Beware of Meeting People Online
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To all Sgforumer,
I see a lot of Sgforum gathering. It is ok because people here know each other for long time. However, beware don't trust new people you meet so easy. See the story from Wikipedia below:
Internet homicide
Internet homicide refers to a killing in which victim and perpetrator met online, in some cases having known each other previously only through the Internet.[1][2][3] Also Internet killer is an appellation found in media reports for a person who broadcasts the crime of murder online or who murders a victim met through the Internet.[4][5] The first known murder of a victim met online was in 1996.[6] Depending on the venue used, other terms used in the media are Internet chat room killer, Craigslist killer, Internet serial killer. Internet homicide can also be part of an Internet suicide pact or consensual homicide.[4] Some commentators believe that reports on these homicides have overemphasized their connection to the Internet.[7]
[edit] Serial killers
Serial killers are murderers who target three or more victims sequentially, with a "cooling off" period between each murder, and whose motivation for killing is largely based on psychological gratification.[8][9] According to Paul Bocj, the author of Cyberstalking: Harassment in the Internet Age and How to Protect Your Family, "The idea that a serial killer may have operated via the Internet is, understandably, one that has resulted in a great deal of public anxiety."[10] In Harold Schecter's A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, the entry for "Internet" reads in part: "If the Internet has become a very useful tool for people interested in serial killers, there's some indication that it may also prove to be a resource for serial killers themselves."[11] Maurice Godwin, a forensic consultant, argued that "There are some sadistic predators that rely on the Mardi Gras Effect ["the ability to hide one's identity on the Internet"] to lure and murder repeatedly."[12] The first serial killer known to have used the Internet to find victims was John Edward Robinson, who was arrested in 2000 and was referred to in Law Enforcement News as the "USA's first Internet serial killer" and "the nation's first documented serial killer to use the Internet as a means of luring victims."[13][14]
[edit] Venues
Online predators and paedophiles, participants in internet suicide and suicide-homicide pacts, and internet killers may seek out victims through internet forums, chat rooms, listservs, email, bulletin boards, social networking sites, online role playing games, online dating services, Yahoo groups, or Usenet.[15][16][17]
In the 2006 book Killers on the Web: True Stories of Internet Cannibals, Murderers and Sex Criminals, the author Steve Morris and his co-writer Christopher Berry-Dee examined what they called "the darkest recesses of the world wide web," and reported cases ranging from "cannibals ordering a human meal by email to mail-order brides whose quest for better lives end in grisly murder." Among the cases they covered was the consensual murder of Bernd Jürgen Brandes by the so-called "Internet cannibal" Armin Meiwes; the two met at a web site called The Cannibal Cafe, where people described their fantasies of cannibalism, and where Meiwes openly advertised for a willing victim.[3][18]
[edit] Chat rooms
Further information: internet suicide"Internet homicide" has been described as crime that occurs when a killer succeeds in "luring a person from a chat room to an actual meeting," which "can turn deadly."[2][3][19]
In 1996, a Maryland internet entrepreneur named Sharon Lopatka arranged for her own torture and strangulation over the Internet.[20][21] The man who killed her was convicted of voluntary manslaughter. A murderer who found victims via suicide chat rooms and/or web sites was the Japanese serial killer Hiroshi Maeue.[22] One internet killer, Lisa M. Montgomery, met her victim in a rat terrier fancier's chatroom called "Ratter Chatter."[23]
In June 2003, a teenage boy in Altrincham, England, identified in the press only as "John," used protracted chat room conversations with another teen, "Mark," to entice Mark to murder him. This was not a case of consensual homicide, because Mark did not know he was being set up to kill John, but rather thought he was going to be killing a female secret service agent. John's intended internet chat room suicide-by-homicide failed when Mark only succeeded in seriously wounding him and then called the authorities. On May 29, 2004, John pleaded guilty to inciting someone to murder him and was sentenced to three years supervision; Mark pleaded guilty to attempted murder and was sentenced to two years supervision. The boys were forbidden to contact each other.[24]
[edit] Online advertisements
Further information: Lonely hearts killerAs an article in the New York Daily News explained in 2009, "Long before there was a craigslist or dot-com dating, there were places where men and women who were too shy or busy to meet face to face could find romance. Calling themselves "matrimonial bureaus," these organizations were known mostly as the "lonely hearts clubs," and they flourished through the middle of the 20th century."[25] It was in venues like these -- print media such as newspaper classified ads and personal or lonely hearts club ads -- that 20th century murderers such as Harry Powers, the so-called "Matrimonial Bureau Murderer,"[25] and Harvey Carignan, "the Want Ad Killer"[26] met their victims.
Electronic advertising has gradually replaced printed ads and the internet is now a venue where murderers who employ a similar modus operandi can meet their victims; in Schecter's Encyclopedia, the entry for "Ads" mentions internet dating and the use of internet ads by the so-called "Internet Cannibal" Armin Meiwes.[11] Since 2007, several accused and convicted killers have contacted victims through advertising services such as Craigslist, a popular classified advertising website. These killers are sometimes referred to in the media as "Craigslist killers";[27][28][29] the first use of the term Craigslist killings may date to October 31, 2007, when the phrase appeared in a headline in the Saint Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota, in reference to the murder of Katherine Olson by Michael John Anderson, who was then dubbed "the Craigslist killer".[30]
Since 2007, several suspected and convicted perpetrators have met their victims or solicited murder through Craigslist. Of these, two were convicted for crimes in the three-month period encompassing February to April 2009 and a further four were accused of crimes during the 11-month span of March 2008 through April 2009.[27][28][29][31] Although, by definition, Craigslist will have been the initial contact point and a killing will have taken place in order for the suspected, accused, or convicted perpetrator to be dubbed a Craigslist killer, the actual motivations of these criminals are varied. The victims' deaths may result from a robbery or a sexual encounter that turned violent. Some of these perpetrators may not have intended to commit murder, but killed their victims during the course of a struggle or to prevent capture. Each case is different.
[edit] Internet dating
See also: Internet relationshipAccording to Michael Largo, the author of Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die,[32] "Internet dating is becoming very popular, but since 1995, there's been[...] over 400 instances where a homicide has been related to the person that [the victim] met online."[33]
[edit] Criticism of the concept
Several legal and technology experts have questioned the idea that there is a phenomenon of "internet killings". A legal theorist pressed for an "internet angle" on a murder by a journalist related that "I asked her whether, if I called her up and asked her out on a blind date and murdered her, she would think it was a "telephone-related murder"?".[34] Leslie Harris, CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology said of the term "Craigslist Killer" that "A great many of the tragic incidents that tangentially involve the Internet have little or nothing to do with the Internet itself. The Craigslist case is the latest example of that phenomenon. Craigslist is an innovative and valuable resource, which frankly, is being unfairly smeared because it is an Internet site."[7] The book Hypercrime argues that "The more one looks, the more these widely circulated instances of 'cyberkilling' appear to vanish into the smoke of a 'cyberspace'."[4] Susan Brenner, a professor of law and technology wrote that "Is it a cybercrime for John to meet Mary on the Internet, correspond with her and use e-mail to lure her to a meeting where he kills her? News stories often describe conduct such as this as a cybercrime, or as 'Internet murder.' But why is this anything other than murder? We do not, for example, refer to killings orchestrated over the telephone as 'tele-murder' or by snail mail as 'mail murder.' It seems that this is not a cybercrime, that it is simply a real-world crime the commission of which happens to involve the use of computer technology," but she conceded that "there may be reasons to treat conduct such as this differently and to construe it as something other than a conventional crime."[35]
[edit] Notable Internet homicides
The following individuals have been arrested and/or convicted of crimes in which police claimed that Internet services such as chat rooms and Craigslist advertisements were used to contact victims or hire a murderer. Despite sharing a similar method of contacting victims, they apparently have varied motivations. In the list below, the victims' deaths may have been premeditated, especially if the perpetrator is a serial killer, but they may also have resulted from a robbery, insurance fraud, or a sexual encounter that turned violent.
- Michael John Anderson, known as "The Craigslist killer," was convicted of murdering Katherine Olson in Minnesota in October 2007. According to an article in the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, "The 19-year-old Savage man used craigslist to lure Katherine Ann Olson to his home for a fictitious baby-sitting job, then shot her in the back." [27][30]
- Robert Frederick Glass, a computer analyst from North Carolina killed Sharon Lopatka by torture and strangulation in a case of apparent consensual homicide on October 16, 1996. Lopatka used the Internet, where she also advertised pornography related to unusual sexual fetishes, to locate Glass, who was later convicted of voluntary manslaughter for the crime.[20][36]
- Christian Grotheer, known as "Germany's First Internet Killer," confessed to two murders in 2009. According to an article in the Daily Telegraph, he admitted to "murdering women he met in online chat rooms."[37][38]
- David Heiss, a 21 year old German online gaming enthusiast, became infatuated with a British girl, Joanna Witton, 20, who along with her boyfriend Matthew Pyke, 20, was an administrator of the Advance Wars fansite Wars Central. After his advances were rebuffed, including two visits, Heiss traveled to the UK once more and stabbed Matthew Pyke to death. He was jailed for life in May 2009. A police spokesman noted that "While this is an extremely unusual case, one thing is clear and that is that Heiss used the internet to harass and stalk Joanna and Matthew. He eventually found out where they lived and other information about them that enabled him to carry out his plans. We should all consider the amounts of personal information we share on web systems like MSN and on internet forums."[39][40]
- John Katehis, a teenager, was arrested and indicted for the murder of ABC radio news reporter George Weber in New York in March, 2009. The two had met through Craigslist, and journals such as The Advocate called the suspect an "Alleged Craigslist Killer." [28][41]
- Bernard George Lamp, a 51 year old resident of Troutman, North Carolina was charged with murder and first-degree kidnapping on March 22, 2008 in the death of Bonnie Lou Irvine, 52, of Cornelius, North Carolina; according to news reports, she had "had agreed to meet the man accused of killing her after encountering him on Craigslist."[42]
- Ann Marie Linscott, a 49 year old Michigan woman, was arrested in January 2008 for soliciting murder on Craigslist, where she offered $5,000 "for someone willing to kill the unsuspecting wife of a man she'd begun an affair with online";[43] in February, 2009, she was found guilty of attempted murder-for-hire and sentenced to 12 years and seven months in prison.[31]
- Hiroshi Maeue was known as the "Suicide Website Murderer." According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, this killer utilized "suicide websites [as] an aid to murder." Although he posed online as someone who wished to carry out internet suicide pacts, he choked his victims to death when they met in person.[44]
- Edward Frank Manuel, arrested in January 2003, was dubbed the "Internet suicide chat room killer" by United Press International and other news sources.[45]
- Philip Markoff, known as "the alleged Craigslist killer" in numerous news reports, was arrested and indicted in April, 2009 for the murder of Julissa Brisman and for other attacks against women that occurred in Massachusetts and Rhode Island; he had met the women through their online advertisements in Craigslist, where they had advertised erotic services.[29] It is unknown whether Markoff was guilty of the charges. He committed suicide in jail on August 15, 2010, several months prior to the scheduled trial.)[46]
- Armin Meiwes, known as the "Rotenburg Cannibal" and "The Internet Cannibal", was convicted in 2004 of the consenual suicide-murder pact crime of killing and eating a man whom he had met through the internet.[11][47]
- Lisa M. Montgomery, also known as "the Womb Robber," assumed a false persona as an online chat room dog buyer in order to meet with a woman whom she already knew to be pregnant, then killed the woman in order to steal her fetus on December 17, 2004; she was convicted of murder on October 22, 2007; the baby survived.[48]
- Thomas Montgomery, a 47-year-old married man was convicted in 2007 of murdering a workmate in a case called the "Internet Chatroom Murder". He posed as "Tommy", a 21-year-old marine, and began an online relationship with a 17-year-old called Jessi. A workmate of his, 22-year-old Brian Barrett, subsequently began an online relationship with the same girl after Montgomery's deception was revealed, and Montgomery shot him in their work car park. "Jessi" was actually a middle-aged woman who had been using pictures of her daughter. A police officer said "he became a completely different person online". Another commented that "It's very odd that someone would take another's life over jealousy of a person you've never laid your eyes on".[49][50] A documentary about this case entitledTalhotblond (Jessi's screen name) was released in 2009.[51]
- John Edward Robinson, known in the media as "The Internet Slave Master" and "the first Internet serial killer",[13] met his victims through the internet and tortured them to death.[52][53]
- Korena Roberts was arrested in June 2009 for allegedly killing 21-year-old Heather Snively—who was eight-months pregnant—and her fetus, by cutting open her abdomen. They were reported to have met on through an advertisement by Roberts on Craigslist for the sale of baby clothes.[54]
- In 1998, Chris Dean, a truck driver from Indiana, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of 17-year-old Chris Marquis from Vermont. Marquis operated a scam in which he would pose as the 27-year-old proprietor of a fictional shop called the CB Shack, and offer to trade merchandise with people online. When people sent Marquis their goods he would either not send anything back, or would send something old or broken. Dean fell victim to this, and built a pipe bomb and mailed it to Marquis, killing him and injuring his mother.[55]
- In 2009, Anthony Powell, a 28-year-old student at the Henry Ford Community College in Detroit, shot and killed fellow student, 20 year old Asia McGowan before shooting himself. Powell had a history of mental illness and used his Youtube account to make hate videos against black women and atheists. McGowan also had an account at Youtube. Powell became obsessed with McGowan through her account, and began stalking her on both Youtube and Facebook. He had decided that black women like McGowan were naturally promiscuous, and had made videos with titles such as "Black Women Don't Deserve Respect" shortly before killing McGowan. It is worth noting that many of Powell's video's were so concerning that many Υoutube users contacted the Detroit police about it.[56][57][58]
- In 2008, Hughstan Schlicker, A 15 year old from Mesa, Arizona, Shot his father, Ted Schlicker, in the back of the head. Hughstan Schlicker had been banned from the internet after he had threatened to kill himself on Myspace and had become hateful of his dad due to this. His father, worried that his son might kill himself, had hidden the family shotgun. However, after Hughstan truanted off school he found the gun hidden in a shed, he then waited at home for his father and then shot him in the back of the head as his father entered the house, Hughstan then planned to kill himself but was unable to follow this through.[59]
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see movie wanna share coke must use 2 straws
and buy ur own popcorn -
all the cases above happened outside asia right?
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Got ! In Japan
- Hiroshi Maeue was known as the "Suicide Website Murderer." According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, this killer utilized "suicide websites [as] an aid to murder." Although he posed online as someone who wished to carry out internet suicide pacts, he choked his victims to death when they met in person.[44]
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Originally posted by FireIce:
see movie wanna share coke must use 2 straws
and buy ur own popcornI rather eat alone than share my popcorn with serial killer. Must be careful who we meet outside. I only date women I know in college and my circle of fren, not stranger. For woman, more dangerous, meet stranger men, don't know con men or serial killer.
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Singapore also got some wor...
no one remember the news few months back?
Meeting strangers is always dangerous... be it online or offline... Even ur fren de frenz might also be con men or serial killer... Even ur neighbours or their family members too...
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meeting people online then in person can be fun but there are lots of how i should say 'weird' people really have to be careful. i advertise some honey things online i receive lots of pm already. so yeh the harm is there.
photshoot i meet strangers some guys only wnat to pose with girls and ladies, some guy will bring a loing a friend who is a con, or both of them con or act blur, some ladies photoshoot they alone with you in public but acheri they got friends watching at a corner you don;t know only.
gay also got. then always call you over the phone for photoshoot, sms, then more random sms.
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You are a macho guy..
I think they will be scared of you instead won't they?Actually, yes indeed, it's always dangerous.. If you are here long enough, you will know why.
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i am
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Originally posted by FireIce:
see movie wanna share coke must use 2 straws
and buy ur own popcornUse 2 straws no use one... later teeth got blood... go down the drink through the straws.... tata... same... still get AIDS.
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Of cos u must beware of meeting people online... but the thing is... where and when you meet the person up.
If you meet somebody up in broad day light in a common area... you shouldnt fear that much. =) -
feb 08 reg one
no wonder u donch know abt the straw
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It's not aids, what about TB!
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Originally posted by FireIce:
feb 08 reg one
no wonder u donch know abt the straw
can prevent some germs... but still not all....
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no no no. it's not abt the straw got germs or aids or cockroach or harry potter.
oni the soompeis of sgf will know lah.
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Fifi i ish considered?
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Originally posted by FireIce:
no no no. it's not abt the straw got germs or aids or cockroach or harry potter.
oni the soompeis of sgf will know lah.
LOL.... I am curious about the straw story....
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Originally posted by FireIce:
no no no. it's not abt the straw got germs or aids or cockroach or harry potter.
oni the soompeis of sgf will know lah.
Soompeis? Manz! I am reaching my 10th year anniversary soon! 
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Originally posted by Junyang700:
Of cos u must beware of meeting people online... but the thing is... where and when you meet the person up.
If you meet somebody up in broad day light in a common area... you shouldnt fear that much. =)
always be on alrert even in broad daylight. say goodbye immediately if you feel unease or something wrong. -
It is better to be careful if you plan to meet someone on line that you never meet before. A total stranger.
Even meeting him in the day , it is still not safe.Lady, ask youself, what is the intention of meeting up?
Guys : Sex/rape is the top of the list.
There do have some online guys that are serious to be friends, but majority of them is not. So please be wary.
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Originally posted by Yunhaier: Soompeis? Manz! I am reaching my 10th year
anniversary soon!
soompei means �辈
my 10th anniversary over
11th anniversary coming -
Originally posted by likeyou:
It is better to be careful if you plan to meet someone on line that you never meet before. A total stranger.
Even meeting him in the day , it is still not safe.Lady, ask youself, what is the intention of meeting up?
Guys : Sex/rape is the top of the list.
There do have some online guys that are serious to be friends, but majority of them is not. So please be wary.
see ours posts so heroic and wise. but also beware of us because they are everywhere.
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Originally posted by FireIce:
soompei means �辈
my 10th anniversary over
11th anniversary coming But if I include lurker days, then it would be 11th anniversary coming. Not much old birds of our generation left liao.
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往事�能回味..............
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Originally posted by troublemaker2005:
see ours posts so heroic and wise. but also beware of us because they are everywhere.
Haha...better dont meet up to save the trouble.