The online virgins scam has unraveled.
 "Mike" and "Diane," two supposedly 18-year-old
 virgins who were going to surrender their virginity live
 on the Internet, have confessed they aren't
 18, aren't virgins, and aren't planning to have sex. In a press
 conference before angry reporters at a condom shop,
 they defended their stunt, saying it was meant to be "a
 moral lesson" and "the biggest public service
 announcement ever" on behalf of safe sex and
 abstinence. The company that was hired to transmit the
 event to computer users says it was a money-making
 hoax. "Mike" and "Diane" said they hoped the event
 would launch their careers. They announced their real
 names, which Slate has mysteriously forgotten.
 (7/22/98) 
   
 "Mike & Diane"
 Just actors 
 Unmasked -- The Mastermind Behind Internet Virgin Sex-Scam 
 The mastermind behind the bizarre Internet scam that promised millions
 of computer users a chance to see two teenagers lose their virginity
 is a former video store owner who went broke fighting obscenity
 charges for renting sex tapes.

 Ken Tipton, 45, hoped to reap millions from his scheme despite the fact
 that the 18-year-old couple -- known as "Mike" and "Diane" -- were 
 actually actors, according to Seth Warshavsky, president of the company
 that was providing the Web site for the computer sex show.

 Tipton has moonlighted as a bodyguard and also works as a bit actor in
 Hollywood.

 He once worked for IBM before opening a string of video stores in the
 St. Louis area in the early 1980s. But the subject of sex threw the 
 father of four into hot water even then.

 He spent his last dime fighting obscenity charges before being acquitted.
 He turned to stand-up comedy and then acting before coming up with his
 Internet idea.  Tipton used the alias "Oscar Wells" to promote his
 scheme, according to Warshavsky as a tribute to Orson Welles, who
 panicked America 60 years ago with a radio broadcast of a Martian invasion. 

 But "Oscar" hoped to fool millions into paying five dollars a pop for
 the sex show, Warshavsky said.
 
 NOTORIOUS Web site offer was a total fraud. 

 The planned event touched off a firestorm of outrage, and even sparked
 an angry denunciation by U.S. Senator John McCain.

 But Warshavsky declared the event was nothing more than a scam, and
 disclosed that Oscar Wells was really Ken Tipton. He terminated the
 contract with Tipton.

 "Tipton told me these two people -- 'Mike' and 'Diane' -- don't even
 exist," Warshavsky, president of the Internet Entertainment Group (IEG),
 told The ENQUIRER.

 "The whole thing was well-scripted," said Warshavsky, adding that after
 everyone paid money the couple was going to say they weren't ready
 to have sex.

 -- JEFFREY RODACK The Enquirer.