Cyberbulling may soon be a Felony

SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS – State Rep. Bob Flider, D-Mount Zion has introduced legislation to crack down on how adults can talk to minors on the internet. This came about after hearing the story of Megan Meier, the 13-year-old girl from Dardenne Prairie, Mo., who killed herself last year after receiving hurtful messages on MySpace, a social networking site, from a fictitious boy that was made up by some people in her neighborhood.

Illinois has a law now that restricts sexual predators from communicating with children over the internet but the one filed last week in Springfield would expand the law to include any and/or type of potentially damaging communication on the Internet with a minor. It would make it a felony for an adult to have any electronic communication that “demonstrates a knowing disregard for the health, safety and welfare” of the minor.
Megan Meier’s Mother, Tina Meier, has been lobbying in the state of Missouri to help get a cyber bulling law passed there.

Work-From-Home job turns out to be Scam

An Illinois Woman thought she e found the ideal job. The stay-at-home mother could raise her toddler and bring in an extra income for the family. She only had to receive packages in the mail and would resend them to the man overseas that hired her, After a few weeks, her employer, a man she knew as John Willner, asked her if she wanted to earn more money by receiving money orders and re-mailing them to him. She had no idea that she was now a victim of a scam.
The merchandise in the packages she was sent were bought with stolen credit cards. The money orders were sent by people duped by a Web site created by a fictional seller of small electronics.The packages and money reached addresses in Russia and Kyrgyzstan. Most likely a fake name and fake address as the websites are already down.
She found out only when she was contacted by the authorities regarding stolen credit cards. Luckily she was able to prove that she was a victim of this scam since she truly believed she was being hired by a legitimate company to work from home. She had replied to an ad for a “Work from Home” job from the internet.
This is happening all over and they tend to target stay at home parents. Apparently Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Russia and Canada are among popular locations for scammers to ship goods bought with stolen credit cards.
Scammers know it’s difficult to convince Americans to send money orders to a person in Russia. And they know it’s a red flag for credit card companies if a U.S. cardholder suddenly buys high-end small electronics and ships them to an address in Kyrgyzstan. These particular people had placed their employment ad using the name of a well known parcel company. Remember if it sounds too good to be true it probably is!
//sources:AP, Panagraph