Man pretends to be doctor, convinces mothers to abuse own children, now facing prison

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...,3354258.story


There's not a lot that shocks me anymore, but reading this just makes me stick to my stomach.

The guy is a monster no doubt but who in the hell are these mothers that would do these things to their own children at the behest of a man online who claims to be a doctor??

I can only think the guy was an incredibly good con man and picked his targets carefully, I just can't believe that most mothers wouldn't have more common sense than that.

My heart breaks for the kids affected by this mess. Truly a sick individual.

[Plaidman]

Plaidman brain no work now from stupid

[Greenday]

I don't get how anyone could be dumb enough to fall for that.

[Hyena Dandy]

While I can understand that someone might fall for that, there are people gullible enough to do anything, I think its absolutely despicable. I also think that he is more at fault than the people he convinced to abuse their children.

Sadly, there will always be predators in society. This is hardly a new phenomenon, though the internet does allow them to reach more people.

I have no doubt he picked his marks carefully, likely choosing people desperate for both romance and help.

I am disgusted by this, truly disgusted.

[Ladeeda]

What level of stupid does one have to be at to think performing sexual acts on or with a child, let alone their own children, is okay "cause Doctor said so"?

Whatever it is, it's one above filming it for said doctor.

[Plaidman]

What level of stupid does one have to be at to think performing sexual acts on or with a child, let alone their own children, is okay "cause Doctor said so"?

Well there was the Mcdonalds girl who's manager forced her to get naked, because a cop told her to do it over the phone. Then the manager's boyfriend had to get a bj from the worker, to check her mouth for a stolen purse. Again, because a cop said so over the phone.

To this day, the manager still feels she didn't do anything wrong.

[Ladeeda]

Never heard of that, but that's definitely on the same level of stupid.

And doesn't do fast food managers any favors re: their perceived intelligence as a group.

[Plaidman]

Never heard of that, but that's definitely on the same level of stupid.

And doesn't do fast food managers any favors re: their perceived intelligence as a group.

Really? It was pretty big news. All over it, even cover of some newspapers. Girl sued mcdonalds and won. It was on surviance cameras and everything.


http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2684890&page=1

[Ladeeda]

Hm, kay, but she really should have opted for the police station as soon as the strip portion of the hoax search started.

[Dreamstalker]

Some people either don't like to question a superior or don't know something's illegal.

The incident with the autistic boy just made me see red. What kind of mother would think that's anywhere near OK (and be worried about sexual development at EIGHT)?

I can put a string of letters after my name, that doesn't mean anyone on the street can or should trust me for medical advice. What the HELL happened to common sense and checking things out for yourself? (mom says it's being selectively bred out of the population)

[Ladeeda]

Some people either don't like to question a superior or don't know something's illegal.

True (though a manager telling you to strip? That's kind of a stretch). There really should be more education on the rights of the worker, especially when dealing with younger people entering their first job.

[Andara Bledin]

The guy is a monster no doubt but who in the hell are these mothers that would do these things to their own children at the behest of a man online who claims to be a doctor??

Desperate and frighteningly gullible.

The guy is pure scum, and he's one of those that will likely have to stay in solitary, as his kind don't fare well at all while serving their time.

^-.-^

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

There's a thing called the Milgram experiments, which on the surface were a memorization study. How it worked was that a "learner" would try to memorize lists, if they got something wrong, a "teacher" would cause them to receive an electric shock (the shocks weren't real, the "learner" was a paid actor). The more wrong answers, the higher the voltage of the shock, all the way up to 450 volts (enough to kill a person).

Beyond that:

If at any time the subject indicated his desire to halt the experiment, he was given a succession of verbal prods by the experimenter, in this order:

1. Please continue.
2. The experiment requires that you continue.
3. It is absolutely essential that you continue.
4. You have no other choice, you must go on.

If the subject still wished to stop after all four successive verbal prods, the experiment was halted. Otherwise, it was halted after the subject had given the maximum 450-volt shock three times in succession.

Before conducting the experiment, Milgram polled fourteen Yale University senior-year psychology majors to predict the behavior of 100 hypothetical teachers. All of the poll respondents believed that only a very small fraction of teachers (the range was from zero to 3 out of 100, with an average of 1.2) would be prepared to inflict the maximum voltage. Milgram also informally polled his colleagues and found that they, too, believed very few subjects would progress beyond a very strong shock.

In Milgram's first set of experiments, 65 percent (26 of 40) of experiment participants administered the experiment's final massive 450-volt shock, though many were very uncomfortable doing so; at some point, every participant paused and questioned the experiment, some said they would refund the money they were paid for participating in the experiment.

The overall conclusion of the study was this: It can be surprisingly easy to convince people to do all sorts of things they wouldn't normally do, so long as they are convinced the commands are coming from a legitimate source of authority.

That's why I believe this guy must have been VERY convincing to these mothers.

Interestingly, the Wikipedia article on the Millgram experiments, where I got the info above, directly mentions the "strip search prank call" that was the cause of the Mcdonald's fiasco mentioned above.

[Dreamstalker]

The Stanford prison experiment also comes to mind; people can and will abuse even imagined authority if it suits them.

[lordlundar]

Anyone in the IT field could tell some pretty interesting stories. It's a common part of social engineering tactics that the less savory people use all the time. Flash some false identification that has the faintest appearance of being official and people would do anything you say. The more authoritative and less publicized the better (secret service, CIA or Homeland Security are prime fakes as of late). It's why the general rule of thumb for network security tends to be "you'll have access to my network when you pry the access keys/codes from my cold dead hands."

In this case, the person shows fake proof that he's a doctor, mentions that he's the one with the medical knowledge if someone questions it (eg "Are YOU the one with the medical degree? Didn't think so.") and they fall like dominoes.