HotmailBoys’ MySpace prank results in sex crime arrest
Man allegedly tried to meet fictitious 15-year-old girl for sex
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Teen prank helps catch sex offender March 8: A group of boys who posed as a 15-year-old girl for an Internet prank ended up helping police arrest a man who tried to meet the fictitious teen for sex. NBC's Peter Alexander reports. Today show |
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FONTANA, Calif. - A group of boys who posed as a 15-year-old girl for an Internet prank ended up helping police arrest a 48-year-old man who tried to meet the fictitious teenager for sex, authorities said.
The five boys had created a fake profile of a girl on MySpace.com — a social networking Web site — to cheer up a friend who had recently broken up with his girlfriend.
But soon, a man began sending messages to the “girl” and their conversations began to have sexual overtones, said Fontana police Sgt. William Megenney.
The man also sent the “girl” his picture and arranged to meet her at a public park. The boys went to the park and, when the man arrived, they called police.
Michael Ramos, 48, of Fontana, was booked into West Valley Detention Center on Monday for investigation of felony attempted lewd and lascivious conduct with a child and for an outstanding warrant, Megenney said.
He was being held at the West Valley Detention Center on $105,000 bail, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Web site.
A dispatcher who answered the telephone at the center early Tuesday said the facility does not allow phone interviews with inmates. It was not immediately known whether Ramos had a lawyer.
Two men were arrested last week in what prosecutors said were the first federal sexual assault charges involving MySpace. The unrelated cases involved Connecticut girls who were 11 and 14, the FBI said.
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