Seven years ago, California resident, Alexis Moore, was just an ordinary 23 yr old girl. Today she is the founder of the Survivors in Action Non-Profit Victim’s Advocacy group. However, Alexis is not like other advocates in her line of work. She did not achieve her goals by traveling an easy road. She reached success, only after surviving through some of the most terrorizing struggles that a domestic violence victim can experience.
At the age of 23, Alexis changed careers and started a new job at a data furnishing company. Her boss was a strikingly handsome and courteous young man with a wonderful personality. Shortly after establishing employment at the firm, her boss approached her on a personal level and asked her out on a date. Immediately the two of them hit it off and began dating. He was wonderful, the kind of man that ever parent wants their daughter to date. Finally, Alexis found true happiness. She had a great job, good pay and a prince charming of her very own.
Their relationship was great. He showered her with romance and respect alike. She thought, for sure, he was “the one” for her. That is until they moved in together. After she moved in, the relationship got more serious and so did he. He began to show a different side. One that Alexis had never seen before. It was a mean streak presented by a very short fuse and violent outbursts.
It started out with verbal abuse and striking or throwing of objects. Then it escalated into hitting her. It was usually only a hit or two accompanied by a lot of screaming and he would walk away. But in November of 2004, when Alexis told him that she was going to leave, he lost it and beat her until she was unrecognizable.
When he was done and walked out of the house, Alexis pulled herself up off the floor and staggered into the bathroom. When she looked in the mirror at her face, she was overwhelmed with an absolute sense of motivation and survival. She fled from him that day, leaving behind all of her possessions including her clothes, pictures and even her dogs. She had nothing but the blue jogging suit on her back and a small amount of money in her bank account.
She thought, “Finally I’m going to be free. I’ll just drive down to the women’s center and ask for help and this will all be over soon.” But she would soon find out that she was wrong. She entered the women’s center, explained her situation and then sat down to fill out the pages of questionnaires required.
After handing them in, she was called up to the desk, “I’m sorry, Alexis, but you’re not eligible,” the director said. “Not eligible?” Alexis asked. “With your abuser being a high-tech investigator, there is a good chance that he can locate you and it poses a risk to the rest of the women at the shelter. I’m sorry.”
The domestic violence resource center failed her. She was turned away. She felt helpless and alone, so she turned to the only place that she could, her sister. She didn’t understand why the agency would not protect her. Her sister had a husband and two small children. Why would they force her to put her family at risk? What if he did come after her? What if he did find her? If the domestic violence center wouldn’t help her, then who would? The system failed her when she needed it the most.
He was determined to get revenge. He wanted her to know that he would control her life whether she lived with him or not. He found her and everywhere she went and everything she did, he was right there. She was no longer in range of his physical abuse, but she was still plagued with the fear that he instilled in her. Always looking over her should to see if he was there.
Using technology to stalk her, he tore her life apart. He hacked into her computer systems at home, creating threatening messages accompanied by eerie music that would unexpectedly pop-up, and stole all of her passwords and account information. He shut down her bank accounts and credit cards, tampered with her life insurance, changed her mailing address, tapped her phone and ruined her credit by applying for loans, credit cards, and apartments in her name.
He utilized the system to ruin every attempt or chance that she had in regaining her life. She was both fired from and denied employment because he would place threatening calls and e-mails to her employers. He threatened everyone who came in contact with her, even her attorneys.
For this reason, most attorneys will not accept domestic violence cases. The risk is too high for them personally and professionally. Numerous times she was left standing in the court room by herself, to confront her abuser and his well-paid lawyer, because her attorney had resigned. Alexis sought out assistance from six different family law attorneys throughout the duration of her case. All of them took her money, then either chose not represent her or quit on her in the middle of the case. “Not one of them had 100% commitment to my case. And all of them kept the legal fees that I paid them, claiming them as consultation fees,” Alexis expressed.
“And after everything I had to go through, I lost my court case against him.” He was always on top. He kept the house and all the contents, including her possessions. He disposed of them all. Just threw them away. This was the ultimate defeat for Alexis.
Even after the court hearings were over and the ruling was final, he did not stop. Like most stalkers, as long as his confidence was boosted from the judicial system ruling in his favor, he felt like he had power and continued to stalk her. But once again, the defeat gave her the motivation to survive. With or without the system’s help, Alexis was determine to find a way to climb to the top.
Determined to beat him at his own game, Alexis put everything she had into learning the ins and outs of all the systems. She researched every cyber act that he had taken against her and learned how to avoid and correct them all. Knowing that he was monitoring all of her phone calls, e-mails and credit information, she began to build a fake life. She played tricks on him by calling phone numbers that had nothing to do with her new life. She made appointments with doctor’s offices and hair salons that she had no intention of attending. She called attorneys that she did not know. It worked. He was stumped and had no clue as to what was real and what was not.
Finally gaining control over her own life and realizing that she had the ability to do these things, she placed an ad in the local paper asking other victims with the same experiences to contact her. The turnout was unbelievable! She received so many calls from women who had experienced the very same things. After helping a few of these women and building a network, she decided to make it official and found a non-profit organization, Survivors In Action (SIA).
SIA is the only nationally recognized non-profit organization that aids victims of technology crime, such as identity theft and cyber stalking. Victims who turn to SIA are usually at their last resort and have had no success with other avenues such as Law Enforcement. Due to the fact that Alexis has been on both sides of the fence, employed as an investigator and a victim of cyber crimes, it gives her an edge that other advocates in this line of work do not have.
Aside from aiding victims, Alexis also testifies and speaks at California State Senate hearings and Public Safety and privacy protection seminars.
“I have been recognized by government officials, as the nation’s leading expert regarding cyber-stalking. This for me is a scary thought,” Moore said.
SIA strives to improve awareness on stalkers and cyber-crimes as technology continues to advance. It is their goal to emphasize the importance of law enforcement agencies and government organizations to become more in step with technology and the crimes that it produces against people all over the nation.
To find out more about Survivors in Action, please go to http://survivorsinaction.com
You may read Alexis’s blog at http://alexisamoore.blogspot.com
You may contact Alexis by e-mail at alexis@survivorsinaction.com
