American prosecutors to charge woman for using fake name

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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 7:08 pm

This case has been getting a lot of attention in the US.

The implications for scambaiting are obvious as we all use fake names
to set up email accounts.

Quote:

Federal Grand Jury in Los Angeles Probes Missouri Girl's Internet Suicide

A federal grand jury has issued a subpoena to MySpace.com in a probe
stemming from the suicide of a Missouri teenager who received cruel
messages on the networking site that turned out to be a hoax, a
newspaper reported.
...
Federal prosecutors are considering charging a mother in the girl's
neighborhood with defrauding MySpace by creating a false account that
she, her daughter and a teenage employee used to fool 13-year-old
Megan Meier into believing she was communicating with a 16-year-old
boy, the Los Angeles Times said Tuesday on its Web site, citing
unidentified sources.
...
Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and professor at Loyola
University Law School, told The Associated Press that if the government
convened a grand jury it would be trying to create a case in which
MySpace would be the victim of a fraud meaning the person who
perpetrated the fraud could be prosecuted.
...
"The whole case is curious," she said, and could raise First Amendment
issues of free speech.

Link:
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/wireStory?id=4107005

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 7:09 pm

^^Doubtful, we do nothing like that. Can't see a baiter being extradited to Africa cos a lad slots himself. It's a tragic story but I can't see how it'd effect us.

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 7:27 pm

A very sad story indeed. I remember when it happened and am still amazed that a mother could take a spat between two kids so far. Sad

I doubt that anything will come of it though as people use aliases online all the time.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 7103 Location: Yes

Yeah, this is one of those events where the outcome is so horrific, and the conduct so reprehensible, that everyone is pulling out their hair trying to find a criminal statute that fits the fact pattern, but it's very unlikely.

Very sad though.

Master Baiter Joined: 23 Dec 2007 Posts: 126

I think the context of this case *in other words death* is the reason they want to prosecute this..

The idea to me seems a bit farfetched, but I figure if they don't manage to pull this off, they will probably come up with new legislation to make it possible in the future.

It shows how afraid governments are how anonymous you can be on the internet. I'm just waiting for them to ban usernames, since those are kind of fake names right? Rolling Eyes

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 11:20 pm

Apart from all the other oft' repeated reasons, in our case the people we deal with are all using aliases as well, so I am not worried at all by this case.

I think the more solid way to prosecute would be on the basis of intent, but that is near impossible to prove, even if there were intent. I imagine that's why this alternative approach is being used, but everyone uses aliases online.

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 11:30 pm

I remember hearing about this - this is just about the saddest story imaginable. Oof. Awful.

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 12:46 am

At least they finally found something to charge that idiot with. But like everyone else, I don't think it will affect baiters. That woman basically drove the kid to suicide & she knew she has mental issues. Also, I think the woman is more along the lines of the scammer since she contacted the child in an effort to make her believe something that wasn't true. The woman needs to be publicly whipped.

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 2:39 am

Quote:

American prosecutors to charge woman for using fake name

That's a bit of an alarmist title to this thread.
There is nothing in the news item quoted that suggests that anyone is to be charged with using a 'fake' name.

It will be interesting to see what actually does transpire from this incident.

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 3:03 am

Quote:

Federal prosecutors are considering charging a mother in the girl's
neighborhood with defrauding MySpace by creating a false account

The mother used a fake name (of a teenage boy) in setting up the
MySpace account.

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 6:27 am

There you go, she defrauded Myspace by making a fake account in order to target a specific KID. That is not at all related to baiting. Baiters respond to scam emails using accounts of fake people. Baiters do not target children (or people they actually know) for the purpose of inflicting pain. Baiters do not target people who are minding their own business not scamming a soul.

Plus, if the girl hadn't killed herself, no charges would have been brought ever. They are only doing this b/c a child ended up dead & there were no existing state criminal laws to charge that dumb bitch. Apparently it's not illegal to drive people to suicide. People were so outraged about it, they had to figure out some way to hold her responsible. Leave it up to the feds to come up w/ a clever way to mete out some jail time. They can always find a way to send you straight to prison & get a nice chunk of change in fines to boot.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

I really do hope that this does not go through. Making this an offense against MySpace does absolutely nothing of any worth. And when they get around to drafting that new law, I hope it's about mental cruelty and not about the irrelevant fake ID. In fact, I thought that law existed already, or did the idiots only make it apply to email?

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 9:53 am

Charging her for a crime against Myspace certainly doesn't seem quite just given that a 13yo is dead b/c of her internet antics. But there was no state law that would allow her to be charged her w/ the death. They could have been a little more creative about the charges IMO. But I guess if they couldn't have a sexy murder charge to prosecute they didn't want to go forward at all. It was only a kid that wound up dead & not a single garage door harmed in the process, why make a big fuss right. I really hate people, they just sux.

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 9:59 am

they can't touch me, my name really is Haywood Jablowmi, I just had cruel parents.

(this statement is 100% risky free)

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 10:45 am

This sounds like a paralegal journalist using quite a bit of licence. The more likely outcome after enough hype has been created is that someone will make a tort action against My Space for breach of duty of care.
I cannot see the relational link to baiters.

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 3:52 pm

WTF? Inflicting mental cruelty and child endangerment/abuse of a child/minor resulting in death, and they're unable to figure out what laws apply to the situation Question

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 4:43 pm

Chill out guys. I study a lot of law and what it all comes down to is this:

1.) Its in the federal law that if one person's actions are direct cause of another crime, that person is charged with being an accessory to the crime. Or thats how it should be anyway.

2.) At the very least they could get the mother on a sex offender charge considering the pedophiliac manner of conversing with the girl (posing as a child over the internet to gain a minors trust; sound familiar?)

If the prosecutors had any brains, they could have easily made life hard for this woman. But so far all they have is a "fake" name charge.

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