10 years for man caught in online sex sting

From Mark Morris: A federal judge sentenced a Mississippi man to 10 years in federal prison today for attempted commercial sex trafficking of a child. Christopher M. Cockrell, 34, of Amory, Miss., pleaded guilty in July after he answered an online ad, posted by undercover Independence police officers, offering minor girls for sex. Cockrell admitted that he agreed to pay $80 for unprotected sex with a 15-year-old girl.

Hat Tip: Many thanks, Ken!

Hunting sexual predators online

Mark Bowden, who wrote "Black Hawk Down," has a piece here about the effort to track down sexual predators online. What's interesting is that he interviews both the detective and the suspect, who went to jail for a year. The whole process -- how they hooked the guy, negotiated with him, is fascinating. And while he's obviously very messed-up, it's not clear that he's particularly dangerous. It's a longer read, but worthwhile.

Hat Tip: Many thanks, Rhonda!

Cyberthieves steal credit-card info from local pub

Cyberthieves have apparently hit a local restaurant's credit-card server, Overland Park police say. The department started getting complaints a few days from people who were victims of credit-card fraud. The common thread? They'd all eaten at Llywelyn's on 151st Street. OP and the Secret Service are now investigating. They're asking anybody who's used a card there in the past six months to report any irregularities.

MO ninth-grader arrested for alleged cyberbullying

The story is from Troy, Mo., where school officials reported a girl who created a Web site specifically to bully another girl. (The site had photos, nasty language and a poll about the girl, the Post-Dispatch reports.) Authorities arrested her, but it's not clear if the ninth-grader will definitely face criminal charges yet.

Woman arrested for Facebook "poke"

The accused was the subject of a protection order and wasn't supposed to contact the other person at all, even through Facebook. Story is from Tennessee.

Man accused of taping naked ESPN reporter described as regular guy

We've got a little bit more about Michael David Barrett, the man accused of secretly videotaping ESPN reporter Erin Andrews in her hotel room, then posting the video to the Internet. His neighbors are shocked, shocked, that he could be responsible for something like this.

(AP Photo/Wade Payne)

Ill. woman tried to entice 13-year-old boy online, police say

This is different -- most of these cases usually involve men accused of seeking sex with teenage girls. Like those cases, though, this was another instance where police posed as the underage victim. The woman was reportedly arrested after she went to the boy's house with condoms and lingerie.

RDM's Random Remarks has a take on the case here.

UPDATE: Secret Service looks into Facebook poll about Obama assassination

If the poll sounded sophomoric, well, now you know why ...

YouTube predator sought out local girl

KCTV has a creepy story about an Olathe girl, age 10, who innocently taped herself doing a cheerleading routine and posted the results on YouTube -- which attracted the attention of a pervert all the way from Ireland.

Police arrest pranksters in series of phone hoaxes

Earlier this year, there was a series of hoaxes where someone would call a fast-food restaurant or a hotel and trick the staff into doing something stupid, like smashing the windows or setting off the fire-suppression system and taking off their clothes. The Smoking Gun exposed the perpetrators as being part of an online group called Pranknet.

Now? The police have made arrests against two of the alleged pranksters. Both of them coincidentally happen to have sex crimes in their pasts, one of them for child rape. Here's hoping there are more arrests to come!

Hat Tip: Many thanks, You're A Mean Drunk R2D2!

MO woman loses $4K in Facebook scam

Someone stole the account of a Cape Girardeau woman, who then contacted her friends with a phony story -- the thief said she was in Britain, having trouble and needed someone to wire her some money. And naturally, some poor soul did.

Should the feds have a "kill switch" for the Internet?

That proposal is included in an early version of a new cybersecurity act. The federal government would be able to shut down private networks if there were some kind of emergency, though the exact extent isn't specified.

Hat Tip: Many thanks, gee!

Jessica Biel could infect your computer

Actress Jessica Biel is top of the list this year for the most dangerous celebrities to search online, according to this charmig video report. A Google search of her name is most likely to give your computer a virus.

Last year it was Brad Pitt.

|Meredith Rodriguez

ACLU sues DHS over laptop privacy at the border

The ACLU says searching laptops at the border is an invasion of privacy. They want to know exaclty what DHS has collected.

Court cases have generally found that citizens should have diminished expectations of privacy when re-entering the country because the U.S. has a right to protect itself and control what crosses its borders.

Hat Tip: Many thanks Jo Jo!

|Meredith Rodriguez

A modest proposal: No more Internet for illegal downloaders

The British are considering a proposal where Internet service providers would cut the service of people who repeatedly download music and movies illegally.

"Dr. Phil" episode inspired sugar-daddy extortion scheme, cops say

"Online sex slaves" were involved, the Hartford Courant reports.

Beware of hyperbolic online name-calling

A judge ruled that Liskula Cohen, 37, a one time Canadian model, has a right to know who started a Blogger.com blog that posted photos of her with captions like, "psychotic," "ho" and "skank."

Google complied and provided an IP address and email address for the blogger.

The blogger's attorney argued that Cohen was seeking publicity rather than trying to remedy her reputation. The attorney warned the ruling has dire implications for free speech on the internet.

But the blogger's attorney ... asserted that her client's invective was not unusual for the Internet, and that hyperbolic online name-calling is so rampant -- "in comments sections, on Twitter, on blogs" as to practically be part of the Web's DNA.

|Meredith Rodriguez

Blogger accused of threats says he was an FBI informant

What a weird little case. To recap: A blogger named Hal Turner is facing charges in Connecticut because he allegedly wrote posts that could incite violence against three state officials. (He's also facing a similar charge in Illinois.)

What's weird is that, at one point, the FBI used him as an informant and deliberately asked him to write comments that would inflame various Internet nuts -- and, thus, allow the FBI to arrest them, Turner's lawyer says. The stuff that he's getting charged over? That happened after he left the FBI's employ, but it was still based on training they gave him so he wouldn't "cross the line."

Cyberthieves steal info on 130 million credit, debit cards

It reportedly happened between 2006 and 2008 and affected 7-Eleven; a N.J.-based payment processor, Heartland Payment Systems; a regional supermarket chain named Hannaford; and a couple of unnamed national retailers. Some of the numbers, no word on how many, were sold and then used for fraudulent purchases. It's not clear if the affected customers have been warned or offered new cards.

The other irritating part? One of the central figures is accused of masterminding a very similar scam a few years ago, involving Dave & Buster's and T.J. Maxx. He's been in custody since early 2008.

Hat Tip: Many thanks, Keith G in PV!

MO woman placed fake Craigslist ad in teen's name, police say

In St. Peters, Mo., a 40-year-old woman is accused of placing a fake Craiglist ad in the name of a 17-year-old girl whose mother was dating the woman's ex-husband. The charge is felony harassment, and it's filed under a law inspired by the Megan Meier case. The 40-year-old's lawyer doesn't think it'll hold up.

Lori Drew would like to go on the Internet again, please

Drew -- one of the central personalities in the Megan Meier / MySpace cyberbullying case -- was acquitted, but since the judge has yet to put that into writing, she's still bound by the term of her bail, which says no Internet. Drew's got a job offer, though, and just wants an exception for work-related Internet use, the Post-Dispatch reports.

Local cybercrime agency wins big chunk of Cyber Crime Grant

Missouri is splitting $1.5 million in federal money among 13 different cybercrime agencies. Platte County's Western Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force is getting more than any other single agency, about $208,000. The Northeastern Jackson County Cyber Crimes Working Group in Independence will get approximately $138,000, the governor's office announced.

Report: People still selling sex via Craigslist ads

It's like that line from Jurassic Park -- life will find a way. So will various online perverts. This means that all of those law-enforcement professionals who had been threatening lawsuits and such might revive those efforts.

ESPN reporter secretly videotaped nude, uploaded to Internet

A lawyer for Erin Andrews says she intends to seek criminal charges over the video, which was apparently taken without her knowledge in a hotel room. You probably don't want to go looking for this video, because a lot of the sites hosting it also give your computer malware and viruses.

(AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

Should online poker be legalized?

The Poker Players Alliance -- funded by an industry group based in Canada -- is making a big push to get the U.S. government to reconsider its ban.

They say that technology can keep young people from getting into these games, and that online poker is actually safer than going to a casino because players can set firm limits on how much they can afford to lose. But they're meeting resistance from religious groups, who feel it would create more problem gamblers.