Use of fake MySpace profiles to fight crooks

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» 18 March 2010

According to a document of the Justice Department, social networking services such as MySpace and Facebook, are being utilized by secret agents in the United States as an instrument to fight off the alleged felons being investigated for the criminal charges against them.

Fake accounts deemed good and evil

The Justice Department document showed that the federal prosecutors use two separate principles when it comes to creating fake accounts in the social networking websites. This is clearly demonstrated in the 2008 issue of a certain Missouri woman who created a phony MySpace account and was charged with four crimes.

This event focuses on a mother, named Lori Drew, who “cyber-bullied” a 13-year-old girl using a profile of a fake teenage boy. During those several weeks, the young victim was attracted with the inexistent male adolescent. However, when Drew lost interest on the girl, she sent a life-damaging message that led to the girl’s suicide.

Drew was condemned by the Los Angeles jury for committing three counts of criminal acts. A judge, on the other hand, found that the arguments used in this case were nothing but ambiguous.

Use of shams to battle the wicked

Social networking websites are considered very much valuable during investigations since these services can be used as an online diary, which cannot easily be put to trash. The websites are also considered very helpful since the user’s private information and data may be found intact even for long periods of time.

At present, there is no exact law that hinders the federal agents from creating bogus accounts in the popular social networking services. Nonetheless, the terms of service in Facebook and MySpace are violated by the authorities’ actions.

Electronic Frontier Foundation published 33 pages of a .pdf document, which states the benefit of this exploit during high-profiled operations of the secret agents. The purposes of creating fake accounts comprise the following: communication with an alleged individual, obtaining private information, and mapping of the social relationships and networks.

Risk is always the main concern

The Justice Department believes that these deceitful actions made by the federal agents might promote serious problems in the future. This thought is supported by a memo containing a statement, which requests for an answer from MySpace regarding the violation of the terms of service. Still, MySpace has no response with regards to the department’s inquiry.

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