Chatrooms...

A brilliant way to make friends from all over the world....or is it.

Log on to any chatroom and you can meet a roomful of new blokes. Reinvent yourself as a Britney Spears look-alike and flirt away.

However as more women are getting into the joy of on-line friendships, an alarming number are falling victim to the seedier side of the internet.

Men who want to misuse the 'access all areas' nature of the internet, are logging on and pretending that they are someone they are not in a sinister attempt to seduce thier new friend into giving more than she had planned.

The extreme cases have ended in stalking, rape and even murder.

You've got mail...

Chatting to strangers on-line can be a thrill. The banter and sexy chats you can have with people can be addictive. It's important to keep in mind that people you meet on-line arent always what they claim to be!

Cases

Patrick Green

There was a case earlier this year involving Patrick Green 33 who was jailed for 5 years for luring a 13 year old girl to his flat for sex. He had posed as a 15 year old boy when he began talking to Lucy and for over two months wooed her with sweet talk and sent her pictures of a young lad claiming that they were him.

When the victim eventually agreed to meet him she had built up trust for him and had 'fallen in love' with him, so he was able to pursuade her to go back to his flat.

When the police arrested Patrick Green he was leaving his home to meet another minor with the same intentions.

Willam Miller

In 1998 a body of a 27 year old woman from Michigan was found in a well with a shotgun blast to the head, she had gone to meet her online lover William Miller 40 who was convicted of her murder and jailed for 25 years.

These are just two of the stories that I have read about and there are many more of people who were lucky enough to have got away.

Other way around

Thank you to Britwannabe who gave me this information about a case that happened in his home town.

Last August, a young woman from Marquette, Michigan, USA arranged to meet a man she had met on-line. The victim had told her friends and co-workers that she was meeting her online friend for the first time, that was the last anyone saw of her. She was missing for two weeks when the police found her body in the woods.

The online friend from Canada was picked up and he said that she never showed up at the designated meeting place, he passed a lie detector test and was free to go. Now the police suspect two locals were involved. The police are very tight lipped about the still open investigation as no one has been arrested.

Here is a link to the newspaper article given to me by Britwannabe about the Unsolved case

Personal Experience

Although not all cases turn out like above, earlier this year I met up with my online friend of eight months and we are still friends today.

Before I met him we arranged to meet in chatrooms for a couple of weeks then I allowed him to have my email address and a few weeks later my mobile phone number where for a month or two we spoke on the phone chatted on the net and emailed eachother.

In October he asked if he could meet me and I agreed but he would have to come to my home town and I would meet him at the train station. I told my family where I was going and I kept my mobile with me so they could call me. We stayed in the town centre where there were plenty of people and I never showed him where I lived!

We have been friends since May and since then he has met my family and I have visited his and we are really good friends.

My Cousin

My younger cousin recently made an online friend, she is 13 years old and he claimed to be 15 and they chatted in a chatroom for about two weeks when he gave her his mobile number and asked her to text him, so when she did he called her up and they spoke.

She later called me and told me that he had called her and he didnt sound like a 15 year old so I called him from her mobile and found out he was 26.

Since then she has changed her mobile number and wont give out any details at all over the internet, it shocked her because she believed everything he said.

These chatrooms are full of young teenages that are nieve and believe what they are told and dont realise the dangers they could be putting themselves into!

Stay Safe...

• NEVER give out your phone number, you postal address or other details that may identify you, until you are sure that you can trust your cyber friend.
• Do not give out your full name in a conversation - use either your nickname or first name.
• If you meet someone you've chatted to on-line, always do so in a public place like a pub or resturant.
• Tell someone where you are going.
• Do not accept a lift home unless you are sure its safe to do so.

Remember...

It doesnt always have a happy ending like the film 'You've Got Mail'