Two 16-year-old students at New York’s Cinema School in the Bronx set up a Facebook profile for a fictional girl named “Sarah Archer” in the hopes of exposing Kevin Eckstein, 38,  an IT employee at their school, as a deviant. They both suspected he was “creepy,” and told police that they wanted to prove their suspicions.

Well, their plan worked. Over the course of several months, Eckstein engaged the fake profile, telling the girl that she was cute and inviting her to both the school and to go on dinner dates with him. Eckstein, a father of two, knew that she was 16. The two students’ online trap was blown when a teacher overheard them discussing it and an investigation was launched that resulted in the dismissal of Eckstein from his job at the school.

Here’s what Eckstein had to say to the New York Post as reported by the UK’s Daily Mail:

“When I discovered in the conversation after two days that she was 16, I ended contact with her. I blocked her. Two kids out of the whole school who didn’t like me attempted to talk to me on Facebook and it created a buzz within the school and it led to an investigation. It ended and I left the school.”

The students who orchestrated the online trap said they didn’t mean to get Eckstein fired, but perhaps it’s a good thing. They certainly toed the line with online privacy violations, but their suspicions were ultimately proven correct, and a potential predator was caught before he could act.

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BitDefender Safego is a Facebook application you can install that will scan your News Feed and help keep you safe from scams on Facebook.

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Action Alert | Free Parental Control offers a 100% free Internet safety solution designed for parents. There is also a Maximum Protection option for parents that need a more advanced set of tools.