Spone targeted three underage victims who were part of the Victory Vipers traveling cheer squad based in Doylestown, investigators said.
The harassment first came to the attention of police when the mother of one of the girls reported that her daughter received texts and calls from a blocked phone number.
Some of the texts included photos that had been taken from the girl s social media accounts and doctored to make her appear nude, or as if she had been drinking alcohol and vaping, according to a criminal complaint.
In a deepfake video altered through software to make one person appear as another the same girl was depicted to be vaping. That video, obtained by NBC s Today, was sent to the head of the Victory Vipers in an apparent effort to get the girl kicked off the team, prosecutors said. The girl and her mother were interviewed by Today.
Cheerleader targeted by rival s mother in deepfake plot feared no one would believe her dailymail.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailymail.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Bucks County District Attorney's Office last week charged Raffaela Spone, 50, with three misdemeanor counts of cyber harassment of a child and related offenses.
DOYLESTOWN, Pennsylvania (WPVI) A Bucks County, Pennsylvania mother allegedly sent deepfake photos and video of her teenage daughter s cheerleading rivals to their coaches in a bid to get them kicked off the team.
Investigators say 50-year-old Raffaela Spone was trying to get the girls kicked off the Victory Vipers, in Chalfont.
Spone is accused of manipulating photos from the social media accounts of three girls to make it look like they were drinking and smoking, and even digitally altered them to make the girls appear naked. The suspect is alleged to have taken a real picture and edited it through some photoshopping app to make it look like this teenaged girl had no clothes on to appear nude, when in reality that picture was a screengrab from the teenager s social media in which she had a bathing suit on, said Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub.
DOYLESTOWN, Pennsylvania (WPVI) A Bucks County, Pennsylvania mother allegedly sent deepfake photos and video of her teenage daughter s cheerleading rivals to their coaches in a bid to get them kicked off the team.
Investigators say 50-year-old Raffaela Spone was trying to get the girls kicked off the Victory Vipers, in Chalfont.
Spone is accused of manipulating photos from the social media accounts of three girls to make it look like they were drinking and smoking, and even digitally altered them to make the girls appear naked. The suspect is alleged to have taken a real picture and edited it through some photoshopping app to make it look like this teenaged girl had no clothes on to appear nude, when in reality that picture was a screengrab from the teenager s social media in which she had a bathing suit on, said Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub.