Woman terrorized by international cyberstalker gets justice

SAN FRANCISCO - Leandra Ramm, a California Bay area woman, says she still gets chills down her spine when she thinks about the decade-long harassment and fear she endured at the hands of Singapore cyberstalker Colin Mak, reports CBS San Francisco.

The episode led to a precedent-setting prison term, according to the station.

The 30-year-old wife and mother saved more than a dozen phone messages from Mak, some threatening.

"He would send pictures of guns," Ramm told the station. "Opera producers, conductors, directors, all my co-workers and cast mates would all get these crazy emails saying that if I am not fired from the production, then he was going to show up with a gun and kill me that night."

Ramm, as well as some of her family and friends, also received nearly 5,000 emails from Mak with many of those missives containing terrifying threats like, "I will cut up your face with a box cutter," and "I am prepared to use a night stick on you," reports the station.

Ramm has never met Mak in person. Mak reportedly stalked Ramm using his cell phone and a computer.

"He did everything except physically enter my life," said Ramm. "People kept saying to me, you need to take care of this, you need to take care of this. But I tried everything I could and there was really nothing I could do to get rid of it."

Ramm says Mak contacted her online after seeing her on TV. Ramm is an aspiring opera singer and Mak posed as an opera director with employment opportunities, reports the station. In the process, he gained Ramm's trust and access to her contact information, plus tidbits like where she worked, what theatrical productions she was involved with and even her relatives' business information, according to the station.

Ramm, who lived on the east coast at the time, contacted local law enforcement, the FBI and even the United Nations, but they all said they couldn't help her, reports the station.

But forensic data expert A.J. Fardella did. He stumbled upon Ramm's case through a mutual friend.

"I started looking at the evidence, the emails, the phone calls, the faxes," Fardella told the station. "(And) it's definitely terrorism. It has a physical effect. You know Leandra, many times when we were talking about the case, is shaking."

Fardella used his law enforcement connections to help Singapore authorities bring Mak to justice, in the process sending Mak to prison for three years, reports the station.

Fardella says Mak's incarceration is the first of its kind for international cyberstalking.

Ramm is now married with a newborn son and, along with Fardella and his wife, has written a book titled "Stalking a Diva" about her experiences.