Officials: 'Pokemon Go' could be used to lure crime victims

The "Pokemon Go" craze that is sweeping across America has some parents and officials in Suffolk County worried about potential predators. Parents for Megan's Law and Suffolk County officials met Tuesday

News 12 Staff

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Jul 13, 2016, 1:24 AM

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Updated 3,083 days ago

The "Pokemon Go" craze that is sweeping across America has some parents and officials in Suffolk County worried about potential predators.

Parents for Megan's Law and Suffolk County officials met Tuesday in an effort to warn parents about the dangers behind the virtual scavenger hunt app.

They say an option in the app allows users to "lure" people to a location to get points in the game.

Suffolk Police Commissioner Tim Sini says criminals will see the option as an opportunity.

"They could be lying in the wait to do a robbery, or it could be worse in terms of a sexual predator situation," says Sini.

Suffolk Executive Steve Bellone is calling on the Pokemon company to check its users against those on the E-Stop registry - the online registry of sex offender emails and social media accounts.

Another issue that has been raised is the app automatically granting full access to Google accounts. The app requires a Gmail account to sign in.

A spokesman for Pokemon Go issued a statement saying once they became aware of what they call an "error," they began working on a fix to only request basic google profile information.

The company had "no information to share" on the sex offender concerns.