Business Innovators Radio - Lynda Herring Exposes the Shocking Realities of Online Child Exploitation

Episode Date: July 9, 2024

Explicit LanguageIn this episode, Dr. Tami Patzer talks with Lynda Herring, a licensed private investigator with more than 42 years of experience. Lynda is an expert in various types of investigations, including a passionate focus on fighting human trafficking and financial extortion involving children.Lynda’s background is fascinating – she was originally headed for a career as a ballerina until a police chase on her way to work shattered her kneecap and ended that dream. She then pivoted to law enforcement and eventually became a private investigator, discovering a knack and deep commitment to this line of work. Over the decades, Lynda has seen dramatic changes in the field, with the rise of the internet and social media creating new and dangerous challenges, especially when it comes to the exploitation of children.Lynda delves into the alarming ways that online predators are targeting young people, often posing as attractive teenagers themselves to gain their trust. She exposes how these criminals use tactics like financial extortion, coercing children – often boys involved in sports – to send explicit photos or videos, which are then used to blackmail them. The consequences can be devastating, with Lynda sharing the tragic stories of teenage boys who have taken their own lives after being victimized.This is a must-listen episode for any parent or caregiver who wants to protect the young people in their lives. Lynda provides invaluable advice on the warning signs to watch for, the importance of open communication, and the resources available to report and address these crimes. She emphasizes that children need to know they have a safe adult they can turn to without fear of judgment or punishment.If you want to learn more about Lynda Herring and her work, you can visit her website at ljbinvestigations.com or connect with her on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. She is passionate about educating the public and speaking out against the exploitation of the most vulnerable members of our society.Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/lynda-herring-exposes-the-shocking-realities-of-online-child-exploitation

Welcome to Business Innovators Radio, featuring industry influencers and trendsetters, sharing proven strategies to help you build a better life right now. Hi, everyone. This is Dr. Tammy Patser, and I'm really excited because we have a very special guest, Linda Berg Herring, and she is a licensed private investigator with more than 42 years of experience. Linda is an expert in various types of investigations, asset searches, background investigations, cybercrimes, due diligence, elder abuse, fraud, personal injury, trademark, copyright infringement, and of course, more. But what we're really going to focus in on today is she is passionately involved in the fight against human trafficking and human extortion, financial extortion involving children. And this is such a rapidly growing crime.

So she's going to be sharing her insights on this issue and what steps we can take to protect our children from online predators. Welcome. Thank you. It's good to be here. So Linda, tell me a little bit more about your background and what led you to become a private investigator. Well, I was supposed to be a ballerina. I was an avid dancer growing up, and literally that's what I was going to do. I was going to do ballet for the rest of my life.

And when I was 18, I got accepted by a famous ballet company. And had a few months before I was going to travel off to another state to join that ballet company and I got a job, a clerical job at my local police department. And it was just happened to be, they had a temporary position. It fit what I was looking for. So I did it. And one night I was on my way to work and there was literally a police chase going on right behind the police station where we parked. And an officer ran out the back door, threw me to the ground for my safety, which he needed to do. It was a good idea for him to do it, but that shattered my left kneecap and ended my ballet career. So everything I'd done up to that point was gone.

That was it. So I ended up working in law enforcement for a little while just for a few years. And the public story is that I was a records clerk. I did other things as well, but I was in law enforcement for about four years, four and a half years. And when I got out of law enforcement, I married my first husband. I started a home-based typing in transcription business because he wanted me to be a housewife. and I was like, I can't just sit and do nothing. So I thought that was something I could do from home.

I started working from home in 1981 doing that. And just by coincidence, most of my first clients were private investigators. So, I mean, almost instantly I had five or six private investigators. I was typing their reports and transcribing their interviews. And one day, I was delivering some completed work to one of my clients. And she got a phone call from an insurance company who said there had been a death on a instruction site. And when that happens, they want an investigator out immediately. All her investigators were already out of the office. There were no cell phones or pages or anything then. It was 1982.

So she just looked at me and said, you can do this. And she literally handed me a pad of paper, a pen, a camera film, those little flash cubes, you know, flash cubes, those little flash cubes. Those little flash cubes. A tape recorder, cassettes, batteries, and said, go, fly a little birdie. go investigate this death on the construction site. And I did. And then I worked for her for 14 years until I got my license in 1996. So just loved it. Still love it.

Wow. Isn't that interesting? You know, sometimes, you know, they say the best laid plans or, you know, God just laughs, the plans that we make. But again, now 42 years later, it's hard to believe. I mean, you know, I remember the 80s. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago. I know, right. So you've probably seen a lot of changes in the field of private investigations. How has, how have investigations evolved over the years?

Dramatically. And I have to say one area, especially that's changed a lot, is having to do with kids. whereas the lady I first went to work for, 95% of the work she did was insurance defense work. So like workers comp defense work, once in a while she got something else. And a couple weeks after she hired me, we got a missing child case. And it was a 10-year-old little girl

who was kidnapped by her uncle, who brutally raped her over a 72-hour time period and then sold her to his friends for their enjoyment, shall we say. It took us about a week have to find her. And if you think, I mean, what a long week and a half that was for that little girl. But we did find her. She was trafficked. They didn't call it trafficking back then. They just said she was kidnapped and assaulted or abused. And, but that's where my passion for working with kids

started and has stayed all along. But also, there's all kinds of other things. Like, the internet didn't really exist then. There was, there was some computer stuff we did when I worked for the police department, but like people didn't have computers in their home. I think I'd worked for a few years for Nancy before I got a computer that I had at home. Prior to that, I was typing my reports on the typewriter. And the internet kind of, you know, a lot of people say, thank goodness, it didn't exist then because all the dumb things we did when we were growing up, there's no record online. But through the internet, they came up with databases and there are tools that we can use as investigators that did not exist when I first started doing the job. Some of those are a blessing.

Some are not so much. So some of it helps. I do background investigations. And a lot of people, when I talk to them about it, I go, oh, yeah, if you're going to hire someone new, you need me to check them out. Or if you're dating someone new, I do dating backgrounds. There's all kinds of things that need to be checked out. And people will say, oh, just Google them. Not to just Google. Google is wonderful in many ways. I don't want to get in trouble for saying anything mean about Google. But what comes up on Google is found by box. So it's not always verified as the actual person that you're looking for. For many years, if someone Googled me, a convicted meth dealer popped up because there is someone with the same, well, at the time, Berg is my maiden name.

So there is a Linda Berg spelled, spelled the same way as my name is spelled. So both names unusual. same date of birth, different middle initial, who is in Santa Monica or was in Santa Monica. And she is a convicted death dealer. And so that's who would pop up to start with. And so people would look me up and go, oh, well, the picture, thank goodness, you look nothing like me. Because that would have been really bad. But so, and it's a great example. And then there was another example super quick that I can say I had a client who contacted me to look into a caregiver.

He was going to hire an in-home caregiver to take care of his elderly mom. And he said, you know, I Googled her and there were a couple minor criminal things from like 10 or 15 years ago. So I'm not really worried about, but there's still that little inkling, you know, in the back of my mind I really want him to check out. So he hired me. And I checked her out and I found 12 criminal cases within the prior like three or four years. And one that was active when he hired me, all of which involved. her physically assaulting or stealing money from the elderly people she was taking care of. So had he hired her just based on what he found online, it could have been a disaster.

So those changes, it's, you know, it's kind of a blessing, kind of a curse. Sometimes it's a battle to convince people they need to hire someone that knows what to look for and where to find it. I would think that in today's world, it would be really smart. to hire a private investigator because like you can eat, like let's say on social media, for example, you can have multiple profiles with different names. Or like you said,

maybe you're only looking up criminal records in your county, but they did all their crime in the next county over. And it isn't readily available. So right now, and I want to dive deep, into the children's issues. But what are the most common cases that you're handling right now?

You said it used to be insurance work, but what is it now? Well, before I went out on my own, I made sure I got training and how to do pretty much any kind of investigation there is. I do not do surveillance because I find it incredibly boring.

I mean, you can literally sit and stare at a building for eight hours and nothing happens. So I just can't sit still and do that. There are other people out there that do it. it needs to be done. Just not my thing. On my desk right now, I have police officer pre-employment backgrounds. I have a couple of firefighter pre-employment backgrounds. I have some asset searches. I do a lot of asset searches for personal injury attorneys and family law attorneys. I have a personal injury case. And then I have several that are just general backgrounds having

to do mostly with business people. Either they're thinking of investing in a company or investing with someone or they already did and that person ripped them off and now they want them investigated after the fact. Trying to get them to do that first, but it doesn't always work that way. So it sounds like a lot of checking out people before they get hired, which I would hope police officers and firemen would be checked out really thoroughly. They are. Because police officers, to me, they just always seem like they're right on the edge.

of being a criminal themselves. Maybe they're on the good side. But then, of course, you watch movies like the oranges, the new black. And that really distorts your image of the people who are supposed to be, you know, in the law enforcement side. That is true. I have to say movies, you know, what happens in movies and on TV is not real. Yes. Anything that shows a private investigator in a movie or on TV, about 95% of what they show the investigator do, is illegal. I don't do anything illegal ever. Like Magnum.

Yeah, like Magnum. It's like, you know, the only thing I have in common with Magnum is I do have a red car. Other than that, there's nothing. Yeah, and the Rockford Files. I mean, those are the ones I remember, you know, because that was when I was actively watching those shows. But that is interesting. But I know, for example, back to the kids and human.

I know I've been to the airport. And when you go into the ladies room, you'll often see the sign that says, like, call this number if you're, you know, if you need help. Or one time I was at the airport and this girl, like, all of a sudden sits down with me in a booth and starts this conversation. And then some guy walks by. So I'm like, okay, she never said what was going on. But again, And that's, you know, there's so many red flags out there to look for. And then where I live, there's such a big homeless problem and drug problem. And I know these girls who they're out there, all of a sudden they're living in a house with a bunch of people and who knows how they're earning their living, you know.

with this. So you mentioned that that little girl that you did the case where the uncle kidnapped her and abused her and then basically sold her to his friends. You mentioned that she was like a catalyst for you to get personally involved. And I can just, when you said that, you know, you said it took a week and a half. And a week and a half is a long time. Yeah. In a situation like that. So why is it so prevalent now that these children and even adults are being trafficked? What's going on? How is this? Why is it happening? And it just seems like it's really out there a lot. Is it because of social media or was it always like that? it's always gone on. I mean, it's referred to in the Bible. So, I mean, trafficking has been going on forever. But in more recent years, probably the last 10 years or so, the internet is where the vast majority of trafficking starts. So, you know, it used to be, though, we said if you're out in public, watch for that white panel van because that's dangerous. Those people are going to grab you. The internet is now the white panel van. It is the most dangerous place for kids to be. And,

probably the most dangerous thing for a child to have is a phone, a smartphone, because that's how they're on their smartphone more than a computer normally. And parents tend to let their kids have a smartphone when they're way too young to use it. And they see way too many things, way too young. The average age that a child first sees pornography is eight. Eight. That just shouldn't happen. And that's usually on a friend's smartphone on the playground at school. So that just shouldn't. It shouldn't be that way. They need to be older before they even have a phone. And then if they're online, you know, obviously anybody can check that little box and say, I'm 13 or I'm 14 and, you know, get and sign up for a program or an app online.

It's like they don't really have a way to check and verify it, really? That's, you know, accurate. I know. I see the state of, I live in Florida. And of course, they say, oh, well, we're going to make the social media safer that, you know, they have to be 16 or 18. And, and you just said it, anybody can check the box and say, I'm over 18 or a certain age and they can upload fake photographs. I mean, I don't know how that could even be traced with that you might be be able to trace it. But then how are you going to, what are you going to do, prosecute a kid because they made a social media account and lied about their age. Right. Yeah. I don't know how it works. So you said the worst thing.

possible is for people to allow their child to have a smartphone and at an early age, too early of an age. So, okay, let's say the parent already, you know, your kid has a smartphone. What parents, they need to be paying attention because there's what enticement, there's, the trafficking, there's, what should they be looking for? What are the sun? that something may be going on with your child where they might be getting themselves into some trouble. First of all, if the child's going to have social media access, so either on a phone or on a computer, a lot of families have like a computer in the family room and the parents think, oh, we're safe because the computer is right here. What could the child be doing? Well, the child can still

be on social media or playing online games, things like that. Everything's got a chat feature in it. Like everything does. So, the first thing to teach the kids is if someone says, how old are you in a chat room or in a game or something, there's a 99.99.99% chance that's a bad guy. Because that's, you know, I have a, there's a bingo game I play every now and then just a little free bingo game, just, you know, to clear my head.

And my avatar is a picture of a dog of mine that now lives in doggy heaven. And my name is Kira. And I don't usually, I don't always pay it. attention to the chat. But every now that I'll glance over at the chat and they'll be, you know, it scrolls through and someone and go, hey, Kara, how old are you? And depending on my mood and how much time I have on my hands, sometimes I say I'm 12 because then I toy with the person and there have been times I've actually talked to them enough that I figured out who they were and was able to report them for trying to entice a child. But more and more often lately, other adults in the

room say don't talk to that person, they're bad. And so that's good. They need to know. Parents need to know. They need to teach their kids if someone says, how old are you? That's bad. Also, if someone, if a child or an adult too, starts talking to someone in a chat room and the person they're talking to says, let's change apps or go to a chat room somewhere else. That's like being kidnapped. It's like out on the street if you're kidnap, do you want to fight and kick and scream and just have a fit and not let them take you to a second location? Same thing online. So those are two super important things that kids need to know. As far as parents trying to identify if their kids are being enticed or something like that, they need to, they should have a social media contract with their kid where the child, you know,

tells them what apps they're on, shares their passwords, which some people, freak out when I say that. But they need to be able to get in and see who they're talking to. My view is, until you're 18 years old and you can sign a contract, whatever device you're using belongs to mom or dad or whoever's paying for it, it's their phone. So the child really kind of has no right to privacy as far as, you know, not that I'm saying they should spy on them just to spy on them, but it's for their protection. A lot of signs that kids show if they're being If they're in the midst of being groomed or possibly enticed to do something, they often will start hiding what they're doing on their phones or on their devices.

Like, you know, they're on their laptop in their room at night and you go in and they slam the laptop shut. Or something like that. Or they'll start talking about a new friend that they've met, but they won't let the parent meet them. And it's really a new online friend they're talking to who they really know nothing about. These predators will try to create what we call a fantasy relationship. And that's where the predator will say everything that they think the child wants to hear. Like, you know, you're the most beautiful girl ever. And I'm going to buy everything you ever wanted.

And your parents are so mean and, you know, those kinds of things. But they never say anything about themselves. So when I talk to parents, I tell them the best way to identify a fantasy relationship like that is start asking your child about this new friend. Like, where do they go to school? I don't know. Does he have a job? I don't really know. You know, what sports team does he like? What's his favorite movie? Whatever. They know nothing about them. But the predator has asked all kinds of questions of the target child and knows everything about them. It takes eight minutes for a predator to gain the trust of a child. All it takes eight minutes for them to talk to them. I don't know. This is mind-boggling to me. So what these predators, what is their objective? Are they trying to get the child to send them photographs? Are they trying to get the child to meet them in person? What is the online predator's primary goal?

It depends. Some of them, their goal is to get them to run away and meet them in person, which can obviously have horrific consequences. sometimes with girls, they often tend to want more, they want photos and videos that are more graphic or more disturbing. With boys, they want money. So what these financial extortionist people will do, for instance, there's been more boys than girls. There's been, I think as of now, there's like 35 documents. and suicides directly related to financial extortion of a child. All but one of them was a boy.

So they're targeting teenage boys. Most of them are in organized sports. Most of them are very good students. They don't have drug problems. They don't drink. They don't go out and party. They don't do, you know, they're not bad kids or problem kids or whatever word someone wants to use.

These are good kids. And the way it typically works is a beautiful. teenage girl will send a message to, you know, this young man at night and, you know, say hi. And usually they use, the most common app they use to start the interaction right now. And it does change. But right now it's Instagram. And that's because on Instagram, you can't hide your friends and followers unless your account 100% private. Your friends and followers show. And what the predators do is they screenshot the friends and followers before they contact the target. So they contact the target and it's a beautiful girl and she's flirting with this boy

and, you know, hormones get involved. And the girl will say, send me, you know, either the girl will send a picture saying it's her and, you know, I'll show you mine if you show me yours, it's that kind of thing. And they'll ask for a photo or a video showing, it has to also show. the target's face. So they want, you know, a new photo showing the face so for sure they can identify the person. And the second they get that photo, the predators send it out to their fellow predators. So it's gone.

But they instantly turn on the target and say, okay, now you have to send me $5,000 or I'm going to send this photo to all your friends. And they'll like scroll through their friends list and go, look, I have screenshots of all your friends and your family and your school and your church and your coaches. you know. And obviously, kids are devastated. They don't know what to do. So these kids need to know that they can go to their parents and go, oh, my gosh, this happened. What do I do? Instead of, there have been cases where it was only a period of about three hours between that initial hello and when a teenage boy committed suicide. And mom and dad were asleep, had no idea what was going on. they went to bed and their son was happy and excited about going on vacation the next day and all this stuff. And the following morning, they wake up and he has killed himself in his room.

So it's a terrible thing. When I talk about this particular thing, I say parents need to, or caregivers, whatever, kids need to know that there's an adult they can go to and they can tell them anything. No matter what it is and they're not going to get in trouble. they're not going to get, you know, berated for being stupid. Just they need to know that there's someone there that can help them. When I was a little girl, when I was nine, one of the little girls that my dance teacher was being abused by her father. And I went home and told my mom, and she slapped me for talking like that. So I never went to her again with anything important, ever.

I talked to my grandmother. I talked to my dance teacher. When I started working as an investigator, I talked to my boss. Never went back to my mom. which might have been a little extreme. But at my house, we just didn't talk about things like that growing up. So these days there's so much of this stuff out there

and so many of these things are being normalized. Like 40%, according to the national center of missing exploited children, 40% of teenage girls in particular think it's okay to share a nude photo with someone. How is that okay? Yeah. They don't understand that that's private and you shouldn't be doing that. Yeah, and they think it's really, really okay if you do it on an app where it disappears. And, you know, they forget.

So a lot of these predators, they start out on Instagram or somewhere and they say, let's go to Snapchat because Snapchat the messages disappear. But they get screenshot before they disappear. And the kids aren't thinking about that. It takes a second to screenshot it. And then it's there forever. So, but for these kids, you just think it's normal. And, you know, they've seen each other, you know, their friends nude photos and they've shared photos.

Kids also need to know that if they do fall victim to something like this, if they're targeted, they're not going to get in trouble if they report it to law enforcement. Because a lot of kids think, oh, my gosh, I just shared child pornography or child sex abuse materials, they call it. C-SAM. And it's, you know, if you're manipulated into doing something, you're a lot of, you're, victim, not the criminal, the person that convinced them to do it. So they need to know that too, that they can safely report it to their parents and to law enforcement. So it's super, super important. So the most important thing is to make sure that your children are, they know that

you're a safe person to share anything with so that if they need help, they know that you're there and that you're not going to judge them or slap like what you said your mom did. So are there resources or organizations that you recommend that people contact or look into? There are several out there. The National Center for Missing Exploited Children is huge. So ncmec.org has a ton of information. MillionKids.org is a nonprofit based in California, although the founder goes all over the place and speaks. And I do a lot of speaking on behalf of them.

And they do a lot of education. There are others out there. There's kind of nonprofits right now. It's kind of a popular thing for these nonprofits to pop up. There's good ones. There's not so good ones. So the ones I know for sure that's really, you know, the best is NCMEC because kind of everybody reports to them. So you said that you speak on this topic.

If somebody wants to reach out for you to find out more, either about your private investigation services or about speaking about this topic, how should they reach out to you? I'm all over social media, which is kind of funny since you're a private investigator. But it's where the good stuff happens too. So I do have a website. It's LGBB Investigations.com is my website. website. I'm on Facebook. I'm on Instagram. I'm on LinkedIn, either as LJB Investigations or as

OC. Lady P.I. And so any of those I can be found super, or they can just, they can Google my name. Okay. Or LJB investigations and find me. So I'm in California. So if they look for me, it's, you know, it's California. But yeah, I will speak to anybody that will listen. So I really appreciate the fact that you're sharing all this information. And everyone, make sure that you check out, Linda. And again, she spells her name L-Y-N-D-A and her middle name is B-E-R-G-H-H-H-H. So check her out and make sure that you do that. But this is a really important topic.

So I put the call out, talk to your children about this issue. So Linda, I need to go now, but I really appreciate the time that you took to share all this information. Everyone, this is Dr. Tammy Patser. So make it a beautiful day. Thanks for listening to Business Innovators Radio. To hear all episodes featuring leading industry influencers and trendsetters, visit us on online at business innovators radio.com today.