Operation: Obvious Trap (aka “How Are People Still Falling for This?”)
Another day, another sting. This time it’s “Operation Rabbit Hole”, which was part of “Operation Safe Summer,” brought to you by a Multi-Agency Task Force of: TPD, FDLE, HSI, FBI, BBQ, TLC, LMNOP—you get the idea.
These headlines are a daily occurrence across the United States. People walking headfirst into an online conversation with someone who claimed to be underage and, surprise! It was not a teenager. It was law enforcement. It’s a script right out of “To Catch A Predator” season 1, episode 1, and every single episode thereafter since the show first aired more than 20 years ago!
It’s 2025. We’ve had over two decades of televised sting operations, press conferences, and memes. By now, anyone who’s ever had dial-up internet should know that if you are on an adult website and someone slides into your DM saying they’re “almost 15” and persistently tries to provoke you to “teach them”… it’s a trap. The only opportunity here is an opportunity to get arrested.
At this point, it’s the digital equivalent of getting an email from a “Barrister Ibeh Nwankwo” in Nigeria who just happens to be in charge of a $17 million inheritance from a long-lost uncle you’ve never heard of. You wouldn’t reply to that (we hope), so why are people still taking the bait in an obviously fake chat?
These operations are designed to snare people. They market themselves with feel-good names like “Safe Summer” or “Operation Protect the Puppies,” then blast mugshots all over the news to show how “tough on crime” they are. Meanwhile, real child exploitation cases get fewer resources, because this makes better headlines.
What’s most troubling is how many taxpayer resources are poured into these multi-day, multi-agency spectacles, all to manufacture crimes instead of investigating real ones. These stings require teams of officers, tech, surveillance, transport vans, and hours of overtime, all to lure people into committing offenses they likely never would have considered without being solicited and aggressively goaded into. Then there’s the resulting cost of prosecuting and incarcerating these folks!
It’s not about catching predators, it’s about creating them to justify press releases. Meanwhile, actual child exploitation goes uninvestigated because funding is diverted. The truth is, the money and manpower spent orchestrating these stings were supposed to be used to protect real children, not to stage headlines.
Next time you read one of these stories about a successful sting operation, ask yourself how many actual children continue to be harmed because law enforcement are too busy running these dog and pony shows instead of protecting them.
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Law Enforcement and the news media do a great job of public shaming and perpetuating the crime. And I would argue that law enforcement will do almost anything to make an arrest to justify the costs or time and money. It’s a self perpetuating scheme. They ensnare someone and it justifies a new sting and so on. After I was arrested the TV crews went to all of my neighbors and interviewed them.
It is their way of lobbying for more money by showing such results. It is embarrassing to politicians if they don’t fund these when the news is full of positive happy results because funding helped in the end (allegedly).
A little off topic, but you brought up the Nigerian scam. A few years ago my dads Uncle died. Now was in the Philippines during WW2 fighting. A few weeks after he died the family got a letter(from the Philippines) saying that they were his family, from a women when he was over there. To make a long story short , we had DNA test run and lol it was true. They said they had been searching for him for years, they have never ask for anything just wanted info on extended family. So somewhere out there you may have a Nigerian uncle. lol.
Now, that is funny but all too possible given the situation of the time then and afterwards since the military has been there in one way or another for a long time now.
if they really car d about children they would do something about those Epstein island elite predators that are still free to find more islands and more kiddos… unless we are really supposed to believe Maxwell was trafficking to nobody ? The US government is just another Perverted version of the French and British monarchys… the poor get the stocks and the wealthy commit unlimited crimes..
Sad, but true
People fall for it because, as George Carlin said, “Think of how stupid the average person is and realize half of them are stupider than that.”
#tootrue
What is crazy is, some of these people caught in stings and never actually met a victim, get more time in prison than I did for dating a real person. That is especially true due to the fact back when I got sentenced, we got a lot of gain time. Now days, gain time is almost a myth and if you do get it, it is not much.
I must add, and as always, the judge you get at sentencing makes a world of difference. Sadly, we do not get a choice of the judge we get. For the same exact crime, one judge may send you to be counseling and do 2 years of probation. The judge I got was the “Executioner” and I got 22 years. Because of gain time, I did just 10 years and only 4 of that was prison time, the rest was probation.
In today’s craziness, we are lucky we are not sent to the firing squad.
Do not go on those sites and involved in appropriate chats.
Nancy
Craigslist was an adult site. The personals section was meant for consenting adults. Law enforcement staged stings within those sections.
Unfortunately it’s the developmentally disabled (autistic and intellectually disabled) that get caught up in this because they can be easily taken advantage of, groomed and manipulated. They usually are just looking for a friend.
@Carol
That’s so true. I remember there was a young man a few years back with some kind of disability that got caught up in some sort of sting involving CP and people made a meme out of him. Smh, Lord have mercy.
In our group therapy 2 guys were there for being caught in a sting, both were autistic.