»Web group baits would-be teen sex abusers«

There's a new sheriff in town.

And he acts like a little girl.

At least online, where getting tangled in his world wide web begins with a chat-room conversation.

"Would you have sex with a girl my age?" asks the 15-year-old.

"Well, I might if I believed that she was serious and hopefully that maybe even she cared for me as a person and was not just trying to get me into trouble," replies the 59-year-old.

The man surrenders his digits, hoping she'll agree to a rendezvous.

But when the conversation ends, a massive network spanning North America begins the process of his destruction.

The man's personal details are posted on the Internet, along with a transcript of the chat. Then an army of invisible strangers scours public records for every scrap of information available about his life. His wife, work, and even his neighbours receive call after call. Strangers drive by the house; the neighbourhood is covered with fliers. They all sing the same refrain: There's a pervert in your midst.

This is Perverted Justice, a website that specializes in using Internet decoys to draw out the darkest thoughts of men — and punish them accordingly. Or, in the words of one website administrator, "an army of volunteers that will go out of our way to find every person you have ever known and let them know what a disgusting piece of human excrement you really are."

And it's poised for a Canadian debut.

So far, the note on the Canadian version of the site reads simply "Future home of Perverted Justice Canada," but the organization's creator says its brand of justice is nigh.

"The (age of consent) of 14 in Canada should be considered ridiculous by anyone's estimation," says the administrator, a 25-year-old native of Portland, Ore., who calls himself Xavier Von Erck.