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Exploring the shocking intersection of crime and social media; from deepfake creators to criminal streamers, new technologies are amplifying anti-social behavior and disrupting traditional investigative techniques like never before.
2020
In the spring of 2018, elementary teacher Brittany Zamora was arrested for engaging in sexual misconduct with a 13-year-old student. She is among a long line of teachers who have thrown their lives away to pursue sexual relationships with adolescents. This episode uses the Brittany Zamora case to examine how social media and digital communications have increased this trend.
Experts say that more than 2000 people fall prey to cyber scams every day. Romance scams make up some of the most devastating of these crimes because the damage is both financial and emotional. Stories of real victims in this episode show the heavy toll that romance scam manipulation takes from victims.
This episode dives into the underworld of human trafficking and the digital tactics used by those that perpetrate it.
This episode examines the darker side of rideshares for some customer and what the industry and regulators can do to combat rideshare nightmares.
On the morning of July 14, 2019, while thousands gathered in the streets of Utica, NY for an annual running race, emergency dispatchers were receiving reports of a murder and a man who had posted graphic pictures on his social media. Brandon Clark then calls 911 and threatens to kill himself. What drove Brandon to murder 17-year-old model and internet personality Bianca Devins and to go viral on social media for the crime and his attempted suicide? This episode dives into a deadly case of digital infatuation.
In February 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic spread across the world, the director general of the World Health Organization warned of another danger. “We are not just fighting a pandemic, we are fighting an infodemic,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Now with more than 220,000 U.S. deaths, misinformation about the pandemic has spread across social media not just from Russia and China but from domestic actors and politicians with fatal results.
2019
In incel subculture, which thrives on message boards and the dark web, lonely men feel unwanted by women--and sometimes lash out with extreme violence.
The future of fake news is being shaped by deepfake technology, which allows faces to be swapped in videos. How is this dangerous propaganda tool and social media phenomenon being addressed?
The dark web was developed by the U.S. military to communicate anonymously over the internet. Drug dealers, hit men and scammers now thrive in this wild West corner of the web.
From sexual assault to murder, the phenomenon of people live-streaming crimes is rapidly growing. How are these disturbing streams disrupting traditional investigative techniques?
Using the power of the internet, web sleuths can help or hinder cases. After the death of Kenneka Jenkins, misinformation was spread over social media – but web sleuths have solved some cases.
When social media views and likes help fuel hip-hop fame, controversial behavior can be rewarded.
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