Just a cautionary story for our forum service members.

Officials: Inmates ran $560K online dating extortion scheme

Officials: Inmates ran $560K online dating extortion scheme

By MEG KINNARD Associated Press Nov 28, 2018

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Five inmates in the Carolinas extorted more than half a million dollars from military personnel throughout the country, using illegal cellphones to pose as underage women on dating sites, authorities said Wednesday.

Standing in front of a state prison in Columbia, South Carolina, U.S. Attorney Sherri Lydon told reporters that five inmates had been indicted on federal charges including extortion and wire fraud. Ten others throughout the Carolinas have been charged with helping inmates collect extortion payments via services including Western Union or PayPal.

According to court documents, inmates used contraband phones to join dating websites, contacting and exchanging nude images with service members across the country.

Once the targets had been reeled in, Drew Goodridge of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service said, inmates then posed as an authority figure, like a father or police officer, claiming the girl with whom the victim had been communicating was underage and demanding money to keep the exchanges private.

Fearful they'd be accused of disseminating child pornography, possibly losing their military careers, more than 442 service members handed over more than $560,000 total, authorities said.

Lydon said the victims come from all branches and ranks of the military. According to Goodridge, more than 250 other cases were being investigated for potential extortion as part of "Operation Surprise Party," which his agency began in January 2017.

"This operation will continue until we break the back of these criminal networks," he said.

Inmates aren't allowed to have cellphones behind bars, although thousands are smuggled inside each year. Corrections Director Bryan Stirling has long called illegally obtained cellphones the No. 1 security threat inside his institutions, as they allow inmates the unmonitored ability to communicate and potentially continue their criminal endeavors.

Officials have said a deadly riot earlier this year at Lee Correctional Institution was in part a turf war over contraband including cellphones.

"We do not lock up criminals only to have them go to prison and continue their criminal conduct," Lydon said. "It is the unfettered use of contraband cellphones that allows inmates to continue harming the citizens of South Carolina."

———

Meg Kinnard can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Why don't prisons have cellular and wifi blockers/jammers installed, as a standard practice?

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
Why don't prisons have cellular and wifi blockers/jammers installed, as a standard practice?

because of FCC rules / laws outlawing blockers / jamers.

Bill

quote:

Originally posted by still_bill:

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
Why don't prisons have cellular and wifi blockers/jammers installed, as a standard practice?

because of FCC rules / laws outlawing blockers / jamers.

Bill

Seems like some priorities are out of whack there.

quote:

Originally posted by still_bill:

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
Why don't prisons have cellular and wifi blockers/jammers installed, as a standard practice?

because of FCC rules / laws outlawing blockers / jamers.

Our government most certainly has a variety of locations where they do exactly that for all manner of security and national security reasons.

I'm simply surprised prisons aren't included. Seems like an enormous oversight.

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:

quote:

Originally posted by still_bill:

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
Why don't prisons have cellular and wifi blockers/jammers installed, as a standard practice?

because of FCC rules / laws outlawing blockers / jamers.

Our government most certainly has a variety of locations where they do exactly that for all manner of security and national security reasons.

I'm simply surprised prisons aren't included. Seems like an enormous oversight.

Maybe staff needs to use phones?

It's a prison, one of the defining archetypes of fixed fortifications, so it's not going anywhere, no real mobility required, no GPS needed, and land lines are ages old tech that's proven and reliable and cheap and I'd bet already in place at every prison in this country.

Surely it isn't because Job Bob in the guard shack can Facebook his friends while at work.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:

quote:

Originally posted by still_bill:

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:
Why don't prisons have cellular and wifi blockers/jammers installed, as a standard practice?

because of FCC rules / laws outlawing blockers / jamers.

Our government most certainly has a variety of locations where they do exactly that for all manner of security and national security reasons.

I'm simply surprised prisons aren't included. Seems like an enormous oversight.

Maybe staff needs to use phones?

I don't know what the logic is. Prison guards were fine without cell phones for years. I think that the FCC should allow jamming inside prisons. It would be an inconvenience for guards and other workers, but one they would have to live with.

What's wrong with the staff using landlines?

Yeah the prison guards are ok not being able to tweet or update facebook while on duty.

Have em use landlines and push to talk radios.

Shut down cell service in prisons.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:
What's wrong with the staff using landlines?

Because when they began developing the training curriculum on how to use a landline, the training developers (who average low to mid 30 years of age) could not grasp why the phones had a wire connecting them to the wall nor why the phones could not be upgraded to stream live video.

It was after many long days with multiple pictures and graphs that the senior executives (those over 50 years of age) realized the futility of getting said landline communications.

I say set up a cell tower that all cell phones to would filter through and monitor all communications. Infiltrate the network.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
Yeah the prison guards are ok not being able to tweet or update facebook while on duty.

Have em use landlines and push to talk radios.

Shut down cell service in prisons.

Agreed all-around, they shouldn't be doing that shit on duty anyway. Their job is to babysit felons, not play pocket-pool with digital devices.

you can block cell phone signal and allow wifi access per mac address

This is not a technology issue. It is a human problem. Dedicated criminals will find a way around the rules to target the vulnerable, handicapped, intellectually limited and greedy individuals in our society. Blackmail and extortion are not going away.

I taught a college course to federal inmates in a medium security facility and was duly impressed by their intelligence, sociopathy and ability to circumvent whatever rules were in place. The inmates run the facilities, not the staff.

Or just take one of the numerous Stingray / Femtocell devices that State and Federal LE and the taxpayers already own and park one at every prison... they'd capture all outgoing and incoming cell signals within range, and simply shunt them / redirect them, or monitor them, or both, but you can capture and effectively block all cellular without "jamming" in a conventional sense. I'm sure certain numbers can be whitelisted, too, to pass through...

quote:

The inmates run the facilities, not the staff.

Ding!!

Inmates allow staff to be in control.

BTW, cellphones were not allowed inside PA state prisons when I worked there. BUT, inmates somehow managed to get them.

One of my daughters high school classmates (small school - 35 kids in her class) was convicted of first degree murder 10 yrs after HS graduation and sentenced to life in prison (in FL). After he had been in jail for 5-6 years, she got a Facebook "friend request" from him. She was terrified at the thought of him being able to find her and contact her while in prison. Especially since she had not seen nor heard from him since HS graduation.

I did some research on inmates with cell phones and was shocked at the number of them who apparently have illegal cell phones in jail. And not only having a cell phone, but being able to set up and use a Facebook account! Mark Zuckerberg should concentrate on shutting him down instead of conservatives.

quote:

Corrections Director Bryan Stirling has long called illegally obtained cellphones the No. 1 security threat inside his institutions, as they allow inmates the unmonitored ability to communicate and potentially continue their criminal endeavors.

Potentially? I’d say it’s a bit more than hypothetical at this point.

Yeah, if she's hot, never met me, and wants to show me her boobz on Facebook in bad English...

"NOT TODAY, ISIS!" [Block]