An online predator has been targeting sorority girls at colleges and universities across the southeast, requesting naked pictures from the girls and threatening to commit violence against them, according to an NBC Today Show newscast from Dec 2.

Some sorority members at Syracuse University said they do not think such an incident would ever happen at SU, but university officials recommend students assume all online information is public.

The predator contacts sorority pledges through a fake Facebook page, appearing to be an older sorority sister who wants to offer advice to the pledges, according to the newscast. The initial contacts by the predator seem harmless but then take a turn for the worst with the picture requests and threats of violence, according to the newscast.

There have been about a dozen threats from the sorority predator at five schools so far, according to the NBC newscast. The schools with reported victims are the University of Florida, Florida State University, Auburn University, University of Alabama and Louisiana State University, according to the newscast.

Police suspect the predator, who knew the victims’ class schedules and where they lived, to be a man, but police have no idea who is behind the e-mails, according to the newscast. The predator seems to be hitting schools mainly in the southeast, according to the newscast.

Chris Finkle, the communications manager at SU’s Information and Technology Services, said he thinks being involved in greek life, as well as other groups on campus, increases the chance of being victimized on the Internet because identifying as part of a group makes it easier for predators to target victims.

‘This is fundamentally rooted in the ways in which a student’s associations and memberships are made public on the Internet,’ Finkle said. ‘Either by themselves or by the groups with which they associate, it’s easier to hit something or someone you can see.’

Finkle said predators will go where they think they will find the most prey.

‘For the real sickos out there, the notion of terrorizing a whole group of victims who live together would have the appeal, especially perhaps a group of intelligent and aspiring women,’ he said.

The SU ITS website has guidelines for students to protect themselves and their information. The guiding principle is to assume all information is public, read by everyone and on the Internet forever, according to the website.

‘Smart use of the Internet and social media is everyone’s concern and responsibility, whether or not they’re in a sorority or fraternity,’ Finkle said.

Finkle said to be skeptical and wary of anything or anybody a student encounters on the Internet. Finkle said to not trust e-mails from strangers and to assume everyone is scamming an individual until proven otherwise.

Erica Zimmerman, a sophomore policy studies major involved in greek life at SU, said she is not sure why a predator would choose to target sorority girls. Zimmerman declined to reveal which sorority she belongs to.

‘I get that he was targeting sorority girls, but I think that might have been an easy way in since he was posing as an older sorority member, but I don’t think that’s a factor,’ she said. ‘I think being a college girl in general, anything can happen to you.’

Zimmerman is also unsure as to why the victims thought the predator’s actions were an acceptable form of hazing, she said. Hazing that would ask pledges to send naked pictures is against Panhellenic policy, she said.

‘My advice is to completely block the social network you belong to,’ Zimmerman said. ‘I block all my photos. I don’t have my cell phone, my e-mail address or my address listed.’

Bianca Cortez, the president of Alpha Gamma Delta and a junior civil engineering major, said SU girls are smart and would not make the decision to send photos over the Internet.

‘It’s disturbing that the victims would send those photos or allow someone to ask for them,’ Cortez said. ‘It’s alarming that the victims would trust someone so much over the Internet.’

Kelsey Hession, a freshman in the Bandier Program for Music and the Entertainment Industries who plans to rush in the spring, said she keeps all her personal information private on Facebook and never accepts friend requests from people she does not personally know.

Hession said she thinks pledges can be tricked into schemes like this because they are trying to seek approval of their sisters. Therefore, they would be willing to do things they do not normally do, such as sending nude photos on the Internet, she said.

‘That’s not something I would ever be comfortable doing,’ Hession said. ‘I would immediately be suspicious of anyone asking me to do those types of things.’

medelane@syr.edu

Published on December 8, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Meghin: medelane@syr.edu | @meghinwithani