Facebook predator stands by scam

Natalia Burgess lured schoolboys online. Photo / Supplied

The woman dubbed the "Facebook predator" is unrepentant about tricking schoolboys into online relationships.

Natalia Burgess, 28, is facing police questions after luring up to 40 pupils from St Thomas of Canterbury into her web of fake online personas.

In a string of Facebook messages this week, the 28-year-old called her victims "little boys" and said she could have had sex with them but didn't want to.

"Who got hurt? If I wanted to have sex with them I would of made it happen don't you think? But I never did."

She sent some air tickets and encouraged them to visit her in Auckland but now says the tickets were fake.

"Everything was fake. Nothing was real. Fake plane tickets, too. Just a tad hurtful but, hey - you play with fire, you will get burned."

The Herald on Sunday revealed last week the 28-year-old from Manukau has been involved in a string of physical relationships with teenagers.

They started after she set up fake Facebook accounts using images from other people's profiles.

She claimed this week she had spent much of the past six years in jail and that her ex-boyfriend was Josh Masters, jailed leader of violent South Auckland gang Killer Beez.

"You think I want little boys when I had and run with boys like that?" she wrote.

Burgess maintained her claim that she had an accomplice and said he used one of the fake personas to secure a reduced sentence in a court case. She said she welcomed the attention she was getting and had told her story to Woman's Day magazine.

Burgess said she had not taken money for the interview: "I had fun just being treated like a princess for a couple of hours with hair and makeup."

She said she "needed that boost" after the Herald on Sunday "put my most ugly ... photo all over the paper".

Burgess refused to comment on claims she had engaged teens in online sex through real and fake Facebook profiles.

Two teenagers told how they had cyber-sex with her personas and in some cases activated their webcams.

Photos of the boys in states of undress later appeared on social-networking sites, they claimed.

Burgess' online life goes back to at least 2001.

She had several personas on the previously popular internet Relay Chat service, that sent real-time text messages between users.

Users on the New Zealand network said Burgess was known as "Chickadee" and solicited partners over the internet.

Christchurch police youth officer Senior Sergeant John Robinson said Burgess had not been spoken to. He said preliminary results of the investigation had been sent to lawyers to see if she had broken any laws.