Perverting Justice

PJ calls its operatives "contributors." These baiters pose as young girls and are typically flirtatious, and it's not long before the conversations turn to sex. She will say she's not a virgin, that she likes older guys. She'll ask for a picture, and tell him he's "hot." She'll extract as much information about her mark as she can: what part of town he lives in, what he does for a living and, above all, his telephone number.

An additional operative, called a "phone verifier," sets the hook by giving him a quick call, pretending to be a young, horny teenager. Sometime thereafter -- when the PJ contributor feels he or she has gotten enough perversion on a chat log -- the conversation will be terminated. The confused, usually young, man on the other end of the keyboard will be directed to a Web page with an ominous warning of what is to come:

So, you're looking at this page. Most likely, your day just changed for the worse. From here, you can either help your days get better, or you will cause them to become even worse yet. The website your perverted chat-log has been posted on gets anywhere from two to thirty thousand hits a day. Our forums have over ten thousand members who are, at this second, finding out exactly who you are. Don't believe us? You will.

Next, the man is tried, convicted and effectively sentenced by a mob of devoted, self-righteous, cyber-vigilantes.

In the past year, 21 Arizona men have found themselves looking at this message on their computer screens after what they thought had been a conversation with a teenage girl.

Typically within a few minutes, the phone rings, and it doesn't stop ringing for weeks. Hang-up calls, threats and anonymous messages abound. The circle expands, the mens' bosses are called, colleagues are e-mailed. Parents, family and friends are similarly contacted. Repeatedly. Anonymously.

The PJ victim's home address, phone number, photo and other personal information, sometimes even the license plate number of his car, are posted on the Internet.

Suddenly, a Web site full of people who delight in the public humiliation of such men get in on the game. Harassment is coming from everywhere.

And the media -- such as Phoenix television station KPHO, which did a gushing story on PJ in March -- is often right behind.

Critics say the title "Perverted-Justice" is perfect for what the organization manages to level against its victims.

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PJ is the brainchild of a shadowy figure who zealously guards his anonymity (what he calls his "government name") and who goes by the handle "Xavier Von Erck." At 24, Von Erck's been on the 'net for nearly a decade, describing himself as a libertarian, an atheist and a resident of Portland, Oregon.

He also is an avid gamer; his favorites include "Madden 2004" and "Battlefield 1942." He really likes "Civilization III," where the ultimate goal, according to Computer Games Magazine is "staking your place in the grand pantheon of world leaders" by waging war against civilizations and building empires.

And Von Erck has built quite an empire in Perverted-Justice.

Only this is a game he has managed to play both in and out of cyberspace -- one replete with a Perverted-Justice product line that includes women's thong underwear with the inscription "CONTENTS AGED AT LEAST 18 YEARS" and baseball caps, coffee mugs, sweatshirts and boxer shorts with the organization's insignia on them.

The concept is nothing new. Baiting.org was doing a similar thing, sans the merchandising, in 2000. Pranks, really, in which a baiter would slip into a chat room, pretend to be a young girl and, once he had a man thoroughly hooked, mention that the operative had a penis he would like to use on him in a particularly painful way. It was designed to amuse everyone other than the mark.

Dirk, another anonymous Internet figure and co-founder of Baiting.org, admits that the tactics of the two sites are similar, but that's about it: "[PJ] is taking it all way more seriously than we ever did. We did it for our own amusement, figured that others would get a [sick] laugh out of it as well, and that was about it. Sure, the justification that Ôthose a-holes deserve whatever they get' is something we truly believe, but unless we were subpoenaed to testify against them, after some third party got them arrested, we couldn't care less about any legal finale to the pedo's exploits."

Dirk adds, "[PJ] has just sorta taken the next step and gone for the gold, so to speak."

Von Erck says his project began as a natural reaction to behavior he witnessed in a Yahoo chat room. "I personally observed actual underage teens coming into the chats, and watched the reaction of the male 'regulars' of that room. Quite frankly, it was sickening."

Every woman Von Erck knows has been a victim of sexual abuse, he says, and through PJ he saw a chance to make a difference.

PJ is a hierarchy. Von Erck claims there are 10,000 members, but only a few dozen contributors. No one but those approved by Von Erck can post a bust. "Obviously, we're very selective," he says. "Thousands have e-mailed or asked to work at the top level of the site. However, only a handful are actually selected each year."