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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Well, I actually got busted in one of these online stings. And I’m not an idiot or developmentally challenged. I was, however, severely depressed and suicidal during the time that my incident occurred. I was very susceptible to manipulation by almost anyone willing to give me attention. I went on one of those adult sites exactly for that attention. But I got drawn in by this undercover officer, which led to my eventual arrest. I know that I should’ve walked away from the conversation, but there was something about what was being said that didn’t make sense to me, and so, not only was a drawn in by the attention, but also this “need” to solve whatever I was feeling off about. I knew I was being lied to about something, but it never occurred to me that it might be an undercover officer.
What can we do to get these kinds of operations made illegal? It’s unethical on the face of it. And I know some local departments that won’t host these things because of it.
Technically they are illegal because they don’t follow federal standards for ICAC Operations. But they ignore it and say it isn’t entrapment. I only know of one case in Washington State where the Supreme Court states that law enforcement didnt follow federal ICAC standards, and basically dropped the case
I was involved in one of the stings, I refused to travel because I knew it wasn’t right. The local police then traveled 100 miles to a military base and have me arrested on base and so further investigations on base. They arrested me for having a conversation through an adult website. No dirty photos were exchanged. They arrested me for the conversation. It took the 2 years to convict me. They sentenced me to 7 years in prison and 8 years of sex offender probation. Oh and a lifetime on the sex offender registry which the local government get additional money to keep track of me
Yes, same. Internet conversation only. No exchange of dirty pics. Convicted for the internet conversation. Convicted on the basis that the judge “believed” that I “thought” I was talking with someone underage. Despite the fact that I said in conversation that I didn’t believe their age claims. Arrested, charged, tried, convicted, incarcerated, and now registered for a THOUGHT CRIME. Welcome to 1984.
Yes
I forgot to mention that with law enforcement doing these stings, they create more sex offender to which they will receive government funds in the future
Why can’t LE be charged with child endangerment and child exploitation? Oh, that’s right, there IS NO CHILD!
Another perspective is:
I say I’m gonna rob a bank. Did I commit a crime? No.
I travel to the bank and sit in the parking lot. Did I commit a crime? No.
I write a note and put it in my pocket. Did I commit a crime? No.
I walk inside the bank with the note in my pocket. Did I commit a crime? No.
While in the bank, I decide is not right and leave.
No crime committed.
Couldn’t someone traveling to meet a minor get there and decide it’s a reprehensible thing to do and not do it? We’ll never know because they will never get that chance.
In the eyes of LE, even daring to be on an ADULT DATING site and talking to ANYONE is good enough to charge someone with attempted sexual whatever with a minor. I’d suggest anyone chatting with anyone on one of these adult dating sites/chatrooms to record or screenshot the convos, especially the part where they kindly tell the “youth” to f*** off and to leave the ADULT site. Make sure to have it backed up somewhere safe and accessible, in case you need friends/family to extract it and prove your innocence. In these situations, where LE hide their constant badgering of chat and meet requests along with lies where the “child” claims to be an adult, putting that info on blast may be the saving grace that calls them out on their bullsh1t.
Mbgodofwar
simple solution that I live by. I have ALL sites blocked that have anything to do with chatting with anyone. (Except for FAC) which keeps records of everything we say so we should be covered.
I do not use ANY social media, chat sites, do not talk to bots. I do sometimes speak with little green men from Mars, but they never answer me back, so I guess they are antisocial.
On a serious note, if you are on facebook or any other social media platform, you need to really, really be careful. My Mom got a friend request from someone she knew (it was not that person but an impersonator) and hacked my Mother’s account. I had to use my Superman powers to get her account back. I had never used facebook (Because we have to report it) but was able to go into her account, re-store it and report the criminal hacker. All that and I had never, ever used facebook before.
I spend about half my day on the computer and have been able to keep my 25 year old computer running despite it being obsolete. I have windows ten and have no space to upgrade so trying to save up for the “Bit hit” on a new computer which are about $800 as my current computer new only cost $299 + tax back in the day.
CherokeeJack
Kudos to you for helping your mom. I’ve had to tell my parents about people pretending to be others. It also took a while for them to understand that scammers can spoof any phone number, so blocking one does little good.
I gave a large print-out of online identifiers to my sheriff’s department’s doxing group, er sex offender management, at my very first meeting. In the nearly 7 years, they haven’t ever printed out the full list for me to verify, nor have they haven’t updated my files (where I corrected their misspellings from previous verifications, or notified them that I no longer have).
Maybe you should ask why law enforcement uses ADULT dating platforms instead of sites geared towards kids, for starters. You should also ask why law enforcement wastes thousand upon thousands of dollars, and man power, for these bait and switch scams and not using that money towards solving actual sex crimes. Imagine the amount of rape kits they could test with all that wasted funding. Or counseling for victims. Or programs for the prevention of child sexual abuse.
I have started researching this latest sting here in Tallahassee. According to the few arrest affidavits, the TPD used adult websites such as “Badoo” and “Skip the games”. These sites clearly say you must be 18 to enter the site and it prohibits putting any age below 18. Police are putting adult ages to get people to respond and then pulling the ole bait and switch. One of the arrestees, in his chat even asked why they are on the site and asked why they put 19 years old in the profile.
Law enforcement uses adult websites to prey on a target rich environments in order to boost their arrests in order to receive more money from the federal ICAC program and now money from the FDLE.
Now we will see if the age verification efforts SCOTUS has said that have to happen will actually happen and be effective to prevent minors from accessing the platforms or will they be defeated with work arounds.
It seems to me, if LE or anyone has their age verified, they can no longer make claims to be older or younger. Of course, they’ll violate this…” all for the children.” (eye-roll emoji)
That is because LE has a ‘turn-key’ system in place in order to entrap people. The poster of this article is absolutely correct — except for the fact that many, many people — due to drugs, addictions, messiah complexes, or weakness in character or personality — not criminality — commit these “crimes,” by unwittingly falling for them. The courts, where judges often get ‘report cards’ rewarding them for hammering the top offenses in the criminal code, along with prosecutors who revel in and get elected as ‘tough on crime’ proponents, and ICAC cops who are lavished with government grant and private donor largesse (see OJJP grant summaries as well as groups like THORN and Alicia’s Project), spurred on by craven, grasping politicians, all know that “safeguarding children” is a great campaign slogan.
Excellent article… “creating predators to justify press releases”. Well said!
Many times the press release is just an outright lie anyway in which they exaggerate or make up numbers and use words like sex-trafficking to describe prostitution. All in an effort to justify the millions and millions of dollars we spend every year on this crap.
It’s important that we speak out when these show up. Do a little research to see if what the press release is claiming is true. If we don’t speak truth to this, who will??
Just yesterday I commented on a Facebook post of a press release by the Waukesha Police Department in Wisconsin. They are just so thrilled to issue a PR notice every time someone moves into their town. In one place it says “these notices are important in protecting the public because offenders derive their power through secrecy.” Statements like that are laughable. And if you read the comments, people ARE catching on,
So please, comment when you can. You will not be the only one. Be respectful and smart in your commenting and it’s does not have to be perfect. I tend to be long winded but what’s most important is that we speak out when we can.
Here’s what I wrote just fyi:
“Sex Offenders derive their power though secrecy.” Yeah, most criminals do commit their crimes out of public view that is true. But I fail to understand why an old man who likes to look at dirty pictures is somehow a “threat to our community.” This looks more like the humiliation and shaming of a homeless person just released from prison. Since we’d like for him to no longer commit crimes, its seems the State and police are doing more to perpetuate that than prevent it. I would imagine that such a public notification might make it just a little bit difficult to find a job or a place to stay. Plus the person abusing children in the community right now ain’t this guy that’s for sure – it’s someone you already know. And so if I see him and call the police what are you all gonna do? Right, nothing. So what is this? PR for the police department? We’re safer now because of this? What I really want to know is who in our community can’t stop drinking and driving?? Where do they live and what kind of car do they drive? Now THAT information might actually save some lives. After all, “drunks derive their power by drinking in secrecy.”
The post on Facebook is here: https://www.facebook.com/WaukeshaPD/posts/pfbid02BN9EQpwpQPRakEvRHeUNBLj5t1jg3RrTVLFaMxWax98DYjH8yHBCPEco9h9Uc92Wl?comment_id=1055860746652159
Not just people they know, but people they trust in positions of power such as LE is what they need to read as well since LE are well known to abuse their power whether as a school resource officers, arresting officers, investigating officers, cadet mentors, or correctional officers. Put that comment in there and see what they say to it if they let it stand. The truth hurts and they’ll be hurt by this when the public sees it since it is in the public record of the mass media and/or court records. They wanna poke with a finger in the eye? Poke back with two fingers, one in each eye so they’ll understand the data shows this to be true and they need to look at themselves individually and collectively.