Since social media, particularly Facebook has transformed the way we communicate and interact with each other, it follows that the modus operandi of criminals has also changed. Crimes do happen because of what we share, and how we interact on social media; plus there is potential for more! We look at crimes that have occurred which warn of potential crimes that could occur as a result of social media.
Sarah Richardson changed her Facebook relationship status to ‘single’ though she was married to Edward Richardson. She also refused to answer his messages. He was so enraged that he went over to her parents’ house where she was, and stabbed her to death.
This is the nightmare of every parent of a child who uses social media. Pretending to be a teenager, Peter Chapman groomed her and lured her into a meeting where he raped and killed her. According to reports, Chapman had targeted many other girls as well.
Phoebe Prince was subjected to horrifying bullying online from three of her classmates. When after three months of insults, humiliation and intimidation she could not take it anymore, she hanged herself. The bullies were charged with criminal harassment and civil rights violations.
Lisa Beverly taunted her ex-husband Adam Mann over child support payments and called him a joke publicly on social media. He used a hammer to bash her head in and then slit her throat, leaving her in a pool of her own blood for their 5-year-old son to find.
Hughstan Schlicker was a social media addict; MySpace his drug of choice. When he was ‘grounded’ and social media access cut off, the 15-year-old took a gun to his father. Apparently, he considered committing suicide in front of his father; but decided on murder instead.
Vanessa Starr Palm and Alexander Rust were arrested for a very strange reason. They posted pictures of enjoying a meal consisting of an endangered animal species – an iguana – on Facebook. The authorities tracked them down and arrested them, charging them under the Fisheries Regulations and the Wild Animal Protection Act.
Michael Baker thought it was smart not only to syphon petrol from a police car but to subsequently post a picture of himself doing this on Facebook as well. He also gave the finger in the picture. The police were not amused and Baker found himself cooling his heels in jail overnight.
Jonathan Parker was a thief and a special sort of stupid to boot! When he was burgling a house he decided to log in to the computer of the victim to check his Facebook – also he forgot to log out! Stupid?
Maxi Sopo had managed to fraudulently get 200,000 dollars from various banks, after which he decided to vacation in Cancun. But he could not resist posting vacation pictures on Facebook. Apparently, one former Justice Department official was his Facebook friend. After that, it was a short distance from vacation beach to jail.
One Malaysian syndicate simply used photos of women without their permission from their Facebook pages to falsely claim that their services were available for prostitution. Many men paid for the call girl services to receive nothing in return!
Do you have something interesting you would like to share? Write to us at [email protected]
