infoTECH News

[September 17, 2009]

Teenager, mother thwart Web predator's advances

PANAMA CITY, Sep 17, 2009 (The News Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- -- Natalie Greimann was in her bedroom chatting with friends one night, the way most 14-year-olds do: via instant message.

Then she met someone who wasn't her friend.

"He wanted her to strip for him," said Natalie's mother, Annette Greimann, who picked up her phone at work that day to hear her frantic daughter on the line.

Natalie's case is another example of the modern child predator sneaking into a target's personal life -- often from thousands of miles away -- thanks to the anonymity and accessibility of the Internet, Bay County sheriff's investigators said.

"It borders extortion," said Investigator Jeremy Mathis, who took the case about six weeks ago and, he says, is close to tracking down the person behind it.

Meanwhile, "it's becoming more prevalent." Natalie, a freshman in high school, was in an AOL Instant Messenger chat room with several friends, her mother said, when she accepted a message from someone claiming to be a schoolmate. The user, a male, apparently offered to send Natalie a photo, which required her to make a direct connection. When she did, the perpetrator hacked into her computer.

He took her login information for Facebook and MySpace, Greimann said, and threatened to use his access against her unless she stripped for him on video.

Natalie responded angrily. "She said, 'Loser, why are you doing this to me? Don't you have anything better to do?'" her mother recalled.

He responded smugly that he was smart enough to take advantage; later, he left an "indecent voicemail" on Natalie's cell phone.

She did not feel like a victim for very long, Greimann said. She is more angry than hurt, and today, both look forward to seeing a suspect caught.

Mathis said he obtained a subpoena for identifying information from the user's Internet service provider. The address is not local, which was a relief for the Greimann family, who worried they should be watching for suspicious figures lurking outside their home or at Natalie's school.

If and when he identifies a suspect, Mathis said he likely will forward his case file on to the local agency where the suspect lives. Greimann said they had traced the obscene phone call to an Arkansas number.

The Sheriff's Office response to the case has been exceptional, Greimann said. Investigators were at her house within 30 minutes of their call for help; Mathis has been checking in with updates on a regular basis.

Greimann had heard that one in five teens are approached online by a predator. Even then, she did not think it would happen to her daughter.

Even after it did, Greimann said she won't forbid Natalie from chatting online; she trusts her to make good decisions.

She hopes what happened will teach a lesson to Natalie and to other teens, targets who don't have to feel like victims if they help law enforcement find the offenders.

"She's not the first one or the last one," Greimann said of her daughter. "I'm sure he's out there doing it right now." To see more of The News Herald or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newsherald.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The News Herald, Panama City, Fla. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

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