that the guy Jane chose was not only Mr. Wrong, but he’s also a stalker. Because Jane let him pick her up for one of her dates, the “wacko” now knows where he lives and chooses to follow her wherever he wants her to go, even when he’s on other dates.
“What do you think so far?”
“The guy is a real wacko!”
“Yeah, but it happens,” someone else yelled.
“Right. Now, let’s take this one step further.”
Our wacko, aka Bob, has been on a couple of dates with Jane, so he obviously knows something about her likes and dislikes. Unless, of course, he’s one of those guys who only talks about himself.
Low laughter echoes through the room.
Let’s say you know that Jane has been looking for craigslist.com Y ebay.com to buy a Denon double tape deck. This is something she desperately wants and searches for on a regular basis. Now, Bob has an idea. Bob places an ad on both Craigslist and eBay for the exact platen he knows Jane wants, and sure enough, Jane sees it and responds.
Jane is so excited that she finally found what she was looking for that she doesn’t waste time on an offer, she just offers the full amount. The vendor accepts the money from her and Jane can’t wait to go pick it up. She gets goosebumps just thinking about her new electronic gadget. After making an appointment to retrieve her purchase, she uses the instructions emailed to her and drives to the address.
Imagine Jane’s face, the look of total surprise and the lump in her throat when Bob opens the door. Not only is she surprised to see Bob, but there is no cassette player. Jane turns around and runs out of there. That my dear friends is fraud.
“Are you seeing where I’m going here? Until now, our antagonist has used computer technology to defraud and stalk our protagonist.”
“Do people really do that?”
“Duh!” A man yelled from the back of the room.
Waving his hands, he announces, “We’re not done yet. What else can this lone antagonist do with the use of computer technology to wreak havoc on our lovable protagonist?”
“Cyber Stalking!”
My turn to laugh. “Very good. Bob has already been identified as a stalker, why not cyberstalk him?”
“What does that mean exactly?” Several voices shouted at once.
cyber bullying occurs when someone uses the Internet or other electronic means to stalk another person. Tools like email, instant messaging, and websites are great for harassing and threatening someone. The social networking site can be a breeding ground for this type of antisocial behavior. sites like My space, FacebookY Twitter allows others to follow you and leave comments for you and others to see. You can try to block them, but there are ways around it as simple as creating another account and starting over.
“Also, the fear, it makes you cringe because of the kind of creepy factor of cyberbullying. There’s so much more that Bob, our villain, can do.”
“What?”
Big smile on my face. “I’m glad you asked. Have you ever heard of Phishing?”
“You mean trout fishing?”
A roar of laughter erupts. I clear my throat. “Not quite.”
Phishing is usually carried out through an email or a website intended to represent a real company, but it is not. For example, Phishing is used in those fake emails you get from your bank that say, “We need you to confirm your account.” Jane, our unsuspecting victim, clicks on the link in the message and is redirected to a fake website. She does as instructed and fills in her personal information, including her credit card or bank account numbers. Bob, who was a stalker and did a little fraud, now committed another act of fraud and stole financial information that he could use, and probably did, to get another credit card with his account number and/or buy something. Knowing this sick man, he bought a sloppy one and sent it to Jane as a gift.
“Do you remember the movie, ‘The Net’?”
The crowd shouts: “Yes”.
That movie was based on the use of software to steal someone else’s identity. Essentially, Bob has everything he needs from Jane to steal her identity thanks to her Phishing. But, he could have obtained the information in another way. Let’s say that Bob is a real hacker.
“This guy just keeps getting worse and worse!”
“Without a doubt, but to continue.”
Bob is a software guru and knows how to hack systems. He can, based on the little information he has already unexpectedly received from Jane, he can use a snort to get your passwords. With the passwords, Bob now has the ability to access other websites Jane uses or her email or whatever else she thinks is secure. He could go into her email and send it somewhere else or close it. He could log into his bank and transfer all of his funds.
Holding up an index finger, I take a sip of water and start again.
Bob is even worse than you imagined. You see, Bob wanted to go out with Jane to get some inside information on her business competitor. Through those passwords that he managed to acquire from Jane’s computer, Bob agrees industrial espionage. You can get information about the company’s finances, its research and development, marketing, and even personnel records. The really terrible part about this is that he used Jane’s login credentials, so when the break-in and theft is discovered, it will look like Jane did it or was involved.
“Oh no!”
“Oh yeah. But I’m not done.”
Bob is a career criminal. With access to the network at Jane’s company, Bob has installed software that gives him access to the funds in her financial accounts. He can divert and move the money to various accounts of his own, hiding the source of the newfound wealth from him. He’s money laundering in the digital age.
Someone like Bob could be in this for himself, or he could be in it with a partner. Bob’s partner in crime is a terrorist.
Loud gasps erupt throughout the space of a packed room.
Bob is laundering money for his nasty terrorist who needs it to hack and take down the websites of government organizations. cyber terrorism. An example of this occurred last year when someone hacked the website of the Republic of Georgia during the Georgian-Ossetian war. This kind of terrorism is a small potato compared to the underlying reason a terrorist would pay Bob untraceable money. Usually there are illegal weapons, drugs, transportation of people and many other illegal activities.
“What does all this have to do with Jane?” A lone woman called from her seat.
“Ah. It all started with Jane.”
Jane was the conduit for all these bad things to happen. If it wasn’t for Jane’s lack of computer knowledge and security, Bob would never have been able to fool her as much as he did. Also, remember, to the naked eye, without experience, Jane will appear to be the criminal.
Our antagonist did an excellent job of antagonizing our good-natured protagonist who was just looking for romance.
