Flight Attendant Hits on Teen Girl via Facebook
According to News.com.au, a woman identified only as Elizabeth has complained to the airline of a male flight attendant who, she claims, harassed her 15-year-old daughter after spotting her on a flight. According to Elizabeth, neither she nor her two daughters gave their names to the man during the flight last month. Regardless, the 15 year old got home, checked her Facebook, and found a friend request from the guy. After she denied the request, he continued to pester the girl with messages, her mother says.
According to The Age, the creepiest of those messages read as follows:
Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway announced today that the airline had launched an internal investigation and had temporarily suspended the flight attendant. Understanding that the would-be suitor had obtained the girl's name from her boarding pass, Westaway apologized on behalf of Jetstar but said, "We need to get our employee's side of the story in regard to that. He's a good employee. He's been with the company for over two years." Two years, huh? You might want to check your boy's sent messages, Mr. Westaway. [From: News.com.au/FOX News and The Age]
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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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Timaloha said 6:49PM on 10-07-2009
Big deal. He didn't say anything sexual or specifically wrong. There's no real evidence that he was interested in her for anything other than a facebook friend. And it doesn't give his age, so we don't know if he's twenty-one or forty. And all she had to do was block him from her page and she'd never hear from him again.
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doug said 6:32AM on 10-08-2009
Really? So if it was your 16 year old daughter, you'd be perfectly ok with this? I doubt that. Regardless of what the attendent said specifically, it's inappropriate and it looks bad for the company when your employees harass your customers.
Dudley Haas said 7:06AM on 10-09-2009
A flight attendant for Southwest offered my wrinkle faced wife a glass of prune juice on a boeing 747.
J.M. said 8:07AM on 10-09-2009
Was the flight attendant a Conservative? That would explain your enthusiasm to excuse his behavior.
kathleen said 9:18AM on 10-09-2009
are you nuts? What right does he have to get her private information and use it for his own purpose. That is the problem with society..no respect for yourself, your fellow man, or your job!
Sandi said 9:31AM on 10-09-2009
You really don't think there was a problem with an employee taking personal information from a flight manifest and using it for his own intentions? You're kidding me, right? Then, not just one contact with a juivenille, but numerous ones after that underaged teenager rejected his pass? (That's called harassment, at the very least.) At any rate, it's not as if this flight attendant asked the girl for her information and she gave it to him, he stole the information from his employer! I suppose you don't think it would be wrong for a department store employee to take credit card information from their employer, either? I mean, that's pretty much the same thing, right? Personal information is personal information. Unbelievable.
Sam said 12:04PM on 10-09-2009
ARE YOU FKN KIDDING ME? What rose colored world do YOU live in?
I hope you don't really think he just wanted to add the kid as a "facebook friend".
He asked for her phone #. For what purpose does a grown man have to ask a 15 or 16 yr old girl to be their "friend" and for their phone #?? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
Does it matter if he's 21 or 40? She's 15!!! It would be a little less creepy if he were say 17, but I highly doubt that is the case.
MQ said 12:37PM on 10-09-2009
hey timaloha... are you on the watch list in many neighborhoods with children????.... I'd hope so...... anyone who goes out of their way to approach an underage girl/boy instead of pursuing a healthy interaction with people his own age is a pedophile. plain and simple .... even if the pursuer is 21 and she's 15 it's still illegal..and Wrong!!!!.. and the proof that he's odd is the fact that he looked up her name via the boarding pass knowing she's underage and then continuing to chase her. I'd not block him so I could collect evidence to prosecute him .... think dateline on TV... ALSO i AM CONCERNED WHY YOU'D DEFEND HIM.... FEEL A COMRADESHIP MY FRIEND??? if so seek professional help stat before you end up on dateline too.
thethinker said 12:46PM on 10-09-2009
I 100% agree with you on this one, first of all I do have a 15yr old, she is not allowed to have myspace or facebook or any of those dumb cyber things... If her mom was so concerned she should watch what her kids are doing, especially when their using the computer, this is so ridicously now this guy is going to lose his job cuz of some lil brat being on facebook, its not his fault she is on there, she should of have never being on there in the first place....
intheknow said 8:21AM on 10-08-2009
This is why we need more female flight attendants.
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kenhc35 said 9:50AM on 10-09-2009
ya just like we need more female teachers screwing our boys....nice call.
DDNRL5#AOL.COM said 6:33AM on 10-09-2009
Yeah, but the fact that she did not request him as her friend should have been enough for him to go away and he didnt. That is enough to be aware of.
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glowhappy said 6:39AM on 10-09-2009
As our president would say, this is a great teachable moment. Great opportunity to discuss the correct way to handle this type of approach. I plan to share this story with my daughter and prepare her for these type of advances from men. By learning from this moment, it has value.
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Tom Stoneburner said 6:44AM on 10-09-2009
There is a good chance #1 is a child molester. They tend to flood topics in order to justify their own behavior.
The message, if true, is a classic example of grooming. He 'just' wants to be a Facebook friend, but he wants to know her phone number and where she lives.
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mike said 2:04PM on 10-09-2009
#1 MAY or MAY NOT BE MISSED UP and CHASING CHILDREN. But, I sure would not want him OR her near my daughter. Just the AS5 backway of it's think would be enough to scare me to let my daughter near him/her. Why would someone at work, on a plane, with the chance of NEVER having that person on their flight again be thinking about a teenage girl. The mother could have told the police before getting this out on the internet. . .and done a DATELINE ON THIS MAN.,
SemiSwt said 7:05AM on 10-09-2009
Timaloha... The fact that he looked up her information from her boarding pass/passenger list is completely wrong. To continue to contact her after she clearly denied his friend request on Facebook is bordering on stalking.
Sure he didn't say anything sexual or wrong.... pedophiles in their cars luring kids with candy don't either.
Tom.. you are absolutely correct. A classic case of grooming. Telling her he has "never wanted to add a 16 yr old" is clearly trying to make this girl feel special so that he garners her trust and friendship.
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Paul said 10:12AM on 10-09-2009
Now how is it that you are so UP on this kind of information?? Hmmm.
Trinity said 9:05AM on 10-09-2009
I am not saying the flight attendant had a right to contact this teenager or "any passenger" without their consent. However, 16 year olds get hit on ALL the time by grown men!! My daughter is so curvaceous that men started staring her down from a lil over 10 yrs. old. I raised her well...today at 17, she's still a virgin. I didn't have to make a scene about any advances towards her. She shut guys down direct and instantaneously. I only found out she was intact after a recent medical emergency. All that parent and child had to do was BLOCK that guy and call it a day. If a letter then came to the house, there would be need for concern, but people in general find it so easy to press a button and send a message over the internet that it doesn't constitute stalking with just a few text messages. He had a crush. If he was a Pedophile, her obvious mature aesthetics that he referred to, would NOT be alluring.
Some people just like drama and publicity. I was a beautiful teenage girl who was pursued by even my teachers and doctors---today a mother, in my 40's I get pursued by even teenagers STILL. I spend a lot of time saying no...I maintain my weight and figure over the years,now fluctuating between 115 to 125 pounds and look great at either end of the scale. My children friends, teachers, doctors etc hit on me. Should I publicize every seemingly misconduct? One has to learn to deflect unwanted attention with tact! She's obviously a beautiful girl, that can be a blessing as well as a curse, her parents need to let her know things like this will happen, men are drawn to beauty, and unfortunately with a world full of lazy fat women "most women over 30 tend to let themselves go", so men tend to look at younger women. Also, in England, Jamaica etc the age of consent is 16. Women are drawn to hard body handsome men, powerful men, etc... I think this was blown out of proportion.
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kimmby said 9:25AM on 10-09-2009
You are full of BS!!! You are most likely a big ugly fat dude trying to get off on your own message.
If the girl DID turn him down and he continued- it's harrassment. He crossed ethical lines by taking her name from a boarding pass...
All this mention of physical description that you add, gives you away. There's no mention in the article like your perverse rendition.
s10stealth said 9:44AM on 10-09-2009
Is there ANY way to frame this post and push it to the top of the list?
I was going to jump in on this discussion but I could not have said this any better.