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But this time, authorities said, the intended targets — two Lancaster County girls — were real.
Luckily, investigators said both girls were smart enough to tell their mothers about the online contacts before things got worse.
Today, state Attorney General Tom Corbett announced the arrest of the two Lancaster County men for allegedly soliciting sex from the girls over the Internet.
One of the two men, John Christopher Forehand, 39, of 541 Furnace Hills Pike, Lititz, was arrested after agents said he arranged to meet his 13-year-old biological daughter, whom he believed he had convinced to have sex with him.
Forehand signed his e-mails, "Bad Daddy," according to court documents.
Timothy Donnell Anderson, 42, of 141 Conestoga Blvd., was arrested after agents said he arranged to meet a girl for sex, after finding her telephone number on MySpace and asking her to be his "secret girlfriend."
In both cases, after the girls contacted authorities, agents with the Attorney General's Child Predator Unit continued communicating with the suspects and set up meetings.
Then, when the men arrived at the designated time and place, agents placed them under arrest.
"As we have seen in a number of cases this year," Corbett said in announcing the arrests, "predators are reaching out to real families in Pennsylvania — and tips from those families are resulting in arrests."
"It is extremely important for parents to regularly discuss online safety with their children and to encourage kids to immediately report any situation where someone sexually propositions them, sends explicit photos or videos or tries to arrange a meeting."
• In Forehand's case, the girl told police that her father — who does not live with her — located her Facebook social networking site and began e-mailing her, according to court documents.
Forehand told his daughter he had been having "inappropriate" dreams about her, according to the affidavit.
He warned her to delete their online chats after reading them, according to the affidavit, and signed his messages, "Love Bad Daddy."
As Forehand continued to write and suggest various sex acts in graphic detail, the girl said she had to look up the meaning of some of the words.
"She then realized what her father had asked her and reported it to her mother," who, according to the affidavit, "reported the matter to police."
On Tuesday, a state agent took over the e-mails, as Forehand continued to write, repeatedly urging the girl to agree to a sexual liaison.
"Not many other fathers and daughters are this brave," Forehand wrote, according to the affidavit, "so not many of them are so lucky to experience all these pleasures."
They agreed to meet Wednesday afternoon, according to the affidavit, with Forehand writing that he would pick up his daughter from school and they would go back to her house.
"I'll take very good care of my little girl," Forehand wrote, according to the affidavit.
On Wednesday afternoon, after Forehand arrived at the designated time and place, he was arrested and charged with two counts of unlawful contact with a minor, plus one count each of attempted incest and criminal use of a communication facility.
He was committed to prison in lieu of $400,000 bail, pending a hearing.
At the time of his arrest, agents said, they found in his truck a camera, a tripod, a box of condoms and lubricant.
In his home, agents said, they found digital cameras, a camcorder and computers, all of which will be analyzed by computer experts.
• In Anderson's case, the 14-year-old Ephrata girl told her parents in August that a 35-year-old Lancaster man had been sending her text messages on her cell phone, after adding himself to the friends on her MySpace account.
The parents immediately contacted police, who turned the investigation over to the attorney general's office.
A state agent, posing as the girl, continued the conversations with Anderson, identifying herself as an eighth-grader at Ephrata Middle School.
The conversations progressed, according to court documents, from Anderson telling the girl that she was "very pretty" to wanting to perform various sex acts on her and asking her, "will you be my secret girlfriend?"
In early September, Anderson told the girl he would take the bus from Lancaster to Ephrata, then ride his motorized bicycle to an arranged meeting place.
Together, they could then ride the bus back to his house in Lancaster, he told the girl, according to court documents.
The agent, posing as the girl, agreed.
Around 2 p.m. on Sept. 11, Anderson arrived on Academy Drive, sending a text message that he was waiting for her on the street.
Instead of a teenage girl, Anderson was greeted by agents and taken into custody. Anderson had three condoms in his pocket and a bus pass, according to court documents.
Anderson was charged with criminal use of a communication facility and two counts of unlawful contact with a minor.
He was released on $100,000 bail pending a hearing, with the condition that he not have contact with any juvenile and not use a cell phone or computer.
The attorney general's office thanked Ephrata and Warwick Township police, as well as state police and county constables, for their assistance in both cases.
In announcing the arrests, Corbett said the Child Predator Unit has made 60 arrests so far this year, up nearly 20 percent compared with 2008.
Since it was created in January 2005, Corbett said the unit has arrested 241 Internet predators.
"Predators know that colder weather and shorter days mean that kids are spending more time inside, in front of their computers, and that many may be home alone — either before or after school," Corbett said.
Predators know that the start of a new school year triggers differences in Internet use, changes in family schedules and increases in the amount of time that children may be alone or unsupervised at home, he said.
More information about reporting Internet predators and prevention education programs can be found at www.attorneygeneral.gov or by calling 1-800-385-1044.
