I Thought He Was My Friend: How An Internet Predator Tricked A Teen

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Nicole was just 12 years old in the summer of 2004 when she started chatting online with a 27-year-old man who called himself "Michael." The pair talked multiple times a day on the computer for weeks, until Michael thought it was time for them to meet in person.

Nicole managed to keep her dangerous new "friend" a secret from her mother ; it was a terrifying secret that Nicole says nearly cost her her life. Lucky for Nicole, her mother wasn't fooled long.

Well, I had an Internet profile  I had like, I think seven, six pictures of me in a yellow bikini at our friend's pool party. It wasn't anything like provocative or anything. But my profile had like Coral Springs, Florida, and then I had like my hobbies, which was soccer, dancing, talking on the phone, hanging out with friends at the mall.

It was around the time when me and my dad started fighting and it was easier for me to talk to people that didn't even know me than it was with my real friends.

I guess that's how people started IM-ing me or something. I was bored and there wasn't anything else to do. And like, none of my friends were online, so I was like talking to myself. Which is pretty easy to do. I mean, you add yourself to your buddy list and you can talk to yourself.

Some guy IMed me with the screen name of Armoni13Michael. And he's like hey, I'm looking for a friend, do you want to talk? And I'm like, yeah sure. And then he's like, yeah I viewed your profile, you look really, you look hot and everything. And I'm like um, okay. He's like, yeah, you should look at mine.

 I didn't want to be mean and tell him straight out he's ugly. So I'm like, you're cute I guess . He said, he's tall, he's like ripped, and tan, and he had black hair, and that he's 27 years old. He like, he wanted to know like my age, and like what school I went to. I told him I was fifteen .I felt like since I was twelve he wouldn't talk to me or something. And I was looking for someone to talk to over the computer.

It was just nerve wracking at the same time because I mean you're talking to somebody you don't even know. For all you know they could be a mass murderer or something, or a computer hacker. We talked at least four or five, six times a day. And, like, I don't know, we were talking like four or five weeks or something.

He kept telling me like how I'm so pretty and everything and I'm like, ok, and it was weird, because he told me he loved me the third week we started talking. And then like it just - it didn't seem right. And he just, he kept telling me he wants to meet me, he wants to meet me, and I'm like, alright, sure.

I'm just like don't do it, don't do it, don't do it. And then I'm like, you know, I kinda do want to meet him, you're like anxious to meet somebody, but you know it's wrong. And you know if your mother ever found out, she'd like, cut your head off. And like, she'll ground you for like ever. It made me feel special. I'm like wow I can have an older man figure in my life who acts like he likes me, who acts like he loves me. Why not continue going on.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 |