Then one evening, her cellphone signalled a new text message. It was him again.
"You should keep to yourself and stay away from other people," the message said, according to the student, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she feared for her safety. Her ex had found her photo online and attached it.
As text messaging has boomed in recent years, it has also given rise to so-called 'textual harassment'. Text messages antagonise recipients in a way that is not easily ignored: Most people are never far from their cellphones, and the gadgets tend to chirp until unopened messages are acknowledged.
A study of stalking by the United States Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics released last month confirmed that stalking by texting has become a pervasive problem.
The report found 23 per cent of stalking or harassment victims reported in 2006 that the stalker had used some form of cyberstalking, such as cellphone texting or email, to harass them. It was the agency's first measure of the emerging practice, said Katrina Baum, one of the study's authors.
"Technology has become a quick and easy way for stalkers to monitor and harass their victims," the report said.