https://www.pennlive.com/news/2021/03/pa-woman-created-deepfake-videos-to-force-rivals-off-daughters-cheerleading-squad-police.html

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 1. Pennsylvania Real-Time News

Pa. woman created 'deepfake' videos to force rivals off daughter's
cheerleading squad: police

Updated Mar 12, 9:59 PM; Posted Mar 12, 7:08 PM
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By Jana Benscoter | jbenscoter@pennlive.com

Police arrested a 50-year-old Bucks County woman March 10 for sending
her teen daughter's cheerleading coaches fake photos and videos
depicting her rivals naked, drinking, or smoking, to try to get them
kicked off the squad, according to media reports.

Raffaela Spone, of Chalfont, was charged with two misdemeanors,
Hilltown Township Police officers said. Spone is facing three counts
of cyber harassment of a child and three counts of harassment.

An investigation last year led officers to discover that Spone had
sent harassing text messages directly to the teenagers as well,
police said. As the investigation continued, more teenagers came
forward, who were all part of a traveling cheerleading group --
Victory Vipers -- based in the Doylestown area.

Raffeala Spone

Raffeala Spone, 50, was arrested for harassing teenager cheerleaders,
who she saw as rivals to her daughter. Photo: Hilltown Township
Police Department

"Spone last year created the doctored images of at least three
members," according to the affidavit. There were no indications that
Spone's daughter knew what her mother was doing.

The teenagers told officers Spone sent them "manipulated images," and
in an anonymous message, said that Spone "urged them to kill
themselves," Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub told the
Philadelphia Inquirer.

Hilltown police were contacted by one of the teenager's parents in
July, and then two more families came forward with a similar account.
They told officers they and their coaches received text messages that
depicted them naked, drinking, and smoking a vape, according to the
Philly Inquirer.

Some of the teenagers were "sent photos of themselves in bikinis,
with accompanying text saying the subjects were "drinking at the
shore," court records show.

The videos were analyzed, and detectives were able to determine they
were "deepfakes" -- digitally altered but realistic-looking images --
created by mapping the girls' social media photos onto other images,
the Philly Inquirer reported.

Officers were able to execute multiple search warrants that allowed
them to trace the text messages back to Spone's IP address and then
her cell phone, police said.

George Ratel told the Philly Inquirer "he believes the harassment was
triggered after he and his wife told his daughter to stop hanging out
with Spone's daughter, due to concerns over the girl's behavior."

"I don't know what would push her to this point," Ratel said. "As a
dad I was pretty upset about it. It's an image put out there of my
daughter that is simply not true."

Spone was released on the condition that she appear at a preliminary
hearing on March 30.

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