Match.com Can't Screen for Sex Offenders

By Benjamin Radford

One of the world's top dating websites, Match.com, announced that it would begin checking its members against a national sex offender registry. The announcement was made about a week after a class-action lawsuit was filed against the company by two women who claim men they met through the service sexually harassed them.

Whether an attempt to ward off future lawsuits or merely a publicity stunt, the measure is nearly worthless and in fact may do more harm than good by fostering a false sense of security. There are several obvious flaws with the plan.

The first is that users on social networking and matchmaking websites typically do not have their identities verified. Thus anyone (including convicted sex offenders ) can post whatever name they wish to use on the site and easily avoid triggering a match on registries.

Even if Match.com members' names were somehow verified, names are very common. A match with a name on a sex offender registry would also require a matching address to be sure it's the same person. Anyone can rent a post office box (or use a friend's mailing address) to easily avoid triggering an alert.

Second, even if the information provided to Match.com was completely accurate, it may not match what's on the nation's sex offender registries, which are notoriously unreliable. A 2010 study of Vermont's sex offender registry found that half of the entries sampled contained significant mistakes and wrong information, including two people who should not have been listed. Audits in other states, including Georgia and Texas, found that the registry information for offenders was often wrong, incomplete and outdated.

Third, statistics show that relatively few assaults are committed by convicted sex offenders. That is, a given person (adult or child) is far more likely to be sexually assaulted by someone who is not listed on any sex offender registry than a convicted sex offender. The vast majority of physical and sexual assaults are committed by friends, family and other loved ones, not a recently met stranger hiding a sex offense conviction. This is one of the fundamental flaws of Megan's Laws and other offender notification measures: They distract attention and resources away from the greater threat.

Even Match.com's president, Mandy Ginsberg, acknowledged that the new measures "remain highly flawed." The rules of safe dating have not changed in decades: Meet in a public place, tell a friend where you're going and don't give out personal information too early.

Benjamin Radford is deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirer science magazine and author of six books.

original article here

Another reason to NEVER USE ONLINE DATING!

Jailed for Bomb Hoax Against Online Girlfriend

(U.K.) A man who told police his online girlfriend was going to blow up a plane after she deleted him from her Facebook account has been jailed for 16 weeks.

Stuart Bingham, 38, drank up to four litres of cider before calling 999 and reporting that a woman was boarding a plane with a bomb in the United States. Police investigated but confirmed the report was a hoax and arrested Bingham at his home in Bransholme, Hull.

He admitted sending a grossly offensive, indecent or menacing message by electronic communication at a court hearing at Hull magistrates court in May.

District judge Frederick Rutherford said: "You decided, under the influence of alcohol, to make an emergency call to the police to tell them of a bomb threat, with specific details in respect of the flight path and what was going to happen to the plane." He added: "I will not ignore what has occurred. As a consequence of what you did, special branch became involved, contact was made with the authorities in the other countries. Because of their quick response at least not a great deal, or any, disruption was caused."

Prosecutor James Gelsthorpe said Bingham made an emergency call to Humberside police and told them a woman was getting on a plane from Detroit to Miami Fort Lauderdale with "something on her she should not get on the plane with". Gelsthorpe said: "He said it was a 'f***ing bomb'. He said, 'She's going to blow the plane up'."

The report was investigated by Humberside police's special branch, which is responsible for counter-terrorism, and calls were also made to the relevant authorities in the United States.

Bingham told police he spoke to the woman, named as Lawrie Punt, from Ontario, Canada, every day through the online call system Skype and also communicated with her via Facebook and text messages. He said they had been in a virtual relationship since May 2011 but had never met.

Bingham admitted making a call to the police but thought he had dialled the non-emergency number and said he could not remember using the word "bomb". Bingham, who is unemployed and suffers from anxiety and depression, received a caution last year for wasting police time after making around 30 nuisance 999 calls.

original article found here

Stalker Sending Men to My House for Sex ...was my Ex!

By NIKKI WATKINS


(U.K.) Amy Lees answered a knock at her front door and a man burst in, grabbed her by the throat and threatened to rape her. The sicko fantasist had been led to believe she was keen to take part in a sordid sex game. She fought him off — but he was just one of hundreds of strangers who kept turning up on her doorstep for months demanding that she had sex with them.

Traumatised Amy was the victim of a vicious internet stalker who had plastered her name, photos and home address on websites offering her up for weird role-play fantasies. And, shockingly, the stalker was her ex-boyfriend Khalid Hussain — who she had turned to for help when she felt besieged, scared and vulnerable in her home.

Amy has bravely waived her anonymity to tell her horrifying story to The Sun. She said: "For nine months I was stalked. It was the worst time of my life. I was trapped and frightened. I wouldn't wish that terror on my worst enemy. It was a truly horrifying experience."

Amy, a 31-year-old barmaid, first met care worker Hussain, 30, via a dating website in October 2009.

She said: "I had just come out of a relationship and wanted to have fun so I joined the site. I got chatting to Khalid. He seemed very kind and sweet. After a couple of weeks chatting on MSN and Facebook I invited him round for dinner. We chatted for hours and by the end of the evening we were a couple. He was very attentive and sent me bouquets of flowers every week."

But they began having arguments and split up quite regularly. Three months after their meeting, Amy ended the relationship. She said: "While we were apart I went on Facebook and noticed a friend request from a man called Simon. Although I didn't know him, I replied because I was flattered to get male attention. We started emailing and texting. He wanted a sexy picture so, stupidly, I sent him a picture of myself in underwear. As soon as I hit send, I regretted it."

The next day Simon put the picture on Amy's Facebook wall under the caption: "Here's my new girlfriend I'm going to f*** the a*** off her." Her voice shaking, Amy said: "I was shocked, took the photo down and texted Simon telling him to leave me alone. He texted back saying, 'I'm going to have my fun, you f***ing bitch, wait and see.' Seeking emotional support, I got back with Khalid and he was really supportive. I felt safer knowing he was there."

Days later Amy started getting texts from Simon calling her disgusting names. Amy said: "Things were terrible and I felt as if I needed somebody to be there for me — but Khalid was becoming very controlling. I knew I had to end things with him for good. "We parted as friends and stayed in touch. Every time I was contacted by Simon I'd tell Khalid, desperate for support."

Amy called the police about the harassment and they shut down her Facebook account while they investigated. But in February 2010 things took a menacing turn when men — often up to 20 a day — started arriving at her house wanting to have sex with her. Amy said: "When the first person came to the door asking me for sex I was so gobsmacked I just closed it in his face. But the second and third time it happened I knew it was probably down to Simon. I was so confused and vulnerable. I became petrified and would always check from my upstairs window who was at the door before I opened it. I kept a frying pan at hand, so I felt protected, and friends would stay over so I felt safer. The police were still involved but there seemed to be little they could do. I became a quivering wreck as the men knocked at the door and shouted obscenities through my letterbox. I hardly slept and every day became a battle. I became too weak and frightened to leave the house.

"About four months after the men started arriving, there was a knock on the door. I opened it a crack and saw a respectable-looking man in his forties. He grabbed me by the throat, said he was going to rape me and pushed me inside the house. I tried to fight him off and my friend, who was in my house at the time, ran to help me. The man realised his mistake and stepped away, whispering, 'I'm sorry. I thought I was talking to you on the internet. I thought this is what you wanted'.

"He ran out of the house and I managed to get his registration number and call the police. I put panic alarms supplied by the police all over the house and added a chain to the door. They also put a sign up on my door explaining that any internet directions to my house were a hoax."

The man was arrested but not charged because he had been talking to someone online who had set up a fake profile. That someone turned out to be Hussain — and he had set up many other profiles in her name. He had used photos from her Facebook account and given out her home address.

He was jailed for two years nine months in September last year after admitting harassment.

There were 53,000 cyber-stalking allegations recorded in 2009 and experts believe the actual number could be ten times this. New laws are set to be introduced to combat the crime.

Amy said: "The shock of knowing my ex-boyfriend was behind all of this left me feeling physically sick. He had written that I was into rape re-enactment along with numerous sordid sexual acts. It made me feel disgusted. He had seemed kind but all along he was evil and dangerous. I'm glad he is in jail and can't do that to anyone else — but if I had been the judge I would have given him life. I still find it very difficult to trust anyone. I sleep in the room with my four Staffordshire bull terriers and don't like going out on my own."

Amy is now making a fresh start, having found a new man. But she warned: "It is so important that cyber stalking is taken seriously because we are all at risk."

If you think you are being stalked, it is vital to act now.

For more information and to get help in the U.K. contact the Suzy Lamplugh Trust at suzylamplugh.org or 020 7091 0014

original article here

Jailed for Cyber-Inviting Men to Girl's Home for Anonymous Sex

(Warwickshire, U.K.) A jilted boyfriend has been jailed for using the web to invite men to his ex-girlfriend’s home for sex and “rape fantasies”.

Khalid Hussain created bogus profiles on dating and swinging websites and posed as his victim, asking for no-strings sex.

Over six months last year, the court heard more than 100 men knocked on her door for sessions they thought she had arranged. One thought he had been invited to take part in a rape role play. He hit the victim in the face and began to grab her before ­realising something was wrong.

Hussain, 30, was jailed for two years and nine months after he admitted harassment.

Judge Paul Farrer QC told him: “You carried out a campaign of ­humiliation and terror. Your behaviour was persistent, calculated and sinister.”

Warwick crown court heard Hussain met his victim on a dating website in October 2009. They had a brief relationship but she dumped him soon after. Soon, he posed as another man to get risque photos from her and posted them on Facebook.

He also bombarded her with 500 abusive emails and texts, including one saying: “I’m going to have fun now. Wait and see, you’ll get knocks on your door.”

Prosecutor Robert Hodgkinson said: “She received over 100 visits at night from men who knocked on her door saying they had been conversing with her by email and were responding to invitations by her to visit for sex. One had been led to believe that she wanted to be ‘raped’ and when he arrived, in accordance with instructions, he hit her in the face and went to grab her.

“Clearly he quickly realised everything was not as he had expected and after she remonstrated with him, he drove off."

Hussain also made a hoax call to police claiming his victim was running a drug factory from her Warwickshire home. And he called the RSPCA claiming the woman’s daughter mistreated her pet dog.

In a statement, she said: “It has been a living nightmare for me having strangers knocking at my door and opening it to be greeted by angry men who think it is me who has been setting them up.”

Hussain, of Walsall, was given a restraining order and also made to serve six months of an earlier suspended sentence.

original article here
At least one of our exposed cyberpaths tried to do this to his victim on MySpace.

Let this article warn:
1. Online Dating is NOT safe.
2. Sending 'naughty' pictures to someone, even if you think you can trust them, is NOT a good idea.

- EOPC

Cyberstalking on the Rise

by MICKI STEELE

When John Carlin began receiving photos on his cell phone last year of his live-in companion with other people, he didn’t realize he was being cyber-stalked.

Carlin says he turned to police after finding an online ad with his photo that encouraged men to come to his home for sex, but got no help stopping the harassment.

He said police didn’t want to look at the ad or other evidence he had collected, including alarming text and e-mail messages Carlin said were from a man he met in a bar.

“Crazy people don’t quit,” said Carlin, 38, of Dearborn. “I’m the one that’s going to go to jail trying to protect myself, especially when the cops do nothing.”

Metro Detroit authorities say they’re getting more complaints of online stalking, as social networking sites and cell phones make it easier to connect with people — and harass them.

The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office reports receiving eight times more cyber-stalking complaints than two years ago.

In Dearborn, police saw cyber-stalking complaints rise from 12 in 2008 to 21 in 2009. The department has nine cases this year; Lt. Mark Tobias said he expects an uptick with schools open again.

“Cyber crime or anything else, our protocol is we will respond,” Dearborn Lt. Neil Myres said.

Recent high-profile cases such as the suicide of a Rutgers University student, whose intimate encounter with another man was broadcast online, have led advocates to push back against abusive cyber behavior.

The issue is attracting attention in Lansing, Michigan. State Rep. Lisa Brown, D-West Bloomfield, proposed legislation last week to crack down on cyber crimes against children and teens.

“We need to keep up with the new threats to our children,” she said. “It’s not acceptable to intimidate, harass or embarrass anyone using technology.”

Nationally, the number of people stalked is estimated at 3.4 million, according to a survey based on the 2006 Supplemental Victimization Survey of stalking behaviors, released in 2009 by the U.S. Department of Justice. One in four — or about 850,000 — were victims of cyber stalking.

In 75 percent of the surveyed cases, the stalker was a former lover, friend, neighbor or roommate whose actions caused victims to fear for their safety.

The relative anonymity of the Internet and the explosion of social networking sites have spurred a new breed of online criminal who uses personal information as a weapon, said Deputy Erin Diamond, an electronic forensics expert in the Internet Crimes Unit of the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department.

Diamond said he gets at least two calls a week from police for help with cyber-stalking cases, up from one such call per month two years ago.

“You’re giving clues to where you’re hanging out, and that’s gold to stalkers,” Diamond said.

Diamond said local police departments “don’t exactly know how to handle the digital evidence” because it’s a newer crime and training isn’t widely available. And limited manpower forces investigators to choose between more tangible crimes, like homicide, over virtual ones.

Stalking is illegal in all 50 states, but laws vary. One expert thinks stalking is more likely to be prosecuted as a federal crime.

Nina Ginsberg, a criminal defense attorney in Virginia, said cyber stalking can become a felony when someone accesses another person’s stored electronic information and uses it to steal an identity, review bank records or make harassing phone calls.

“Getting into an e-mail account or Facebook account, snooping on them using the Internet or the telephone — that’s what cyber stalking is,” she said.

Jasmine O’Connor, a West Bloomfield computer repair technician, said more than two years after she divorced her second husband, she’s still being stalked and harassed.

When she learned her husband was seeing the mother of his child, she told him she wanted to end their six-week marriage and kicked him out of the house.

When he repeatedly called her at work, she almost lost her job. And when he could no longer reach her by phone, he sent her profane e-mails, she said.

The harassment has slowed, but “I just want it to go away,” she said.

Laura Gipson, 30, an administrative assistant at a Detroit hospital, said she couldn’t get a judge to take her seriously when a neighbor’s jealous girlfriend posted nasty Facebook updates about her and sent multiple friend requests daily for months.

Gipson blocked the girlfriend’s Facebook advances. Then, the woman confronted her at a party in late June. The two women fought in her neighbor’s apartment and Gipson was arrested. A court case is pending.

When Gipson sought a personal protection order after seeing the woman in July in her building, a judge refused her request, citing mutual harassment.

“To her, it was a ‘so what?’ kind of thing,” Gipson said. “People of an older generation don’t take things like that seriously.”

But the judge’s opinion in the Gipson case may be atypical.

“At some level, we shouldn’t be surprised that as tech develops that the stalker reflects society,” said Kevin Burke, vice president of the Williamsburg, Va.-based American Judges Association and a district judge in Minnesota. “It’s just one more tool for people whose aberrant behavior is to destroy somebody else.”

Additional Facts
If you're stalked - What to do

• Document stalking behavior.


• Print screen shots of unwanted electronic messages or pictures.


• Save text and voice messages.


• Contact an advocacy organization for help with stalking documentation and to develop a safety plan.


• Report the crime to your local police. (do not leave the station until you have moved up the chain of command and gotten a copy of the written report)
  

Safety Net Project of the National Network to End Domestic Violence http://www.nnedv.org/projects/safetynet
Working to Halt Online Abuse http://www.haltabuse.org
National Center for Victims of Crime http://www.ncvc.org

Another Cyberpath Cons Women Out of Money

(U.K.) Good-looking, charming and apparently a successful professional, David Checkley seemed perfect to the women he courted on dating websites.

In reality, however, the 52-year-old was a serial fraudster who cheated his victims out of half a million pounds.

One lent him £10,000 after he claimed to need money for a vital operation to cure his fictional Parkinson's disease.

Others gave him cash for invented business dealings as he posed variously as an architect, property developer, fighter pilot and Vietnam War veteran. One woman ended up losing her house.

He spent the money on Mercedes cars, Harley Davidson motorbikes and Rolex watches.

Justice finally caught up with Checkley, described in court as 'a man with a golden tongue' yesterday when he was jailed for six years and ten months.

Police believe he managed to swindle more than 30 victims out of at least £500,000 but the Crown settled on 13 specimen charges of fraud totalling £163,000.

Some of his victims - who had lost between £2,000 and £50,000 each - were in court as he was jailed.

Judge Mark Horton, sentencing at Bristol Crown Court, said: 'Over 20 years you targeted and preyed upon vulnerable and often lonely women.' (call him what he is: a SOCIOPATH!)

Grenada-born Checkley, who emigrated to America with his family when he was three before they moved to London when he was 11, was warned by the judge he faced deportation upon release.

Don Tait, prosecuting, had earlier said: 'It is the Crown's case that this defendant was a consummate fraudster - a man with a golden tongue.'

Checkley met women on the Dating Direct and Match Affinity websites before convincing them he was a businessman with the chance to make high-stakes investments.

He even proposed marriage in an effort to get women - some of whom he forced to re-mortgage their homes - to give him money.

Among his victims was Sharon Shearer, who gave him £30,000. She ended up losing her house.

Another, Linda Miller, handed over £10,000 after Checkley told her he had Parkinson's and needed the cash for an operation after meeting 'fellow sufferer' Michael J Fox.

Deborah Bacaglieri passed over power of attorney and lost £27,000.

Susan Baio, who Checkley defrauded out of £3,155, said after the hearing: 'I'm delighted with the verdict. Hopefully he will never come near me or my family again.'

Checkley's daughter Amy said she was 'disgusted' with her father, adding: 'I hope he's deported.'

* In 2002 Checkley was jailed for GBH and false imprisonment after luring Mark Levy, a presenter on Channel 4's Big Breakfast, to a fake Rolex deal where he was murdered. Two other men convicted of the attack were later cleared.

original article here

Harassment Pushed Victim to File Lawsuit

By FRED CONTRADA

(MASSACHUSETTS) - Even after hundreds of empty boxes arrived in the mail and she was warned that firecrackers would explode on her lawn, Laurie A. Narey shied away from taking court action.

"It's not something I'm comfortable with," she said. "I'm a private person."

Eventually, however, the harassment was too much. She was getting e-mails and telephone calls blaming her for Phoebe Prince's suicide. Even the boxes she never ordered would be labeled "Phoebe Died" and "Phoebe's Killed." Someone had mistakenly linked her online to Kayla Narey, one of the six former South Hadley High School students charged in connection with Prince. It got to the point that Laurie Narey had to move out of her Lathrop Street house and stay with her father for awhile.

This week, Narey filed a civil suit against Cody M. Nallett of 122 Carew St. in Chicopee, claiming that Nallett initiated the harassment by incorrectly posting Facebook messages saying she was Kayla Narey's mother and that the defendant lived at her house.

"Her mom's laurie ... so when ya'll start calling make sure to say hi," Nallett wrote, according to the suit. In another posting, Nallett allegedly recommended calling Narey after 2 a.m. Nallett spread the word to local television and radio stations, one of which posted the false information on its Web site, Narey said. Even after Narey got through to Nallett on the Internet, Nallett wouldn't back off.

"I told her she had the wrong information," Narey said. "She said everything she did was right. She took no responsibility."

Nallett, who is being sued for libel, injurious falsehood and both negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress, could not be reached for comment.

Narey, 47, said Friday she wanted to find another way to solve the problem before going to a lawyer.

"I decided to press charges because this went on month after month," she said. "I was able to make the decision I believe was right. This is about accountability, saying, 'Hey, you can't do this to people.'"

Narey is not the only person who has been flailing in the riptide of emotions resulting from Prince's death. Since the 15-year-old freshman hanged herself on Jan. 14, school officials and the defendants charged in her case have been subject to online humiliation and even death threats.

Laurie Narey said she is a distant relation of Kayla Narey, but Kayla has never lived at her house.

"People feel because I'm related to her I deserve this," she said. "We're talking about an action somebody has taken against me. It has nothing to do with who I'm related to."

original article here

Woman Jailed for Sending Threatening Texts -- to Herself

An California woman was sentenced to a year in jail for sending hundreds of threatening text messages — to herself. Prosecutors said Jeanne Mundango Manunga told police her former boyfriend and his sister-in-law were behind the threats.

Manunga was sentenced Friday in Santa Ana Superior Court. She was convicted in May of three felony counts of false imprisonment by fraud or deceit and two misdemeanor counts of making a false police report.

Prosecutors said Manunga started sending the threatening messages after she and her former boyfriend stopped dating in 2008.

Manunga also was placed on three years probation and ordered to pay about $50,000 in restitution.

original article here