Filing the police report looks like a routine step, an hour at the station telling them what is happening to you. It is, however, the step that fixes the facts the court will work from, and on it depends whether what happened is classified as the offence of stalking under article 172 ter of the Spanish Criminal Code, punishable with prison, or ends up as a minor offence settled with a fine or shelved for lack of evidence. A report that speaks of “annoying messages”, with no dates, no originating account and no explanation of what has changed in your life since they began, is the report the investigating judge will read, and it is rarely fixed afterwards. The same applies to the fake profile and to the threats to share intimate photos, which have their own articles and their own penalties, and which tend to vanish from the proceedings if they are not described at that first appearance.
What conduct article 172 ter punishes
Article 172 ter punishes anyone who, insistently and repeatedly and without lawful authority, seriously disrupts another person’s daily life through any of the following. Watching them, following them or seeking physical proximity. Trying to contact them through any means of communication or through third parties. Misusing their personal data to buy goods, contract services or get other people to contact them. Attacking their liberty or property, or that of someone close to them. The penalty is three months to two years in prison or a fine of six to twenty-four months, rising to six months to two years in prison where the victim is especially vulnerable by reason of age, illness or circumstances.
The two requirements the court will examine are repetition and serious disruption of daily life. Twenty messages in one afternoon are not enough on their own if they stop the next day. Changing your number, closing your social media accounts, no longer going somewhere, not sleeping or seeing a doctor for anxiety are facts that prove that disruption, which is why they must appear in the report with the same precision as the messages. Without that second requirement, isolated insistence stays at coercion under article 172 or at a minor offence, with very different penalties and time limits.
Two further rules shape the report. Paragraph 4 of the article provides that stalking is prosecuted only on a complaint by the aggrieved person or their legal representative, so a friend or relative can accompany you, but the complainant has to be you. And paragraph 3 makes clear that the stalking penalty is imposed without prejudice to the penalty for the specific offences in which the acts materialised, which means that threats, insults or the sharing of images are punished in addition to the stalking.
Workplace harassment and sexual harassment have their own articles, 173.1 in its second paragraph and 184, and follow different routes I do not deal with here. What follows concerns online harassment between private individuals, whether from a stranger, a neighbour, a former colleague or an ex-partner.
The fake profile with your photos
Since the reform brought by Organic Law 10/2022, article 172 ter has a paragraph 5 designed for exactly this. It punishes anyone who, without consent, uses a person’s image to place advertisements or open fake profiles on social networks, dating sites or any medium of public dissemination, causing that person a situation of harassment, hounding or humiliation. The penalty is three months to one year in prison or a fine of six to twelve months. It is the usual fit for the Instagram or Facebook profile with your photos and your name, and for the advertisement on a dating site with your phone number.
Searching for “identity impersonation” leads many people to article 401, usurpation of civil status, carrying six months to three years in prison. The courts reserve it for someone who assumes another person’s complete identity and acts as them in legal dealings, signing, contracting or making statements in their name. A profile with your photos that messages your contacts does not usually reach that threshold, and reporting under article 401 what fits article 172 ter.5 is a poor way to start.
If that profile publishes false or demeaning statements about you, the offence of insult under articles 208 and following comes into play. Article 211 treats as made with publicity any insult spread through a medium of similar reach to print or broadcasting, and a social network is one, so the penalty would be that of article 209 for serious insult with publicity, a fine of six to fourteen months. The relevant point for you is procedural. Insult is prosecuted only through a formal criminal complaint known as a querella filed by the offended party, under article 215, and a querella is filed with a lawyer and a court agent from the very first document.
If the fake profile is also used to ask your contacts for money while posing as you, those deceived are victims of fraud and you of impersonation, and both go in the same report. I have written about what the deceived contacts can do in this article on Bizum scams.
Threats to share the photos
The threat to publish intimate images unless you pay, send more or resume the relationship is a conditional threat under article 169, because the harm announced, an attack on your privacy and reputation, is itself an offence. The penalty is one to five years in prison if the perpetrator gets what they demanded and six months to three years if they do not. The penalty does not depend on the photos actually being published.
If the images are published or sent to third parties, article 197.7 is added. It punishes with three months to one year in prison or a fine of six to twelve months anyone who shares, discloses or passes on images obtained with the consent of the person concerned in a home or out of sight of third parties, where disclosure seriously harms their privacy. The fact that you sent the photo voluntarily to that person does not remove the offence, it is precisely the situation the article covers. The penalty is imposed in its upper half where the perpetrator is or was your partner, where the victim is a minor or has a disability, or where there is a profit motive. Since 2022, anyone who receives the images from someone else and forwards them is liable too.
If they have got into your accounts
Harassment is often accompanied by access to your email, your WhatsApp or your cloud storage, which is where the photos or data later used against you come from. Accessing someone else’s system by breaching its security measures is the offence under article 197 bis, with six months to two years in prison, and seizing messages or intercepting communications without consent is the offence under article 197.1, with one to four years in prison and a fine of twelve to twenty-four months. Password changes you did not make, login alerts from unknown devices and account recovery emails are evidence of that access and must be kept.
What penalty each conduct carries
| Conduct | Criminal Code article | Penalty |
|---|---|---|
| Persistent harassment that seriously disrupts daily life | 172 ter.1 | 3 months to 2 years in prison or a fine of 6 to 24 months |
| Harassment by a partner or ex-partner | 172 ter.2 | 1 to 2 years in prison or 60 to 120 days of community service |
| Fake profile or advertisement using the victim’s image | 172 ter.5 | 3 months to 1 year in prison or a fine of 6 to 12 months |
| Sharing intimate images obtained with consent | 197.7 | 3 months to 1 year in prison or a fine of 6 to 12 months, in its upper half if the perpetrator is or was a partner |
| Conditional threat to share them | 169.1 | 1 to 5 years in prison if the aim is achieved, 6 months to 3 years if not |
| Serious insult with publicity from the fake profile | 209 | Fine of 6 to 14 months |
The table explains why the initial classification matters so much. Each row has a different procedure, a different limitation period and a different scope for seeking protective measures. One real case, the ex-partner who opens a profile with your photos, messages you daily from new numbers and threatens to send the images to your family, covers four of those rows, and the report has to describe all of them so the court can pursue all of them. If only “the messages” are reported, the profile and the threat are left out.
At the firm we act as private prosecutor in these proceedings from the report itself, and the first thing we do is decide with the client which articles are reported and on which facts, because everything else flows from there. You can see what we do in the cybercrime practice area.
What to do today so the evidence is not lost
The evidence in these offences is in the hands of the harasser and of the platform, and either can make it disappear. Before blocking, before reporting the profile to Instagram and before deleting a conversation that disgusts you, capture it. Full screenshots showing the username, the URL of the profile or message, the date and the time. On WhatsApp and Telegram, export the complete chat with attachments and store it somewhere other than the phone itself. Note the profile’s identifier as well as the display name, because the name can be changed in a minute and the identifier stays. If any of your contacts has received messages from the fake profile, ask them to keep what they received.
Screenshots are admissible but open to challenge, and the defence will challenge them. While the content is still online, a notarial certificate of the page or a certification from an online witness service fixes what was there on a specific date in a way that leaves the fabrication argument nowhere to go. It costs money and has to be done before the perpetrator deletes, which is why it is the first thing we raise when a client shows us the profile. If the platform has already taken the content down, the courts can require the information it retains, but the road gets longer.
There are three common mistakes in these hours. Replying to the harasser, because every reply of yours becomes part of the file and an angry reply will be used to present the matter as a dispute between equals. The second is paying or sending more images to someone who threatens to share them, because payment rarely closes anything and usually opens a second demand. The third is reporting the profile to the platform before capturing everything, because if they remove it, the evidence goes with it.
Where to report and what the report has to contain
The National Police online reporting office is designed for less serious incidents with no known perpetrator, and it requires in-person ratification anyway. Harassment, threats and the sharing of intimate images are reported in person at any National Police station or Guardia Civil post, or directly at the duty court. If there is a threat with a deadline or publication is imminent, the duty court is the route, because it is the only body that can order measures the same day. As for territorial jurisdiction, the Supreme Court applies the ubiquity doctrine to offences committed online, so the court for the place where you receive the messages can investigate the case even if the perpetrator lives in another province or nobody knows where they live.
The report is the account the investigating judge will read and it has to let them see the whole of article 172 ter, since when it has been happening, through which channels and how often, which accounts or numbers have been used, what you have had to change in your routine and what evidence exists and where it is. When the complainant goes alone, the police record usually covers the latest episode and little else, and that is the document the court works from for months.
Where the perpetrator hides behind an anonymous profile, identifying them requires the platform or the operator to hand over the data of the account holder or the IP address, and only the investigating judge can order that, under articles 588 ter and following of the Criminal Procedure Act. Neither you nor your lawyer can obtain it outside the proceedings, and that is the compelling reason to report even if you believe “they will never find out who it is”. The major platforms answer court orders and not a private individual’s request.
Removal of the content is a separate matter from conviction. Article 16 of Law 34/2002 exempts the platform from liability as long as it has no actual knowledge of the unlawfulness, and from that knowledge onwards obliges it to act diligently to remove it. How that actual knowledge is given so that it takes effect, and what is demanded of the platform afterwards, is part of the work we do alongside the report.
Protection orders and interim measures
From the first steps of the investigation, under article 13 of the Criminal Procedure Act, the investigating judge can prohibit the accused from communicating with you by any means and from approaching your home or workplace, a measure provided for in article 544 bis for the offences listed in article 57 of the Criminal Code, which include stalking, threats and offences against privacy. It is requested in the report itself or at the first hearing and the judge decides after hearing the accused, usually within days. Breaching it is an offence under article 468, punishable with six months to one year in prison where the victim is the perpetrator’s partner, ex-partner or relative.
Where the perpetrator is your partner or ex-partner and you are a woman, the regime is that of Organic Law 1/2004. Jurisdiction passes to the Court for Violence against Women, the stalking is punished under paragraph 2 of article 172 ter, which does not allow a fine alone, and you can apply for the protection order under article 544 ter, which brings together in a single decision the criminal measures of no-contact and the civil measures on housing, children and maintenance. The judge must convene the hearing and decide within a maximum of seventy-two hours from the application, and the application can be made at the police station when reporting. If the victim is a man or the relationship is a family one, article 172 ter.2 and article 544 ter apply equally, but jurisdiction lies with the ordinary investigating court.
What happens after you report
Once the report is admitted, the court opens a preliminary investigation, summons the accused to give a statement as a suspect, with a lawyer, and orders the identification and evidence-gathering steps. If the perpetrator is identified and the facts are clear, the case may proceed as a fast-track trial under article 795 of the Criminal Procedure Act, with a hearing within weeks. If the conduct remains a minor offence, for instance minor humiliation between former partners or minor coercion, it is tried under articles 962 and following, with a fine as the penalty and a one-year limitation period.
The case may be shelved if the perpetrator is not identified or if the court finds the facts do not reach the seriousness the offence requires. Shelving for unknown perpetrator is provisional and is reopened if new information emerges. Shelving on the ground that there is no offence can be appealed, with short deadlines, and whether to appeal or accept it depends on what evidence is missing and whether it can be obtained. It is one of the moments where the difference between going alone and having a private prosecutor shows.
Stalking under article 172 ter and threats under article 169 become time-barred after five years under article 131 of the Criminal Code, and the period runs from the last act, because stalking is a continuing offence. Insult and minor offences become time-barred after one year. That gives you room to prepare the report with the right evidence, but not to wait for the harasser to tire, because in the meantime the digital evidence disappears.
If you are the one accused
Some of those who call the firm about harassment are on the other side. They have been reported after a break-up, over messages they consider normal, or over an argument on social media. The first thing is to stop writing to the complainant from that moment, by any means and also through friends, because every subsequent message is evidence under article 172 ter and, if a no-contact measure is already in place, a breach. The second is to delete nothing, because full conversations usually favour the accused more than the other side’s selected screenshots. The statement as a suspect is given with a lawyer and is the moment to provide context. If the report is false, article 456 punishes it, but it can be pursued only once the case against you ends with a final acquittal or a final shelving decision. If the complainant is a partner or ex-partner, this article on defending against a gender violence accusation explains what to expect.
Going alone or with a lawyer
Reporting on your own usually means a report that records the latest message, without the facts that prove the disruption to your life, without requesting a no-contact measure and without evidence fixed before the perpetrator deletes. The usual result is shelving for unknown perpetrator or classification as a minor offence that is time-barred within a year and settled with a fine, while the profile stays open.
At the firm we act as private prosecutor in stalking, impersonation and intimate image cases from the report through to judgment, we apply for protective measures and for the identification of the perpetrator, and we handle removal of the content with the platform. You can call +34 677 841 007 or write through the contact page, and see the cybercrime practice area.
When you call, have to hand the screenshots with their dates, the exact name and identifier of the accounts or numbers writing to you, your current or past relationship with that person if you know them, the approximate date of the first message and the police report, if you have already filed it.
Frequently asked questions
Can I report online harassment through the National Police online reporting office?
No. The online office accepts only less serious incidents with no known perpetrator, and even those must be ratified at a police station. Harassment, threats to share photos and identity impersonation on Instagram or WhatsApp are reported in person at a police station, a Guardia Civil post or the duty court. If there is a threat with a deadline, the duty court is the option, because it can order measures the same day.
Are WhatsApp or Instagram screenshots valid evidence or do I need something more?
They are valid and admitted, but the defence will challenge them as fabricated or taken out of context. They are much stronger if they show the URL, the profile identifier and the date, if they come with a full export of the chat and, for content still online, with a notarial certificate or a certification from an online witness service. Even if you have only your word and the screenshots, the report allows the judge to request from the platform the data you cannot obtain yourself.
Can I withdraw the report if the harasser apologises?
You can stop driving the proceedings, but the stalking offence under article 172 ter is not extinguished by the victim’s forgiveness, so the public prosecutor can continue the prosecution if there is sufficient evidence. Insult and the privacy offences under article 197 are extinguished by forgiveness, under articles 215 and 201 of the Criminal Code. In partner or ex-partner cases, courts tend to look carefully at a withdrawal that follows contact from the accused.
Do I need a lawyer to report online harassment, and is it worth it?
To file the report at a police station, no. To join the proceedings as private prosecutor and request measures, yes. For insult it is mandatory from the start because it proceeds by querella. It is worth it where there is provable repetition, where the perpetrator can be identified and where there is something to seek beyond conviction, such as a no-contact order, removal of the content or compensation. It is not worth spending on a lawyer over two or three isolated messages that have stopped, nor where the perpetrator is outside the European Union and the only lead is an anonymous profile, although filing the report still makes sense to put it on record. Victims of gender violence are entitled to legal aid regardless of income, and everyone else according to the thresholds in Law 1/1996.