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| “Are You in Danger?”, asks the website, FelonSpy, and the answer, says law enforcement, is an emphatic yes, from the site itself. This innocent-looking stop-off on the world wide web, perhaps one of hundreds, if not thousands of sites that could be capturing information from visitors’ computers, is raising alarm among citizens and cops alike as it appears to provide free, useful information about locations of convicted felons across the country, including the South County. But the data is totally false, nothing more than names and crimes shotgunned randomly at maps of neighborhoods. |
By Melody Jameson
melody@observernews.net
Pretending to provide protection, a sophisticated website actually is posing a triple threat to South County citizens accessing it.
This is the view of at least one local law enforcement officer who has been deluged with inquiries about FelonSpy.com, a 14–page site which appears to pinpoint the location of convicted felons in the neighborhood of whomever inquires, but actually is trying to sell equipment for an illegal gambling practice and possibly contaminate the inquiring computer.
“FelonSpy is pure fiction, clever and sophisticated appearing but nonetheless fictional,” Hillsborough County Deputy Rob Thornton said this week. The site uses blatant deception to offer false security by situating criminals in a given neighborhood, to entice viewers in with implications of fighting animal abuse and to accomplish its ultimate objective, the sale of dog fighting equipment.
Thornton, who also serves as Sun City Center’s community resource deputy, said he has been fielding questions by the dozens from the retirement community as well as from across the South County area for the last 18 months as the site’s false promises have spread by word of mouth. “And the site may be among the hundreds that populate the web for the purpose of phishing or gaining useful information from the computers of users making inquiries,” he added.
On the surface, FelonSpy seems to offer those who access it factual information about those convicted felons living in any neighborhood that can be identified on a Google-generated map. The site visitor is instructed to type in an address and the inquiry fetches a map of the visitor’s neighborhood showing balloons which purport to pinpoint criminals’ residences. Those who click on the balloons get a name, address and criminal offense conviction for each one. “But the criminal information is totally phony,” Thornton asserted.
His contention is easily proved, he added. The proof is clear when the user exits the site, leaves the internet and then returns to the site to inquire about criminals in the same neighborhood. “Use the same address and an entirely new set of balloons will appear naming entirely new criminals in new locations in the same neighborhood. A new set of felons will appear in the neighborhood every time the process is repeated,” the deputy noted.
In addition, the terms used to describe the apparent crimes committed uniformly are not crimes recognized under Florida law, the deputy said. “The descriptions of the convictions may be legitimate in other states,” he noted, “but they are not used by law enforcement, by prosecutors or by courts in Florida.”
Among the last pages in the site is one labeled “Stop Dog Fighting!!!”. The text encourages the visitor to join the ranks of the “activist” opposed to abuse of animals by clicking on a link which then takes the viewer to a page that extols the profits to be made by establishing a dog fighting enterprise, complete with dramatic illustrations of bloodied fighting animals and charts demonstrating the cash flow.
This section of the site is problematic on two levels, Thornton pointed out. First, it suckers the visitor into the sales page with an animal protection plea that is “completely fraudulent.” Then, it proceeds to promote a profit-making practice that not only is cruel but also is an indisputable violation of Florida law. In addition to the blood-thirsty aspects of dog fighting, he said, the practice almost always involves illegal gambling and frequently is related to illicit drug and alcohol use.
The site’s narrative text, sometimes profane, also becomes contradictory or nearly nonsensical under close inspection. For example, on a page apparently designed to serve as an explanation of the site purpose, it is promised “The good news is that you can be safer in your home at night, even if just because you have better information, or because ‘somebody’ takes the needed actions to get these people off the streets.” The site, of course, would not get anyone “off the streets,” even if its data were factual and accurate.
The site’s operators apparently have been questioned at some point about the radically fluctuating felon information produced as responses to visitor inquiries. In a lengthy explanation for changing felon names with each new search, the “criminal elements” and “hackers” who have “intercepted our intended results” are blamed, “Anti-Hacking Mechanisms” are offered as an excuse and then there’s “the biggest problems” related to tracking convicts as they change their names. Regarding the latter rationale, it is stated “Once a name is changed it throws our whole works into a mess…”
Agreeing the site is “a mess,” Thornton suggested that residents who want reliable information on any convicted individual access either the Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office site or the website of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), both of which provide updated data on felons. The latter site is especially useful to anyone engaging help in their home before letting the stranger through the front door, he added.
The sheriff’s site address is www.HCSO.Tampa.FL.US and an inserted name will pull up a criminal history complete with vital statistics, charges, case dispositions, incarceration and release dates. The state agency site address is www.FDLE.STATE.FL.US.
At the FDLE homepage, click on the sex offender registry blue box on the right side, then on the predators and offenders red box at the top of the second page, then on standard offender search. By using a zip code, visitors can pull up information and photos of all sexual predators and offenders in a given neighborhood.
The deputy also suggested that anyone accessing the FelonSpy site immediately run their spyware and scan their files for security problems in order to repair or eliminate any intrusions.
According to a website listing owners of domains on the internet, the FelonSpy domain name is owned presently by a Frank Peterson in Atlanta, Georgia.
©2009 Melody Jameson
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