Authorities tell faux-stalker site to tone it down

ForTheLoveOfJulie.com isn't what it looks like -- and that's good for Julie.

March 17, 2000
Web posted at: 8:46 p.m. EST (0146 GMT)

By D. Ian Hopper
CNN Interactive Technology Editor

(CNN) -- After getting over 2 million page views, the authors of a faux-stalker site got a call from someone who wasn't such a fan -- a police detective.

A detective from the Computer Crimes Division of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department contacted Spark Factory president Tim Street Friday. According to authorities, the detective strongly suggested that Street take down FortheloveofJulie.com, a fake stalker site that aims to be an entertaining but spooky story in the tradition of last year's "The Blair Witch Project" phenomenon.

The site is a shrine to "Julie" from her admirer, a video-store clerk who follows her home and to her work, taking videos and posting a journal complete with movie clips and pictures.

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The site has become very popular, Street says, through both word-of-mouth and media attention. While it's completely fake, many users failed to see a disclaimer because they're going through a publicized back door that bypasses SpookySites.com, where it's indexed.

SpookySites contains a small disclaimer upon entering the site that informs users that the content within "may contain fictionalization."

But like many others, the detective entered the site through a back door, missing the disclaimer. When he called Street, the site's author was skeptical.

"He told me he was with the police department. I wanted to call him back to make sure, because practical jokes around here are running rampant," Street said. "One guy here said he was from the FBI."

"We received a tip from an investigator on the East Coast," says Sgt. Larry Balich.

Authorities found a photo in the site that clearly showed a vehicle and license plate, and traced it back to Street.

"We thought we had a stalking situation on our hands," Balich says. "But we needed a victim. You can't investigate a case without a victim or witness, and we had neither."

Visitors to the site are frequently missing a disclaimer on a referring site that gives an important clue.

After contacting the district attorney's office, detectives found that no crime had been committed. Still, Street says, police "strongly suggested" that he take the site down or close the back door and make the disclaimer more obvious.

"We're going to frame it inside CreepySites," Street said. "We'll have a bolder disclaimer that says FortheloveofJulie is fictitious, and Julie is not in any danger."

"We don't think we have to," he says, "but we don't want to have any problems."

Balich says the site was just a little too real and could hamper probes of real crimes.

"It's troublesome to have something like this on the Internet," Balich says. "I consider it a misuse of a real positive thing."

The site was taken down for most of the day but came back up in the afternoon with the intended changes.

Street says he made the site as an "Internet soap opera" meant to entertain users who were in for a suspenseful thrill.

"It's not our intent to be evil, creepy people," he says. "We're trying to showcase how this new experience can change entertainment on the Internet."

Street says he has already left a message with the FBI to try to head off any more misunderstandings.

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