9781422288337

her good reasons for separating herself from them, and Katherine was completely fooled by him. He made her feel intelligent and pretty; he made her feel as though she wasn’t so alone. Before long, he suggested that they meet in real life. Katherine agreed; she snuck out to meet him in secret, and then she continued to meet him at night, without anyone’s knowledge. Spending every night with this man meant that Katherine wasn’t getting her sleep. Her think- ing became confused. During the day, she fought constantly with her parents and her siblings. Once school started up again, her grades dropped. Her lack of sleep was making her feel as though she were in a dream all the time; she had a hard time telling what was real and what wasn’t. The man she had met online turned out to be forty-nine years old. Katherine was so confused by now that she decide to run away from him. She took a huge step with huge consequences. There was no going back. But she realized what an enormous mistake she had made. She left the man and went back home. Now this man used the Internet to attack her family. He wrote anonymous e-mails to her mother, threatening to kill Katherine. He spread rumors about Katherine. Katherine was filled with guilt that she had brought so much trouble to her family. She realized that her first mistake had been letting a stranger get so close to her online. Before she had even met him, she had revealed so much information to him that he could use it to manipulate her. Katherine is now teaching others about the dangers of cyberspace and giving them advice on how to stay safe. She hopes other young people will learn from her experience. “I want to send this message, and help people understand,” she writes. “PLEASE never meet anyone you first met online alone. DO NOT keep Internet friendships to yourself. Even if you just share the details with a friend, it could protect you, or even save your life.” Katherine’s not the only one who learned the hard way about the dangers of cyberspace. Two young men named Marcin and Calum shared their stories with Get Safe Online, a British organi- zation that is teaching people how to be safer online. Both boys wanted to get tickets to a soccer match, but they were having a hard time finding tickets. Marcin went to a fan site that included a discussion forum where all the users had pseud- onyms , instead of using their real names. He posted there that he was looking for tickets to the match. Someone responded that he had two extra tickets, which he would sell to Marcin for about $60 each. The person said if Marcin were interested, to give him a call by phone. So Marcin called the number. He told the person on the line that he would like to meet in person to get the tickets. He would pay cash for the tickets then. The seller said no, that wouldn’t work because he had to go away. In- stead, he would put the tickets in the mail once Marcin had transferred the right amount of money into his bank account. The seller seemed like an okay person. He had been posting regularly on the forum for almost a year and a half, which gave Marcin more confidence in him. Besides, Marcin was desperate to see the game. He transferred the money. Then he waited for the tickets to arrive in the mail. The days went by—still no tickets. Finally, Marcin tried to call the seller, but there was no answer. Marcin realized he had been scammed. He

Real-Life Stories

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