Friday, October 30, 2009

Keeping Kittitas County's residents safe in cyber space

By CHELSEA KROTZER
staff writer
ELLENSBURG — They were friends in high school. The best of friends, until they got into an argument, resulting in one, “Jessica,” being cast out from the group.

But it wasn’t over. The other one was still bitter and wanted revenge.

She created a fake MySpace page with fake photos paired with Jessica’s personal information — including disclosing her cell phone number. The profile also promised a sexual interlude with anyone who called.

“It was a horrible profile,” Jessica said. “I only found out about it because I got quite a few phone calls from guys wanting to meet up with me.”
Thankfully, one of the guys told her about the site. Then Jessica called the police.

“They weren’t threatening her harm and weren’t stealing, in theory, her identity, but it fit for cyber-stalking because the site was obviously designed to torment and embarrass her,” said Ellensburg Police Department Det. Drew Hauk.

Hauk said detectives were able to determine who posted the Web site and the girl eventually admitted to the crime.

“We had to impress upon them that pictures and identifying information and phone numbers of the victim, that places her in pretty big danger because people — pedophiles and predators — do troll the Internet,” Hauk said. “If someone had come across this, if they had found that profile, they could have potentially come to Ellensburg or been in Ellensburg and victimized her.”

EPD Capt. Dan Hansberry said cases like this, where people create fake social networking accounts to either embarrass or pretend to be someone else, happens quite frequently in Ellensburg.

“What most people don’t realize is that cyber-stalking is illegal,” Hansberry said.

Under state law, cyber-stalking is a gross misdemeanor, unless someone has a prior record — then it could be a class C felony charge.

Hansberry said the EPD does not have a lot of statistics related to cyber-stalking or cyber-bullying. What they do know is that it happens far more than it is reported.

“It’s somewhat sporadic, we may get a couple calls a month, we may go a month without getting a single call,” Hansberry said. “And that has a lot to do with the fact people don’t realize that there is something they can do.”

Keeping safe

Central Washington University Patrol Officer Marc McPherson said cyber-stalking is an issue wherever you are — especially on a college campus.

“The ones we deal with the most are social network pages, phones or text messaging,” McPherson said.

McPherson said even though it is not reported, he is sure it happens daily.

When it is reported, it often falls under a different call category, making it difficult to keep statistics.

For example, if someone posed as someone else on a social networking page, that could go under identity theft.

“I don’t think it’s something they think right away that they should call the police on them,” McPherson said. “They automatically ignore it and think it will go away before they think to report to us, which is why I think we don’t get too many reports.”

Local middle and high school officials say they haven’t had to deal with many issues with cyber-bullying or cyber-stalking this year.

Then again, they can only deal with cases that are actually reported to them.

“I can think of maybe one incident maybe last year of a student posting bad stuff about another student on Facebook or MySpace,” said School Resource Officer Tom Clayton. “I think it’s just not happening.”

This time a year ago, cyber-bullying was a predominant issue at EHS. Back then, there wasn’t an SRO.

“I don’t know if it’s contributed to my presence or not, but I haven’t seen it, or it hasn’t been reported to me very often, if at all,” Clayton said.

Over at Morgan Middle School, officials hope to keep their numbers of cyber-bullying issues low.

Principal Michelle Bibich said the school is bringing in a presentation to teach the students how to treat everyone with kindness — and how to stay safe on the Internet today (see related story).

“It’s not uncommon for students to send hurtful text messages,” Bibich said. “On occasion, we’ll be notified of something that is happening out on MySpace, which isn’t happening at school, but is still a serious matter.”

Bibich said cell phones are the biggest problem area.

“The biggest road block is that feeling of anonymity that a person gets with sending a text message,” Bibich said. “You’re not face to face. I don’t think students realize that someone real is on the other end.”

Bibich said she hopes to create an environment where people are rewarded for random acts of kindness.

“We want to make that the culture of the school,” Bibich said.

As for Jessica, she lost more than just a friend.

“I felt like it ruined a lot of things for me, just because the friendship was obviously severed — a friendship of 10 years was just gone,” Jessica said. “It makes you feel bad about yourself. People need to look themselves up on these Web sites and see if there is an alternate profile.”

Gautier man charged with cyberstalking

By KAREN NELSON
GAUTIER — Jackson County sheriff’s investigators this week arrested Vincent Salvador Drummond, 48, of Gautier and charged him with cyberstalking in connection with the use of cellphone texting.
Drummond was charged as the result of an investigation into several cases of “repeated harassing and threatening electronic communications,” sheriff’s investigators said Friday.

Drummond lives in the 2100 block of Daily Road in Gautier. He was arrested Thursday and posted a $2,500 bond on the same day.

No further arrests are expected in the ongoing investigation, a sheriff’s spokesman said.

The case involved text messaging from a cell phone between Drummond and a member of his family.

“Anything of this nature done from a cell phone is considered cyberstalking these days,” said Capt. Mick Sears, head of the sheriff’s Criminal Investigation Division. “Threatening someone or calling repeatedly from a cell phone falls under cyberstalking in the law.”

Ex-prosecutor goes to rehab - like Amy Winehouse - to avoid jail

Ex-prosecutor enters rehab

A former state prosecutor serving a year of probation has been ordered to continue treatment at a rehab facility after he was thrown in jail for drinking alcohol and violating his sentence.

Collier Circuit Judge Frank Baker extended probation another year, to March, for Richard D. VandenBerg, who was terminated from his job at the State Attorney’s Office in Naples last year, just days before his arrest on cyberstalking charges involving his estranged wife and another man.

Baker also ordered VandenBerg to return to the Willough at Naples for treatment, avoid alcohol, wear an alcohol monitoring device for 60 days, and undergo random Breathalyzer and urinalysis tests.

VandenBerg, represented by defense attorney Shannon McFee, admitted violating probation, and the judge agreed to withhold an adjudication of guilt, as a judge did in March, when sentencing VandenBerg as part of a plea bargain to a reduced charge of stalking, a misdemeanor, and obstruction.

If he successfully completes his sentence, he won’t have criminal convictions. Otherwise, he’d faced five years in a state prison.

VandenBerg was arrested on May 9, 2008, after making repeated phone calls to estranged wife, Renee, and a man he suspected of having an affair with her. At the time, McFee blamed VandenBerg’s problems on alcohol, while his divorce attorney, Tom Grogan, said the couple was having severe financial difficulties that prompted VandenBerg to file for divorce a month earlier.

VandenBerg, a misdemeanor prosecutor, was terminated after not showing up for work for several days and declining to remedy the problem.

Days later, on May 4, Collier County Sheriff’s reports say, he began leaving repeated voicemails on a cellphone belonging to a man he’d seen accompany his wife to his home to gather her belongings, a man he blamed for his termination. The man, a Realtor, led a Bible study group that he attended.

VandenBerg threatened to ruin his business, marriage, and church, and discussed guns and using a machete to cut off the man’s body parts.

On May 6, 2008, deputies in fatigues surrounded his home and he was arrested after resisting. The gun enthusiast was ordered to turn over all guns, but posted $15,000 bond a week later after a judge agreed to his release if he entered The Willoughs.

Teens need protection from 'sexting'

Dana Benson
713-798-8267
benson@bcm.tmc.edu
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Teens need protection from 'sexting'
HOUSTON -- (October 28, 2009) -- Gone are the days when teens passed love notes in class. Today's adolescents have taken their notes electronic, in a form of flirting known as "sexting" that can have unwanted and even dangerous outcomes, according to an expert on teen sexual health at Baylor College of Medicine.

Sexting refers to sending sexually explicit text messages and photographs over a cell phone. Teens also use social media sites like Facebook and Myspace as well as instant messaging to communicate things of a sexual nature.

No such thing as private message
"This is a practice that sets young people up for consequences that they may not be emotionally ready to handle," said Dr. Peggy Smith, director of the Baylor Teen Health Clinic. "Teens need to realize that once they send something by text or into cyberspace, it's there forever and they no longer have control over it."

Even though sexting is usually done innocently – perhaps as a "present" for a boyfriend or girlfriend – the person who sends the information cannot count on it being kept confidential. The recipient may share the information as a way of boasting or to embarrass or bully, Smith said. The sender could also become the victim of blackmail or cyberstalking.

Teens and adolescents are urged not to engage in this behavior, Smith said, and parents must also discourage their children from using their cell phones or the Internet for this type of activity.

Sexting impacts future
"Parents should take a leadership role and talk to their children about the consequences of this behavior, especially the fact that it can become part of the public domain and remain there forever, even impacting future college and job searches," she said.

Sexting should become a routine part of parents' conversation with their children about sexual health, along with topics like sexually transmitted infections and condom use, Smith said.

Parents should monitor all Internet use, and cell phones should be viewed in the same way as a car, she added. If parents are paying for it, they should monitor their child's cell phone use.

Dark side of technology
"A phone is a tool that the child is being allowed to use, just like with a car. If it's misused, then parents should renegotiate the use of the tool," Smith said.

Teens use technology to research important sexual health information, Smith noted, but sexting represents the dark side of modern technology.

"There is absolutely no good reason to do it," she said.

People Search by Email Address – How to Perform People Search by Email

Performing people search by email address is not that simple as it seems.

As a matter of fact, in today’s world people perceive giving an email address to the public something like giving their REAL address. It’s just enough for you to leave your email on some website and soon enough you’ll receive tons of spam.

I know, I know…

With all that said let’s take a look at some of the services that allow you to do a reverse email search.

The first one is Yahoo Search located at people.yahoo.com. You can enter the person’s first and last name and you’ll get their email. Unfortunately this service does not work so well.

Maybe there is a better way? Does the person you’re looking for has an online presence? You probably heard of hi5.com. Try to go to their main website and in the upper right corner enter the email address. I don’t know about you but I’ve located HUNDREDS of profiles from people I didn’t even know and which appeared on my MSN or Skype.

Also, MySpace is another great service that offers reverse email search! Just go to search.myspace.com and under the box “Find a friend” select email. Interesting, eh?

I don’t know of any smaller social networking websites but I’m pretty sure they have reverse email searches too.

The thing is…people that leave their email in a public web space are RARE. However, MANY PEOPLE leave their real email when registering on websites like MySpace and hi5 thus making it easy for you to locate them if the only detail you have about them is the email address.

Also try a simple Google or Yahoo search. That sometimes helps too.

AVOID paid reverse email services because I’m afraid that will do the things I told you to do previously…just automatically. They will search through all major social networks, display you the result and charge money for that. It’s not that they have some “secret” database of all the email details in the world like they want you to think.

The only good paid service that can search for emails is Email Finder Pro but even without it you can search the major social networks for free like I told you. It’s really simple. It may take more time though.

Sexy Craigslist Ad Allegedly Posted by Social Worker as Revenge on 9-year-old

A Long Island social worker is facing charges after she allegedly posted a sexy Craigslist ad with the name and phone number of a 9-year-old girl who argued with the social worker's daughter at school.

Margery Tannenbaum of Hauppauge, N.Y., is charged with aggravated harassment and endangering the welfare of a child for allegedly posting the child's name and phone number in an online ad targeting sex-seeking men. Prosecutors say Tannenbaum created the ad after the girl argued with the social worker's daughter at a Smithtown, N.Y., elementary school, according to New York's WCBS-TV.

Tannenbaum, 40, denied the allegations when she was arrested last spring. Her lawyer, Tad Scharfenberg, told WCBS that his client still maintains that she is innocent.

"She's a good mother, she's never been in any trouble before, she takes good care of her kids," he told WCBS. "I'm defending her to the fullest, she maintains her innocence."

Tannenbaum is accused of listing the girl's name and phone number in conjunction with the e-mail address, lacethong23@yahoo.com. The girl's mother got a call from a man who asked for the child by name. When the woman told the caller she was the girl's mom, he responded: "Oh, hot lady lives with foxy momma!"

"I told him that the hot lady you are referring to is 9-years-old," she told the station.

The state has been asked to review Tannenbaum's social work license, and parents at the school attended by both girls are hoping for a swift resolution.

One change has already taken place: Tannenbaum was the class mother for both girls last year, and she has since been replaced.

Welcone To Reverse Email News

In this blog we will be posting daily news articles related to Email Tracing and Reverse Email Investigations.

This blog is brought to you by opperman Investigations Inc, The Email Tracing Experts. Be sure to visit our web site WWW.EmailRevealer.com.