Posted on: Sunday, September 9, 2001

Case shows dangers of Web

By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer

Honolulu Police Department cyber-crimes specialist Chris Duque has a way of grabbing the attention of parents who don't know about the kinds of problems kids can get into with the family computer when left unsupervised.

"I tell them they might as well give their son or daughter the car keys and tell them, 'Take the car wherever you want and come home whenever you want,' " said Duque, who has spent the past eight years specializing in crimes that involve the use of personal computers.

A Kalihi man who was arrested on federal charges last week for allegedly using the Internet to lure a 14-year-old Oregon girl to O'ahu in hopes of having sex with her is a case in point, Duque said.

Children who spend hours locked in their rooms chatting with strangers over the Internet often don't know the dangers that lurk behind the screen or beyond the computer keyboard, Duque said.

In last week's case, 30-year-old Lando Millare, of Kalihi, allegedly struck up an e-mail relationship with the Medford, Ore., teen, leading her to believe he was 17 years old.

Millare, a library assistant, allegedly sent the girl a number of graphic e-mail messages about having sex together in Hawai'i and conspired with the girl to dupe her parents into believing she had been invited to Hawai'i to spend time with a girl her own age, one she met over the Internet, according to federal authorities.

The plans were foiled, however, when the teen failed to call home the evening she arrived on O'ahu to let her parents know she was all right.

Her father called police, who went to the address where she told them she would be staying. Fortunately, the address was a valid one, and police put her on a plane back to Oregon.

Although he was not involved specifically in the Millare case, which was handled primarily by the FBI, Duque said lack of adequate supervision by the teen's parents may have been largely to blame for her getting into a dangerous situation.

Too many times, parents abdicate their responsibilities to a $30 piece of software to screen "adult sites" and hope that will be enough to protect their children from the dangers inherent in using a personal computer, Duque said.

Cases he has worked on include a teenage Hawai'i girl who ran away to Florida to meet a stranger she chatted with on her home computer, and an O'ahu high school student who used computers at home and at school to send threats to a New Jersey high school.

Just as home computer use is on the rise, so is cyber-crime, Duque said. He also believes many cases go unreported to police because of the potential embarrassment.

For example, banks and other businesses are reluctant to report cases where their computer files may have been "hacked" — or broken into by outsiders — for fear it would shake customer confidence, Duque said.

Similarly, a husband or wife who has been toying around with various adult chat groups would hesitate to go to the police if they start receiving threatening e-mail for fear their spouse or children might find out, Duque said.

He has "about half a dozen" investigations involving some form of computer use under way at the present time. He declined to discuss those cases other than to say one of them "apparently led to a sexual assault."

"Sometimes I go online and pose as an adult and other times I go online and pose as a kid," Duque said.

When he poses as a child, it often doesn't take long for a complete stranger to propose a meeting. Then begins the task of determining whether the computer user who proposed the meeting is an adult, and if so, what the intention is.

He advises parents whose children use the computer frequently to talk with others and to be vigilant.

"I tell them that if their child goes on line a lot, ask the same kinds of questions you would if they were going to go to the park: What park are you going to, what are you gonna do there, who are you going to meet?

"If your kid starts to be real evasive with his or her answers, you cut the line (stop the computer service). If you don't, this type of thing can really come back to bite you."