User:Cindyjost132/Catfishing

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Signs

• If a profile photo of the person is found through Google Search identified as someone else
• If the person is only willing to communicate through text messages than verbal conversation

Alicia Kozakiewicz

• During 2000–2001, 13-year-old Alicia Kozakiewicz befriended an individual she believed was a boy her age in a Yahoo chat room. On January 1, 2002, he invited Kozakiewicz to meet him near her Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, home. The boy was actually 38-year-old Scott Tyree from Herndon, Virginia. Scott forced Kozakiewicz into his vehicle and drove her to his home, where he held her captive, shackled, raped, and tortured her in his basement dungeon while live streaming online. A Florida viewer recognized Kozakiewicz from news stories and a National Center for Missing & Exploited Children flier and gave an anonymous tip to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). After tracing Tyree's IP address, the FBI stormed the house on January 4 and freed Kozakiewicz at 4:10 PM. Kozakiewicz became a motivational speaker, Internet safety and missing persons advocate, and     founded The Alicia Project.

Kacie Woody

• In 2002, 13-year-old Kacie Woody (screen name: modelbehavior63), from Arkansas, began an online friendship who said to be a 17-year-old boy named Dave Fagen (Username name: azzman_df ) from California. "Dave Fagen," whose profile picture was of a young man, was 47-year-old David Fuller from La Mesa. Fuller traveled to Arkansas and abducted Woody from her home on the night of December 3 after discovering she was home alone. Arkansas law enforcement and the FBI questioned Kacie’s closest friends and family to find new information. The next day Woody and Fuller's bodies were discovered in Fuller's rented minivan inside Guardsmart Storage in Conway. Fuller had sedated Woody with chloroform, bound, raped, and shot himself in the head before shooting himself upon law enforcement's arrival. Woody's friends and family created the Kacie Woody Foundation to educate parents and children about Internet safety.

Suicide of Megan Meier

• The suicide of Megan Meier in October 2006 was attributed to Lori Drew, a neighbor of the Meiers who had created a fake account to cyberbully Megan. It was rumored Megan was spreading gossip about Sarah, her neighbor. Sarah and several other people were also involved. On MySpace, Megan had received a friend request from a supposedly 16-year-old boy named "Josh Evans," who claimed to have recently moved to a nearby city, O'Fallon, Missouri. The two became friends; however, on October 16, Josh began sending increasingly hurtful messages to Megan, the last of which told her that the world would be a better place without her. Megan was upset by the hurtful messages and after being confronted by her mother, Tina, for not signing off when she was told, ran to her bedroom. A while later, when Tina went to Megan's room to check on her, she found that Megan had hung herself with a belt inside her closet. Her father performed chest compressions, and Megan was pronounced dead the next day, weeks before her 14th birthday. About a year later, the scheme behind the account was discovered. In 2008, a jury indicted and convicted Lori of violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in connection with the incident. A federal judge vacated the conviction on a post-trial verdict on grounds that the act did not intend to criminalize Drew's alleged conduct. The government decided against appealing the ruling. In 2009, Drew was also acquitted of cyberbullying in United States v. Drew. Tina founded the Megan Meier Foundation, an organization intended to fight cyberbullying

Carly Ryan

• In 2006, 14-year-old Carly Ryan from South Australia befriended and began dating an American-Australian teen named Brandon Kane over MySpace (MySpace username Corrupt Koala). "Kane" turned out to be Garry Francis Newman, who traveled from Melbourne to attend Carly's 15th birthday party in January 2007. Kane’s father gave Carly an inappropriate birthday gift that consisted of lingerie. Sonya's mother told him to leave after she noticed Kane giving her daughter odd looks. Three weeks later, in February, Carly left the house apparently to have a sleepover with friends, but after being reported missing when she didn’t return home the next morning, her body was found floating in Horseshoe Bay in Port Elliot. She had been beaten, smothered in beach sand, and then thrown into the ocean to drown. An investigation led back to Newman, who was arrested and, in January 2010, found guilty of Carly’s murder and sentenced to life in prison with a 29-year non-parole period. Carly's mother, Sonya Ryan, founded the Carly Ryan Foundation, which successfully lobbied for "Carly's Law" to be enacted to protect Australian minors online.

References

Jepsen, Belinda. “'He Used His Son to Lure My Child.' Why We Must Never Forget Carly Ryan.” 'He Used His Son to Lure My Child.' Why We Must Never Forget Carly Ryan., Mamamia, 11 Sept. 2021, https://www.mamamia.com.au/carly-ryan-murder/.