German Net Stalker Sentenced to Life in UK Court
The Internet can be a dangerous place -- especially when the shady characters you meet online follow you into real life. Back in 2008, 21-year old David Heiss became obsessed with Joanna Witton, 21, after numerous interactions with her on a site that she ran with her 20-year-old boyfriend Matthew Pyke.
According to the BBC, Heiss, who lives in Limburg, Germany, tracked the couple to their apartment in Nottingham, England and began to stalk and terrify them. He made three trips to their home town -- once staying in England for an entire month -- all the while leaving love notes for Witton and standing outside her home proclaiming his love for the woman he'd never met in real life.
Pyke and Witton blocked Heiss on various social networking sites and Pyke started to speak out against his girlfriend's Internet stalker. Then, on his third trip to Nottingham, Heiss must have decided to take Pyke out of the equation. He forged a suicide note from Pyke and camped outside the couple's apartment until Witton left for work in the morning. It was then that Heiss confronted Pyke, stabbing him 86 times and leaving him to die.
Before expiring, Pyke supposedly wrote out his attacker's name... in his own blood.
Heiss was arrested, tried, and found guilty of murder. He has now been sentenced to life in prison. This horrific tale outlines the dangers lurking on the Internet, and the importance of safeguarding your personal information online. So be careful out there, folks -- if someone from the internet shows up at your door for months to stalk your loved ones, go ahead and defriend them on Facebook. But, please also consider consulting the police. [From: BBC]
Facebook Crime and Punishment
Blackmail
Sending any personal info or incriminating pictures to someone on Facebook is a huge mistake for many reasons. One of the worst possible outcomes is getting blackmailed for money, sex, or, well, anything these sickos dream up. Really, whether they're using a fake profile or not, it's a horrible idea. Read up on the story of an 18-year-old who blackmailed 31 male classmates after he posed as a girl and asked for nude pictures. That's lesson enough.
Impostors
Sure, it can be harmless to impersonate a celeb online or create a fake profile for a movie character. But seriously, there's a definite line you shouldn't cross when pretending to be someone else and it can lead to dire consequences for you. Maybe it's not as extreme as the Moroccan man who was jailed for 43 days after creating a fake Facebook profile of a prince, but you never know. Just steer clear of it.
Self-Incrimination
Do we really have to explain this? Just look up the shoplifter who posed with her stolen merchandise, the many photos of drunk underage teens, and, most recently, the album featuring a couple who killed and ate an endangered iguana in the Bahamas.
Suicide
Social networking sites has been blamed for a lot of things, fairly and unfairly, but in our opinion, the worst offense has been their indirect involvement in suicides. Obviously, there are a lot of factors responsible in each case, but there does seem to be links between social networking and a rash of suicides, and obviously tehre's the case tragic of Megan Meier, who killed herself after a classmate's mom impersonated a teen boy and harassed her over Myspace.
Murder
We've reported on numerous incidents of people getting in trouble because of their online behavior. Now, people are becoming victims because of what they're doing on the Web too. In England, a man was convicted of murdering his estranged wife after she changed her relationship status to "single." So, be careful of who can see your profile and what you're doing, no matter how harmless it seems.
Nigerian Scammers
Oh, you thought this only happened via poorly worded emails, right? WRONG. Once people got wise to their old ways, these con men are turning to social networking sites for new targets. This time, they're hacking into people's accounts and impersonating them to ask for money, usually with some weird sob story. You can check out a transcript of one of these conversations here.
Cooperation
Even if the law isn't on a case, a victim, his friends, or empathetic strangers might be. Since it's easy to get word out for anything online, people are using blogs, forums, and social networking sites to help track down criminals. In one such case, a vehicle thief was tracked down by a bunch of anonymous car enthusiasts after the victim posted his story on a forum. In the end, they identified the guy through his Facebook profile.
Self-Incrimination
Do we really have to explain this? Just look up the shoplifter who posed with her stolen merchandise, the many photos of drunk underage teens, and, most recently, the album featuring a couple who killed and ate an endangered iguana in the Bahamas.
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