Sheila, I suspect you are very close to the truth with your guesses.
Since these people have been very secretive, I had no idea at first what was going on. Of course, I can see now why they did that, because If I had known anything to begin with, I would likely have been able to get some evidence against them in some of these crimes. For example, my phone was stolen from work, and I didn't even report it to management....even though I had a suspect in mind. At the time the phone was taken, I had no clue at all that there were a group of criminals involved in this. I thought, at the time, that one of my coworkers must have some mental health issues, so I just let it go....
Sheila, since some of the people involved are in the US, and some are in Canada, it makes it more difficult to try to even build a case against them. And they know I have no money (,these are the same people who befriended me on a private chatroom group) so they are aware that I'm not financially well off.
Also, one of these people is a lawyer himself....the one who tried to intimidate me with a lawsuit.
I have a feeling you are right about my former friend (or perhaps his family) being involved in something nefarious, and that is why they went after me. If they were watching him, they knew then what he wrote to me.....hard to know what their motivation really is, but I do know that this lawyer's wife (the one who is obsessed with my old friend) is determined to make me believe it was not my old friend who I corresponded with...that i was mistaken about his identity. Then she claimed last March that she contacted my friend to tell him I was stalking him.
This alleged phone call occurred after I started to post my story, and these people went nuts and started trolling me on twitter, and when that didnt scare me, they phoned me, and one of my relatives, in a bid to intimidate me. One of the intimidation tactics was her claim that she had contacted my old friend and told him that I was stalking him.....(keep in mind these are 50 year old adults doing this shit!!)....