BMMS 9-9-26

A 70-year-old Missouri foster mother was convicted of child endangerment after she allegedly traded a teenage girl in her care for a monkey. She avoided prison when a judge suspended her seven-year sentence, revoked her foster care license, and placed her on probation. The judge apologized to the victim and criticized the state’s foster care system. The teenager was sent to a Texas home filled with exotic animals while the foster mother continued receiving payments.

The Peek Secret Compliment App Scam

A new scam is targeting students and parents through a text message that says “someone at [school name] sent you a compliment” with a link to an app called Peek Secret Compliment. Once a user clicks the link and downloads the app, it requests access to the phone’s contacts and the school they attend. It then automatically sends the same text to everyone in that contact list, using the original user as a legitimate source of vetting. The app allows users to anonymously post, comment, and vote in polls about their peers, requiring only a school name and grade level with no age verification. During testing, one poll asked users to rate a student as “hot as Texas or ugly as sin.” The app is developed by Dive Studios Inc., based in South Korea, and its privacy policy makes no mention of age verification for users as young as 12. The hosts emphasize a simple rule: do not click on