The tables have turned…

No longer is it safe to assume that as an adult you are safe in internet chatrooms as this story suggests. From the article:

“A 22-year-old Florida man has been held up at gunpoint after going to meet an 18-year-old he made contact with on the MySpace network.According to reports, Ernest Evans had arranged a date with a woman calling herself Natalia after the two had been chatting online. Natalia claimed she was 18, and said in her profile that she was “Lookin’ for something fun”. However, Natalia is said to have been a fictional persona invented by a pair of teenaged girls, 13-year-old Rafaella Yusupova and 14-year-old Yana Galilova.

When he arrived at their agreed rendezvous, Evans told police, the two girls approached him and asked to borrow his phone. Once he had handed it over to one of the girls, the other held a loaded gun to his head and demanded his wallet and money.”

I love how surreal this story is: two hardened schoolgirl criminals setup and rob an innocent adult! There’s some similarity to the recent provocative and uncomfortable movie Hard Candy, but thankfully no bloodshed involved. There’s no way I’m ever going to meet up with someone I met online now, imagine having to explain it to your friends!