EXPERTS CAUTION SOCIAL MEDIA USERS. — It's been less than two weeks since police gunned down Austin Lee Edwards, a former police trooper from Virginia, who catfished a 15-year-old girl online, killed her mother and grandparents and set their Riverside home on fire.
Edwards is one of many impersonators who sat behind a computer screen, posing as a fictitious or deceptive character.
Anilah Landry is a 21-year-old mother from Lafayette. She said she just discovered someone has been catfishing her.
"I was at my job when my friend screenshotted it and sent it to me," Landry said. "Someone made a fake Instagram account, with an Only Fans, stating to be me and it’s not me."
Landry said she has tried to see what photos and videos the unknown cyber stalker has posted to the fraudulent page, but she and several of her family members have been blocked from the account.
"I feel like that’s wrong," Landry said. "You shouldn’t pretend to be no one that you’re not."
According to the United States Department of Justice, one in four stalking victims reported some form of cyberstalking.
The Bureau of Justice released data that reveals, 35 percent of stalking victims say they were stalked via instant-messaging, while 83 percent say they were stalked via email.
Paul Mancuso, President and CEO of Vital Integrators, a security company in Lafayette, cautions people to protect themselves on the web.
"The top, three things you need to do is make sure you have a secure password, it shouldn't be anything that's easily guessable from any, online issues," Mancuso said. "Specifically, a lot of times we see on Facebook, they have these games that people play that are trying to get information from you and all of that is social engineering, trying to figure out how to get information about you to get your security questions and things like that."
Experts say enabling multi-factor authentication, securing passwords and dark web monitoring all help to reduce the risk of cyberstalking, catfishing and/or identity theft.
Mancuso said he recommends parents invest in software protection for their entire family, not just for adults.
"If you're dealing with reputable sites, anybody can get hacked," Mancuso said. "Whoever says that they can't, it's not truthful so the difference is making sure you're accounts secure."
