MySpace Monday 6
Again, this has become sort of a regular posting only because there is so much good fodder for the topic. It’s a regular thing now to dedicate Monday to collected stories of general MySpace stupidity and scumbaggery.
Remember folks, there is no scrutiny. ANYONE can sign up for and acquire a MySpace account. And thanks to a recent ruling (you know what I am referring to), the Terms of Service don’t mean ANYTHING unless MySpace themselves want to pursue a lawsuit. And why would they do that? MySpace is a corporation that thrives on membership. Remember, it wasn’t until after they received LARGE amounts of pressure from the state Attorneys General that they removed sex offenders. Until there was pressure to do so, they were fine with letting 90,000 known sex predators roam on and be a part of their site.
Don’t you understand what that means? It means that your kid is a member of the same group as all these other scumbags. And your kids can easily talk to them and become friends with them. Predators, scam artists and just general slimeballs are all over these sites. If you aren’t using computer monitoring software like our PC Pandora, you are basically just assuming your kids are safe from the scourge of the internet…
Check these two stories out:
- A 31-year-old man in Florida used MySpace to fool women on MySpace into thinking he was an undercover cop and a firefighter. He would convince them to drive around on what he said were undercover drug busts, but were really just rides to buy crack for himself. What a catch, ladies!! Crackhead pretending to be a cop.
- A 16-year-old boy in Oregon is accused of taking over the MySpace and Facebook pages of two young women he knew and promising to return control if they sent him nude pictures of themselves. Remember, a 16-year-old… as in: your kid’s age!
Here are the detailed stories. Happy Monday… 
July 8, 2009
Police: Fake cop who duped women met on MySpace for drug rides gets ride to jail
By Lyda Longa, Staff WriterDAYTONA BEACH — A man who pretended to be a cop and firefighter and duped two women — via MySpace — into driving him around town as he purchased drugs has been arrested, police said this morning.
James Wilson Lopez, 31, is charged with impersonating a police officer and fleeing and eluding, said police spokesman Jimmie Flynt.
According to investigators, Lopez lured both female victims via the MySpace social networking Web site, telling them he was a Volusia County narcotics investigator, a sheriff’s deputy, a reserve firefighter and even a reserve soldier.
One of the women picked him up at Orlando International Airport on Saturday and he convinced her to drive him to several apartment complexes in Daytona Beach. He told the woman he was making undercover drug buys, when in reality he was buying narcotics for himself, police said. Then on Monday, he contacted another woman through MySpace and asked her to meet him for dinner. Again the pair drove around while Lopez purchased drugs for himself, police said.
In both cases, Lopez took the women to motels and he smoked crack cocaine. After that he’d ask the women if he could borrow their cars and he vanished, police said.
The suspect returned the first woman’s car, but the second vehicle was left in the parking lot of the Ormond Beach Walmart on Granada Boulevard. He was arrested after one of the women identified him from a photo lineup.
July 8, 2009
Teen Allegedly Hijacked Facebook Pages, Demanded Nude Pics as Ransom
New Form of Extortion? Oregon Case Seen as Warning to Web Users
By Ned PotterThe Web — even 20 years after its advent — is still a wild, untamed beast, and we’re reminded of that again by a case out of Oregon that combines social networking and extortion charges.
A 16-year-old boy from Clackamas County, Ore., is accused of taking over the MySpace and Facebook pages of two young women he knew and promising to return control if they sent him nude pictures of themselves.
Oregon police say the boy believed the whole thing was a prank. Authorities said otherwise. The boy could face charges in county juvenile court of computer crime and theft by extortion.
“This is the first time we’ve investigated anything that could actually be called extortion,” said Lt. Jeff Lanz of the Oregon State Police. “But there’s a lot of harassing behavior through text messaging and posting abusive messages on people’s pages.”
The two female victims are both 18 and now in college, one at Oregon State University and the other at Washington State University. Police said they grew up a few blocks from the home of the alleged perpetrator. They did not send any photos of themselves; instead, they called police. (As a matter of policy, the police said they would not release the name of the underage suspect or those of his victims.)
The Oregon case is unusual, but it sets off alarm bells for people who monitor young people’s online safety.
“I’m not surprised,” said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, in an e-mail to ABC News. He said a growing number of children are enticed to send sexually explicit pictures of themselves online — and they’re often threatened afterward.
“For example,” he wrote, “a kid takes a risque photo of himself or herself in response to a request from an assumed girlfriend or boyfriend. The recipient of the photo then uses the photo to extort the child into taking more; i.e., ‘if you don’t do what I say, I will send this photo to your school, to your friends, to your parents, disseminate it on the Internet.’ A stunning number of these kids do what they are asked, and don’t tell anybody.”
Cyberbullying Takes New Turn
The reason is sad and simple: “They’re ashamed,” said Bill Belsey, a Canadian teacher who founded Bullying.org, a Web site that tells victims how they can protect themselves. “They ask, ‘What did I do?’ They need to understand that they really haven’t done anything wrong.”Facebook, which police said had two hacked accounts, said it can’t comment on an open investigation, but it takes such cases seriously. “We will take action against users who cyberbully, including disabling their account,” said Facebook’s Barry Schnitt.
How did the young man in Oregon manage to hijack his victims’ online pages? According to police, he claimed he knew them well enough to guess at likely passwords they used. And once he succeeded, it was simple enough to log on, posing as them, and change the passwords to something else.
“In the past, if someone was bullying you, at least you had some respite — you could physically get away,” Belsey said. “Now there’s no relief. Parents may say, ‘Oh, just turn the computer off,’ but I call today’s kids the always-on generation. They can’t get away from it.”
What’s more, said Belsey, teachers get little training or advice on how to combat bullying, widespread as it is. And parents feel overwhelmed, intrusive or uncool if they check on their children’s online lives.
The National Crime Prevention Council says young people easily forget that their actions online leave “an electronic fingerprint that can affect college admissions, employment, and their reputations with family and friends.”
“Online relationships should be based on respect, and not just sharing sexual images of each other,” said the council’s Joselle Shea.
“Fortunately, this kid was identified, and his ‘prank’ interrupted fairly quickly,” said Ernie Allen. “It is a little scary to think of what this kid might have been doing if this behavior had not been identified.”
