Absolutely. Before I began divorcing my online identity from my 'real' identity^, I had several nutters try to reach out and effect my life 'in the real world'

Absolutely. Before I began divorcing my online identity from my 'real' identity^, I had several nutters try to reach out and effect my life 'in the real world'. Dredging through old posts, calling ex-employers, etc. All because they felt slighted for various absurd reasons. Normally when you have problems with a person like this, you can go to the police and get a restraining order. It becomes harder when it is online because you have to weight the possibility that anything that you do to defend yourself might get them closer to finding you. These days I find myself being fairly sensitive to 'craziness', whenever I get the slightest whiff of it I break off the conversation completely. I'm not a professional who is trained in how to deal with people with these sort of problems, so I am not going to attempt it. ^ Technically I was not using my real name, but a pseudonym that was unique enough to only return results relevant to me when googled. I've since taken to using names of characters from history or fiction as my pseudonyms, and picking new ones at least once a year.