Before You Tag That Photo
Monday, December 21, 2009 by Mike Bertolino Some poor guy at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse recently got an underage. He was caught in the act... though Facebook. Tyrell Luebker tagged photos of himself in an album titled "Not Sober Fest". He then accepted a friend request from a beautiful young girl named Jenny Anderson. Jenny was part of a police office scam to infiltrate underages profiles, and catch them in the act.
Police Officers Set Up Facebook Account to Catch Underage Drinkers
It does't really matter how you feel about underage drinking, the message here is really about knowing who you're accepting as friends on Facebook. Don't accept anyone you don't know, no matter how hot their profile picture is.
What do you think about this guy getting caught? Comment below to share!
Reader Comments (9)
I am not saying the kids are in the right at all (they did drink underage), but I daresay the police are in violation of Facebook's terms of use by faking an identity and providing false information in their account. Facebook TOS (Section 4.1)
When are people going to realize that documenting their crimes is not a good idea? If stupidity were a crime they'd get life sentences.
This stuff has been going on for a while. It's just sad that this guys future could be ruined over something as stupid as a facebook pic
And that is EXACTLY why I don't accept friend requests from people that I don't know. Not that I'm doing anything illegal, but I would rather be safe than sorry like this guy.
What if the student took the pictures in a country where he was of legal age to drink? Many college students aren't allowed to consume alcohol in the US, but many other countries' drinking ages are lower. Police officers can't know for sure if he was truly drinking illegally.
Although I never friend anyone that I don't know pretty well (and I just purged about a quarter of my friend list the other day) the thing that can really screw you is the "friends of friends" privacy setting. I love this option but I know that many of my friends are, for lack of a better phrase, "facebook whores" who happily accept invites from fake profiles. I had a friend suggestion the other day from a very obviously fake profile with a hot chick as the profile pic. Of course I have 35 friends in common with "her."
I've also heard of insurance companies doing this to track negligent clients.
Being a student at UW-L, and speaking from first hand experience, I can only say that he should have known better. The University, police, and city efforts to fine underage drinkers and crack down on drinking in general are incredible.
These problems can be easily solved by just knowing how to use your privacy setting effectively.
My profile is private unless you're a member of the MD network, (which in itself requires you to prove that you're a MD student.)
And anyone I'm not close friends with is put in a "restricted" group, where they cannot see tagged photos of me no matter how hard they try.
And most importantly, if there is ever a clearly incriminating picture, I untag myself, and sever ties.
It was 100% his fault.