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In the late 1990’s people were just getting the hang of using the internet to connect with other people. Email was becoming more commonplace and chat rooms were becoming popular. Ms. Kerr quickly adapted to the new cyber technology and began using it to perpetrate her criminal schemes. Sitting before her computer screen in Dubois, Pennsylvania, Ms. Kerr went to work, spending endless hours in AOL chat rooms. It wasn’t long before she assumed dozens of fraudulent identities and she used them to prey upon the innocent people she would find in the various chat rooms she would enter.
Without conscience she would assume the persona of famous celebrities, people of both sexes, including popular sports figures and actors. She even created identities in the persona of police officers, state troopers, and FBI agents and she “talked” with authority whenever she inhabited these personas. She interacted with hundreds of innocent people and she was convincing to many. People thought they had an exclusive online relationship with a major league baseball player, well-known actors and actresses, and others in law enforcement. A common aspect of her scheme involved convincing people that she was romantically involved with a particular actor, or sports figure and would communicate with her victims both as herself, (Lynda) and also as the actor, sports figure, or law enforcement figure, as the case may be.
Eventually, she would “confide” to her victims that she was being physically abused by the famous person or law enforcement person and had to get away from that person but had no money. Sometimes she was believable, sometimes not so much. Sometimes the scam worked, and sometimes it didn’t. But when it worked, the victim, who had developed a “relationship” with Lynda would send her money. Lynda juggled many of these scams simultaneously.
The internet was still young in the late 1990’s and the cautionary warnings we now hear every day were almost non-existent then. Lynda Kerr was an accomplished internet con artist. She was among the first to use the internet to trick, extort, manipulate and terrorize people. She was doing it long before the Nigerian Prince scam was even conceptualized.
This was just one of many fraudulent schemes Ms. Kerr perpetrated on the internet. But the usual theme was getting to know a person online by feeding them false information, and then having that person get to know the famous person. Once the premise was established the story would get frightening because of the terrible abuse she claimed she was suffering at the hands of this famous person. Lynda made herself the victim and sometimes the good people out there in the chat rooms helped her – by sending her money. She was a criminal for many years before the internet gave her a gateway into anybody’s home – and mind.
Other variations of her scheme employed the use of a purportedly “corrupt” law enforcement officer who was harming her. Sometimes the “officer” would email the innocent target of the scheme and threaten to harm them too putting great fear into them. Later, as “Lynda” she would email that person verifying that the “officer” meant every word of it.
Almost none of her victims ever caught on, although a few did.
One particular victim who lived hundreds of miles away decided to turn the table on Ms. Kerr and using Ms. Kerr’s modus operandi, specifically AOL chat rooms, engaged into a long-term investigation of Ms. Kerr, seeking to learn more about her, her background, her whereabouts, and whether other victims who were scammed by her in a similar way could be located.
In a chat room named for the town where she grew up, Punxsutawney, this victim, determined to accumulate information on her, created a screen name using the name of town near Punxsutawney, (let’s say the screen name started with a “D”) and began asking questions of some of the people who were in the AOL Punxsutawney Chat Room.
One person who we refer to as “S” was very willing to “talk” to “D” and actually knew Ms. Kerr for many years. “S” and “D” left the chat room and continued their discussion via Instant Messaging. “S” knew Lynda. “S” knew Lynda’s family. “S” knew Lynda’s childhood friends. “S” knew Lynda’s relatives. “S” knew of Ms. Kerr’s criminality. “S” knew many things about Lynda. Not only that but, “S” knew Max.
Suffice it to say, “S” knew a lot. And “S” was willing to “talk”. And “S” was willing to help.
On three different evenings, “D” and “S” had conducted three Instant Message sessions with each other.
We have posted the Instant Messages. The important parts have been highlighted. Certain other parts were redacted because they were deemed either unnecessary or because it was unnecessary to reveal other people’s names and unrelated information for no reason.
Unfortunately, the visual quality of these documents is rather poor but they are legible.
For convenience to the reader, some of the more relevant statements made by “S” have been copied and pasted to a separate page following the page in the Instant Message page where it appears.
Most of these statements, on their own do not have context. For full context of the statements you should refer to the actual Instant Message.