A movie inspired internet scam has landed one man behind bars and has authorities warning everyone to be careful.
Authorities say Jeffery Smith trolled myspace.com pages looking for information he could use to extort money.
He allegedly zeroed in on one unsuspecting family.
"At first I wrote it off as a joke," said the would-be-victim.
The Barnesville man -- who doesn't want his name used -- said at first the emails were innocent enough: a man named Jeffrey Smith wanted to join in his myspace community. He said friendly chats soon turned to threats.
"One of the emails actually said, 'I know your wife is at home alone right now. Why don't I pay her a visit. That's when we started taking things seriously," said the would-be-victim.
The would-be-victim believes Smith knew all his information after simply looking through his myspace.com page.
"This guy knew everything, he knew my wife's name, my kids names, he knew where I worked, what kind of car I drive, a picture of my car was on my myspace page.
After several threatening emails, Jeffrey Smith came to a Thomaston fast food restaurant --Wendy's -- apparently expecting to meet his alleged victim and get the cash, but what he didn't know is his victim had gone to the cops, and they were waiting.
"We did an interview after he was taken into custody and he admitted to everything. He confessed," said authorities.
Police said that Smith told them it was his first time.
Police said Smith claims he got the idea after watching the movie "Derailed" which centers around an extortion plot. He said he trolled myspace.com until he found a victim who lived nearby.
The would-be-victim eventually took his myspace.com page down. "I'm not going to mess with it, I've got too much to lose."
Smith remains behind bars charged with making terroristic threats and attempting to commit theft by extortion.
Labels: Atlanta, Internet Scam, Myspace, Scam
# posted by
Brian Vanderhoff @ 8:48 AM
