To Catch a Predator was an incredibly powerful and eye-opening television show in the 2000s that revealed to the public the world on online sexual predators. Chris Hansen and teams of local law enforcement engaged in sting operations to lure potential predators online to show up at a house thinking they were going to possibly engage in unlawful acts with a minor. Then Hansen would show up and interview the culprits before they were usually detained by officials.
The original show has been off the air for over a decade but it seems to have started a movement where people in the public engage these potential sexual predators and try to bait them to meet up with them only to find out they've been set up to shame them.
Inside Edition recently ran a piece with these so-called vigilantes and this 40-year-old dude named Shane Coyle has been at it for years. He can change his voice to sound like a teenaged girl and uses it to set up meetings with people and records the interactions on his phone to publicly shame these people for partaking in the behavior. Multiple law enforcement agencies stress that people shouldn't do this type of thing on their own because it's not safe and could possibly interfere with a case, among other reasons.