Creating Fake Facebook Page Could Land You In Jail ~ Facebook crimewave hits 100,000 in the last five years
A former Columbia County teacher, Margaret Mudrak was fired in June because of allegations that she helped students in her class cheat.
One of her students testified against her and shortly after someone created a fake Facebook page in the witness' name saying he lied to investigators.
There is a pending investigation on the student accused of creating a fake Facebook page. Investigators issued a warrant to search a home in Martinez and seized several computers.
There are many legal implications of creating pages online and assuming someone else's identity. The charges for computer forgery or computer theft can be quite extensive. The charges could range from fines to imprisonment depending on how serious the crime was.
Attorney Victor Hawk is defending the student accused of creating a fake Facebook page -- a page in which someone pretended to be a witness in the case.
He says if you are convicted of computer forgery, you could be fined up to $50,000 and go to prison for up to 15 years. There is a lesser offense for using someone else's password with fines up to $5000 and up to a year in prison.
Hawk: "It'd be very similar say for example to create a check and create a named company and then write yourself a check with a fictitious name."
He says young people need to understand the seriousness of the crime-- if they create a Facebook or MySpace page or anything on the internet under someone else's identity even if it is a prank.
While he would not comment on this case, Hawk says investigators can use cameras and validate IP addresses to determine what time and where entries were made.
Hawk: "Dispute over where the individual who supposedly made the entry and the time the entry was made. And if he made the computer in Augusta, Ga. and a hotel with a hundred witnesses that he was in Hilton Head that same night, then you have pretty good evidence that someone else made those entries."
And depending on the case, the charges could range from a misdemeanor to a felony. Richmond County Sergeant Randy Hayes says they’ve never had a case of online identity theft like this.
Hayes: "We would have to know what was actually said on the page, we'd have to know if it was a threat, if they had threatened them or not or if it was just a lie or something of that nature."
Columbia County investigators are working with the district attorney. We tried to talk to them today but they could not comment on this case because it's still pending.
http://www2.wjbf.com/news/2010/jul/28/creating-fake-facebook-page-could-land-you-jail-ar-635774/
December 31, 2010
The Facebook crimewave hits 100,000 in the last five years
Crimes linked to Facebook reached more than 100,000 across the country in the last five years, it emerged yesterday.
Police chiefs in 16 forces revealed that 7,545 calls from the public since January were concerned with the social networking site.
Callers have alerted officers to alleged acts of terrorism, sudden deaths, missing pets and even firearms offences.
Frauds, sexual offences and hate crimes were also reported to police, as well as a large number of malicious messages on the site.
The figures have been obtained by the Daily Mail via Freedom of Information Act requests to forces.
They compare to just 1,411 calls related to Facebook to police in the whole of 2005, when the network began to gain popularity.
The website has been used by criminals to make threats, intimidate, bully and harass.
Campaign groups claim sex offenders use websites such as Facebook and conceal their identity to snare children and women.
The website was launched in February 2004 and in July this year had more than 500 million active users.
A spokesman for children’s charity Kidscape said: ‘These figures are quite alarming, but they reflect the growing use of Facebook by the general population.
‘It must be remembered that any site operating user accounts has the potential for users to create false accounts.
‘We know that anonymous profiles can lead to a wide range of cyber crime, not least bullying and stalking.
‘The sheer volume of personal information that individuals include in their profiles without activating all the appropriate privacy settings is a huge concern.
‘These figures are an urgent reminder that we must increase our personal safety settings in cyberspace.’
A spokesman for Facebook said: ‘While there is a correlation between Facebook’s growing size and the number of calls, there is no evidence to suggest that the use of Facebook was the cause or carrier of a criminal act in any of the phone calls referenced.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1338223/Facebook-crime-rises-540-cent-3-years-police-chiefs-16-forces-reveal.html
Fake-facebook-pages-will-be-a-misdemeanor-in-2011
As with anything in life, if there is something that becomes big and a lot of people enjoy it, there will be those that abuse it. And Facebook and Twitter are no different. We can’t just have people put their stuff up there and share it with others, we have obnoxious people who have too much time on their hands to either spam us or set up fake pages.
Well, starting in 2011, it will be a misdemeanor if you do so in California. “As a Silicon Valley legislator, I’m nothing but enthusiastic about technology,” California senator Joe Simitian said.
“But the question is, is the technology used wisely and appropriately? This is one area where some constraint appeared necessary. The goal here really is to try to change behavior.” And we are all for it. These clowns on social media seem to love irritating everyone else, and now they’ll have to pay for it.
Violations are punishable of up to $1,000 in fines and a year in jail. That might make you think twice about pretending to be Arnold Schwarzenegger on Facebook.
http://largemediainc.com/2010/12/30/fake-facebook-pages-will-be-a-misdemeanor-in-2011/
