A man identified as a “local debt collector” by a television station in Georgia has been arrested and charged with impersonating a police officer after allegedly using an alias on Facebook to intimidate individuals into making payments on unpaid debts.
The man, when contacted by an undercover police officer on Facebook, asked her to send naked photos of herself on multiple occasions.
Jason Lovegrove, who works for a collection agency, would contact individuals with unpaid debts on Facebook and instruct them to cooperate with his investigation in order to stay out of jail. A confidential source reported the impersonation to police, who then had an undercover officer contact Lovegrove on Facebook.
Along with requesting nude photos of the officer, Lovegrove also allegedly sought information about a murder investigation. His Facebook page was “filled with police images and even posts intimating he was training with other officers,” according to a report from the television station.
Lovegrove’s lawyer, a public defendant, said the situation was “a classic case of entrapment” and asked for the charges to be dismissed, but a judge disagreed and set bail at $100,000 to send a “strong message to anyone thinking about posing as law enforcement on social media.”
