The U.S Attorney for Western New York was in Batavia today to speak to the Kiwanis Club about the three broad areas of crime he said his office spends much of its time prosecuting: crimes against your kids, your money and your identity.
William Hochul spent much of his time talking about the two things he said that most put kids in danger -- sexual predators and drugs.
It used to be, he said, parents told their children to run from strangers and not take candy from people they didn't know. Now sexual predators often find their victims on the Internet.
He told the story of a high-school teacher in Erie County who identified lonely, vulnerable boys and then pretended to be a girl contacting them online. Eventually, he would lure them into sending sexually explicit pictures.
"Once they did," Hochul said. "He had them."
From that point, Hochul explained, the teacher blackmailed them into sending increasingly explicit pictures of themselves.
"He will spend 35 years in jail," Hochul said.
Recently, Hochul said his office has taken an interest in so-called synthetic drugs. While many of the compounds used in the drugs are not yet banned in New York, they are being added to the banned substances list by the federal government.
Another big drug problem, he said, is kids getting ahold of prescription drugs, which he said is a growing problem.
"My message to you," Hochul said is, "lock up your prescriptions."
Another growing problem in WNY, Hochul said, is con artists. Most typically, these criminals use various techniques to steal your identity and then steal your money.
"You can't believe how sophisticated some of these scams have become," Hochul said.
One scam he described involved people calling WNY residents claiming they were from a credit agency and that the targets owed them money. The caller would tell the targets that if they didn't pay immediately the police would be right over to arrest them. The caller would then say the police had arrived and then describe the target's house -- with the description coming from a picture off Google Maps.
If the person agreed to pay, the caller would pretend he told the police to leave and then take a credit card payment.
"Now you might say to yourself, 'well, I would never fall for that,' but we prosecuted two men who got $6 million from 124 victims," Hochul said.
Prior to the Hochul speaking, the club received an award for being a "Distinguished Club" in 2011, primarily because of its long-term project -- raising funds for a new building for the Child Advocacy Center.
Photo below, Kiwanis Genesee Division Lt. Governor Ron Pollack, left, Batavia Immediate Past President Larry Friedman and Kiwanis Genesee Division Immediate Past Lt. Governor Bob Reusch.
Disclosure: Howard Owens is a member of the Batavia Kiwanis Club.
