Crafty Code Used As A Crime Prevention Tool

by clorenz1 | October 16, 2006 at 01:14 pm

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It seems like Myspace has a story associated with it regarding registered sex offenders every month. But can the issue really be fixed with so many users and so much chatter behind closed doors? Is smarter code the answer? Wired News is releasing the code that caught one sex offender to the public in open source form later in the week.

That's because much of what happens on MySpace unfolds outside public view. The computer crime unit has erected bait profiles registered to fake underage teens, but so far the tactic has netted only one arrest. Proactively scouring MySpace pages is futile: The smarter sexual predators stick to private messages, and diligently prune their public comment boards of any posts from young friends that hint at what's happening behind the scenes.

Today's investigatory target, 39-year-old Andrew Lubrano, has been less careful, and now he faces his fourth arrest for a sex crime. Lubrano was sentenced to three years probation in 1987 for sexual abuse against a 7-year-old boy, according to police. In 1988, he got another probation term for second-degree sex abuse. In 1995, he earned a 3 to 9 year prison term for sexually abusing two boys he'd been babysitting, one 11, the other 9.