Los Angeles Times
Mar. 8, 2006 10:33 AM
Several teenage boys lured a suspected child molester into police custody at a Fontana, Calif., park after posting a fake profile of a 15-year-old girl on the Web site MySpace.com as a joke, authorities said Tuesday.
Michael Ramos, 48, allegedly contacted the fictitious adolescent girl on the popular social networking Web site, wrote sexually suggestive messages, sent a photo of himself online and arranged to meet with the nonexistent teenager, police said.
The boys, ages 14 to 16 and all Fontana residents, identified Ramos at the park and alerted local police, who arrested him Sunday afternoon.
Ramos, also of Fontana, told detectives he was there to meet a 15-year-old girl for sex, officials said.
"Thank God (the teenagers) were thinking on their feet and had the forethought to call the police," said Sgt. William Megenney, spokesman for the Fontana Police Department.
The five or six teenagers created the phony profile with a photograph they lifted from the Internet at random Thursday and sent it to a friend to cheer him up because he'd recently broken up with his girlfriend, Megenney said.
Ramos found the girl's bogus profile and began messaging "her" online, police said.
"As time goes on, these e-mails are getting more progressively sexual in nature," Megenney said. After several days, the youths decided to cut off communication with Ramos by arranging a meeting at a public park in north Fontana, which they assumed he would not attend.
When Ramos arrived, the group recognized him from his online photo, watched him from a distance and contacted police from the park, .
"These kids are extremely lucky this didn't turn into something they weren't able to control," Megenney said. "I think they're actually kind of spooked."
With more than 60 million users, Santa Monica, Calif.-based MySpace is the second-most-viewed site on the Internet, said spokesman Matthew Grossman. One-third of the site's roughly 270 staffers screen 2 million new images for nudity, hate speech and obscene content each day, Grossman said.
"Safety is in large part an educational process," Grossman said, declining to talk about the Fontana incident, but adding that MySpace has cooperated with many law enforcement investigations. "The Internet is moving really quickly in the same way that we all were taught to not talk to strangers or not get into a car . . . those same kind of rules are being taught and need to be taught to kids for the online world."
People under 14 are prohibited from the site and, although 200,000 underage users have been kicked offline, the rule is difficult to enforce, Grossman said.
"There are no tried-and-true age verification technologies," Grossman said.
Ramos, who had an outstanding warrant for grand theft, was arrested on suspicion of attempting lewd and lascivious acts with a child. He was being held at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., on $105,000 bail.
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Michael Ramos, 48, allegedly contacted the fictitious adolescent girl on the popular social networking Web site, wrote sexually suggestive messages, sent a photo of himself online and arranged to meet with the nonexistent teenager, police said.
The boys, ages 14 to 16 and all Fontana residents, identified Ramos at the park and alerted local police, who arrested him Sunday afternoon.
Ramos, also of Fontana, told detectives he was there to meet a 15-year-old girl for sex, officials said.
"Thank God (the teenagers) were thinking on their feet and had the forethought to call the police," said Sgt. William Megenney, spokesman for the Fontana Police Department.
The five or six teenagers created the phony profile with a photograph they lifted from the Internet at random Thursday and sent it to a friend to cheer him up because he'd recently broken up with his girlfriend, Megenney said.
Ramos found the girl's bogus profile and began messaging "her" online, police said.
"As time goes on, these e-mails are getting more progressively sexual in nature," Megenney said. After several days, the youths decided to cut off communication with Ramos by arranging a meeting at a public park in north Fontana, which they assumed he would not attend.
When Ramos arrived, the group recognized him from his online photo, watched him from a distance and contacted police from the park, .
"These kids are extremely lucky this didn't turn into something they weren't able to control," Megenney said. "I think they're actually kind of spooked."
With more than 60 million users, Santa Monica, Calif.-based MySpace is the second-most-viewed site on the Internet, said spokesman Matthew Grossman. One-third of the site's roughly 270 staffers screen 2 million new images for nudity, hate speech and obscene content each day, Grossman said.
"Safety is in large part an educational process," Grossman said, declining to talk about the Fontana incident, but adding that MySpace has cooperated with many law enforcement investigations. "The Internet is moving really quickly in the same way that we all were taught to not talk to strangers or not get into a car . . . those same kind of rules are being taught and need to be taught to kids for the online world."
People under 14 are prohibited from the site and, although 200,000 underage users have been kicked offline, the rule is difficult to enforce, Grossman said.
"There are no tried-and-true age verification technologies," Grossman said.
Ramos, who had an outstanding warrant for grand theft, was arrested on suspicion of attempting lewd and lascivious acts with a child. He was being held at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., on $105,000 bail.
www.azcentral.com
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