TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Category: Social Media Crime

  • Facebook’s first predator

    Facebook’s first predator

    Online social site defends security:

    Facebook has its first predator. That must be a proud title to have. 🙄 Anyway, his name is Michael Macalindong, and he was arrested for trying to lure a 15-year-old boy to his home for sex. According to Facebook, Macalindong stole the Facebook account of a high school girl. Then it gets disturbing.

    Authorities said Macalindong–posing as a girl–told the teen that for him to have sex with her, he had to first have sex with her male friend and have it taped so she could watch. In the ruse, Macalindong was the male friend, authorities said.

    Officials said Macalindong videotaped the first sexual encounter at his apartment in May. There were at least two more meetings at the home, Patricia Fix, head of the Lake County state’s attorney’s cyber-crimes unit, said.

    When the teen refused to meet again in January, Macalindong threatened to post the videos on the Internet unless he was paid $200, authorities said. The teen contacted police.

    Last week, a Lake County investigator went online posing as the teen and arranged a meeting in Wilmette, officials said. Macalindong arrived about an hour later and was arrested.

    Before I get to the linky goodness, let me give the male teens out there some advice. No girl will have sex with you if you’ll have sex with her male friend. And trust me, there is no girl out there that’s worth doing that for. No offense to any alternative lifestyle readers. It’s just not my bag.

    Anyway, I couldn’t find Macalindong’s (nice name by the way) Facebook, but I was able to find Macalindong’s MySpace. Of course, it’s been set to private.

    Macalindong has had other victims.

    Investigators found a scanned image of the teen’s identification card along with lewd images and videos on his laptop computer, Fix said.

    Investigators also found other scanned ID cards and photos of Macalindong engaged in sexual activity with other teens, authorities said. Macalindong has been charged with six counts of producing child pornography, one count of indecent solicitation of a minor, one count of intimidation and two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

  • The KIDS Act

    The KIDS Act

    Proposal requires sex offenders to list e-mail, IM:

    First, there was DOPA, then Ted “Tubes” Stevens introduced the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act. Now we have yet another legislative proposal designed in the name of “keeping children safe” but really doesn’t do anything of the sort.

    Rep. Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota has proposed the Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act or KIDS Act because, as we all know, no proposal is effective unless it has a catchy acronym to go along with it.

    If passed, the law would require just about any website that has users to cross-reference their user information with lists of registered sex offenders. In theory, that sounds like a great idea, but then again, so did Communism.

    Of course, nothing stops an SO from using a fake e-mail address or the ones that haven’t been caught yet. Again, just more legislation designed to get votes but has no application in the real world.

  • Conn. Attorney General blows more hot air at MySpace

    Conn. Attorney General blows more hot air at MySpace

    Attorney General Calls MySpace Sex Offender Registry “False Security Blanket,” Renews Call For Age Verification:

    Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has issued the following press release in regard to MySpace donating a sex offender database to the NCMEC.

    “MySpace’s sex offender data base is a false security blanket that ignores and distracts from the real problem – sexual predators not yet caught and convicted trolling for victims. This data base does nothing to protect children from sexual predators still eluding criminal authorities or who lie about their ages and identities while using MySpace. A data base may actually create a false sense of security and comfort that the site is free from predators.

    “Protecting children is too important for MySpace to continue taking feel-good baby steps. Without age verification, the problems will continue. Age verification is a must.

    “Age verification will help protect kids from the towering danger of sexual predators and inappropriate material on MySpace. The web site and its parent company need to stop making excuses and introduce age verification, as well as raise its minimum age to 16.

    “Age verification for users 18 and older using publicly available data is easy and effective. MySpace can confirm the ages of younger users by requiring information from a parent or guardian.

    “Our coalition of states continues to grow, reaching 39 last week. I will continue to help lead this powerful and growing coalition in pressing MySpace to introduce age verification. We will consider every available option, including possible legal action, if the site continues to resist age verification.”

    I still don’t hear him offering any real solutions.

    He can form as many coalitions and make as many calls for age verification he wants. Any form of age verification out on the internet today can be circumvented.

    Is he going to propose any legal action against lax parents who leave their kids roam the internet unattended?

    Instead of going after MySpace maybe he needs to keep the myriad of sex offenders from The Constitution State behind bars to keep them from reoffending. Just do a search on this site for Scott Shefelbine or David Leonard to see what I mean.

    Mr. Blumenthal, stop being a politician and be a prosecutor.

  • MySpace is on tubes

    MySpace is on tubes

    Ted Stevens Returns, Wants to Ban Kids from MySpace:

    Just when it seemed that DOPA was dead, here comes Senator Ted Stevens. Yes, that Ted Stevens. The one with the tubes and the dump truck. Except his is called the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act.

    As far as sites like MySpace go, Senator Stevens’ bill is no different from DOPA. It seems like he’s trying to sneak it through by tying it in with tougher child pornography and privacy laws.

    And yet, with all Senator Steven’s bluster about protecting children, there’s still no mention of having parents monitor their children’s internet activity better.

  • We get letters

    I received the following e-mail from someone only calling themselves Bert…

    RE: I think you should stop your site

    Really, in any community of 100 millioin people there will always be a spread of bad people. Your one of them. By focussing on bad stuff your feeding the appepite of wannabe bad people. We dont need you doing what you do. We already have the news. Do you think that tech-incompetent parents are going to read your site? No. The only people reading your site are the bad guys, and their jerking off to it. Your fascination with this material is clinically questionable. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were peaodo yourself.

    Methinks Bert doth protest too much.

    I’m not going to bother defending myself because my stance on predators has been established. However, I will not have you sully the good name of my readers.

    Are you going to take that, readers? He called you all the bad guys and that you’re jerking off to my site. Please let Bert know what you think in the comments.

  • Boomalicious II: Electric Boogaloo

    Boomalicious II: Electric Boogaloo

    Police: Suspect posed as teen:

    I originally posted about Joseph Polk aka “Boomalicious” here. He is the 36-year-old from Klamath Falls, Oregon who posed as a 15-year-old on MySpace in order to have sex with a 14-year-old girl.

    In addition to his Boomalicious profile, he also had one under the username I-A-G. I was unable to find either. But to make matters worse, Polk was a religion teacher at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Like the Catholic Church doesn’t have enough problems with that.

    He was asked to resign that volunteer position by the church. The church has talked to the children under Polk’s tutelage, and so far, no abuse has been discovered.

    Thanks to Pilar for the link.

  • Metal Molester

    Metal Molester

    Randall S. Shesto II

    Band singer charged for sex with girl, 15, he met on MySpace.com:

    The green-haired gentleman pictured above is not the Joker. His name is Randall Shesto II, aka RJ Nailwounds. He’s the 20-year-old lead singer for the heavy metal band Nailwounds from Wisconsin. He was arrested for allegedly having sex with a 15-year-old girl he met on MySpace. The girl snuck out of the house to meet Shesto, and it only went downhill from there…

    Shortly after 1 a.m. Jan. 12, Shesto picked up the girl and drove to a remote area in the Town of Scott, where he pulled off the road into a field entrance and the two had consensual sex in the back seat of his car.

    The two were then driving on Mapletree Road north of Brazelton Drive about 1:40 a.m. when Shesto veered off the road and crashed the car, according to the Sheboygan County Sheriff’s Department. Both suffered minor injuries in the crash.

    Shesto is charged with sexual assault of a child which has a 25-year max. Shesto is out on bond.

    Here is Shesto’s MySpace. It’s been set to private but thanks to Mr. A we have the Google cache of Shesto’s MySpace. And here is the MySpace for Nailwounds.

    And remember kids. Coloring your hair is so not metal. \m/

  • Lawsuit’s a loser

    Lawsuit’s a loser

    MySpace Lawsuits Called Losers:

    It seems I’m not the only one who thinks the latest lawsuit against MySpace is without merit. So does law professor Eric Goldman.

    First, Goldman says, it’s a stretch under the legal definition of causation to assert that MySpace contributed to a crime that didn’t occur on its premises.

    Second, he said, the law “routinely insulate[s] Web sites for liability for torts committed outside their network.” Thus, he points out, AOL was not held liable for child porn generated elsewhere and distributed through its network.

    Why bother with the lawsuit then? Goldman speculates, “Given the obviously futile nature of this lawsuit, this lawsuit may be more about publicity than about seeking justice.”

    As Goldman points out, the risk of high-profile lawsuits like this is that they may encourage ill-conceived, knee-jerk legislation. The problem is even the most extreme restrictions seem reasonable if the purpose is “protecting kids.” How many politicians, for example, would have the courage to oppose something like “The Boil Pedophiles Alive Act of 2007”? Not many, I suspect.

    Let’s hope this lawsuit never goes any further.

  • Men caught in 14-year-old’s bed

    Men caught in 14-year-old’s bed

    Men Arrested In MySpace Sex Case:

    These two attractive gentlemen are Jover Mabaet and Dennis Keomoungkhoune of Portland, Oregon. Both are 21 and have been arrested for engaging in sexual activities with a 14-year-old girl they met on MySpace. The victim’s father caught them both in bed with his daughter. To make matters worse, Mabaet was already under investigation for possibly having a relationship with another underage girl and Keomoungkhoune is already a registered sex offender.

    Now, I couldn’t find a MySpace for Keomoungkhoune, but I did find one for Mabaet. According to the article, he’s 21, but on his MySpace, he claims to be 17.

  • The latest MySpace lawsuit

    The latest MySpace lawsuit

    MySpace.com, News Corp. sued in assault cases:

    I’m surprised that this isn’t happening more often. Anyway, MySpace and its parent company News Corp. are being sued by families from New York, Texas, Pennsylvania and South Carolina who had children that were sexually assaulted by MySpace users. The suit alleges MySpace of negligence, recklessness, fraud, and negligent misrepresentation.

    Call me callous if you want, but as far as I’m concerned, this lawsuit is frivolous. The people who are really responsible for the attacks are already behind bars. It’s like suing the car manufacturer if your child was hit by a drunk driver.

    This lawsuit reeks of greed. The kind of greed that can only come from ambulance chasing attorneys.

    Pat from Belchspeak has a differing opinion.