March 2008

Attorney Arrested for Answering Child Sex Ad:
29-year-old attorney Adam Bryant has been arrested in a craigslist undercover sting where undercover detectives placed an ad on craigslist from a father that was offering his 13-year-old daughter for sex. Bryant offered $1000 and was arrested when when he arrived at the predetermined meeting place.

Investigators are also saying that Bryant has been in contact with child prostitutes since 2006.

How is this a victimless crime again?

Woman charged in Craigslist hit man case plans guilty plea:
Everyone’s favorite hitman seeking craigslist user, Ann Marie Linscott, is planning on pleading guilty to federal charges against her.

Court papers filed on behalf of Ann Marie Linscott of Rockford state the 48-year-old wants to plead guilty in federal court in Michigan and waive a trial in California. A next court date wasn’t set.

For some reason it seems like that Linscott has this extreme aversion of going to California. California is where the alleged hit was to take place against the wife of a man she was having some kind of ‘relationship’ with. It’s been said before that she wanted to stay in Michigan to be close to her family. If she cared about her family so much maybe she shouldn’t have been having affairs and looking for hitmen.

Thanks to Soobs for the link.

I got another e-mail from a reader who has encountered another member of the infamous Rinaggio family.

This e-mail comes to us from Kristen…

Hello everyone i just read this email off google and i have had the same problem and just got ripped off 400.00 but the person i was talking to is going by the name of Brad Rinaggio, so its another scam!!! BIG TIME!
and he spoke the same way broken english and speaking alot about god. I have put a fraud warning out with western union about this “brad” and im about to call my local police and put in a fraud warning with them.
this time it wasnt a house it was a 2nd floor apartment for 900.00 bucks a month including until.
so watch out people this guy is still at it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Kristen.

Remember, sending in the craigslist scams and crimes you come across helps other people from being victimized.

Police find computer possibly used in Craigslist hoax:
Police in Oregon seem to think that they’ve found the computer that was used to place the phony ad that led to the ransacking of Robert Salisbury’s house.

The Jackson County Sheriffs Department is going through the hard drive and have subpoenaed craigslist for the IP address that the ad was placed from.

No suspect has been named as of yet.

According to TechCrunch craigslist will be branching out into other languages to better serve the global community.

That’s just peachy. Now they’ll be able to facilitate human trafficking all over the world.

Craigslist gets heat for prostitution ads:
The good news is that another politician is speaking out against prostitution in craigslist. The bad news is it’s Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

If you’ve read my posts over at MyCrimeSpace you know I’m not a big fan of Mr. Blumenthal. As far as MySpace and child predators are concerned I think Blumenthal is picking on MySpace to garner votes instead of tackling the issue of inattentive parents.

As far as craigslist goes I think he’s equally as clueless.

In a letter to Craigslist today, he took the San Francisco Web site to task for failing to have someone on staff to review postings by prostitutes, many of which use a section for “erotic services.” Although Craigslist, a largely free online classified service, touts measures to ban illegal activities and to remove inapproriate postings, its actions are inadequate, he concluded.

“I’m astonished and appalled by Craigslist’s refusal to recognize the reality of prostitution on it’s Web site - despite advertisements containing graphic photographs and hourly rates, and widespread public reports of prostitutes using the site,” Blumenthal said.

He added in a press release that the Web site “has a moral if not possible legal responsibility to assure that it avoids serving as a conduit for prostitution and other illegal activity. My office will weigh all options, including possible legal action, if the site fails to curb content clearly prohibited by its rules.”

While I agree with Mr. Blumenthal’s point he has no idea of how a website is run, especially as one as big as craigslist. Since he’s in government he has to make things more complicated than they need to be. Instead of craigslist hiring more people to moderate every single ad on their site there’s a much easier solution. Well two solutions really. The first is do away with the erotic services section. The second is take away the anonymity of the users. Hell will freeze over before either of those things happens but there’s a better chance than craigslist hiring a metric ass load of more employees just to monitor ads.

And just because I think AG Blumenthal is sort of off his rocker doesn’t mean I’m letting craigslist off the hook.

Let’s see what Jim Buckmaster had to say…

Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist’s chief executive, said in a statement today: “Misuse of Craigslist for illegal purposes is absolutely unacceptable to us. This month we implemented new screening procedures for erotic service ads, which have dramatically improved compliance with our terms of use, and reduced the volume of such ads by up to 80 percent.”

He added that the company has additional improvements underway.

I have yet to hear what those improvements are. Again see my suggestions above for a real solution.

Neighbor Complaints, Craigslist Ad, Lead to Aurora Prostitution Arrests:
Aurora, Illinois (Party on Wayne) must be the craigslist prostitution capital of the Midwest. This is the fourth story I’ve posted about Aurora and prostitution. What is it about Aurora that appeals to prostitutes and those who keep them?

Anyway some more people have been arrested in connection with prostitution out of Aurora. This time the suspects are Denise A. Hartung, 40, Kathleen R. Bartlett, 35, Thomas R. Prater, 32, Eric B. Hawkins, 42, and Jose M. Espinoza, 20. The charges range from prostitution to pandering to drug possession.

You don’t want to piss off your suburban neighbors. They have no reservations about calling the police.

Man, woman arrested in robbery sparked by Craigslist ad:
A 69-year-old man from Lacey, Washington was pistol whipped after responding to a craigslist hooker ad. The man and the 21-year-old ‘escort’ were in the man’s hot tub but then she said she had to changer her clothes. She took forever and the man became suspicious. When he went back into his house it was being robbed by a 24-year-old man who had a gun. And that’s when the pistol whipping began. The victim had minor injuries and the suspects were captured.

Remember kids, when responding to craigslist hooker ads chances are good that it’s either the cops or the robbers.

Arrest made after ad shows up on Craigslist showing baby for sale:
This article finally reveals why Patrick Lee Ryan was arrested for the baby for sale prank…

Although posting a fake advertisement on Craigslist might appear to be nothing more than a prank, in this case it was a big deal. You see, it is a felony in the state of Oregon to advertise a baby for sale.

That’s gotta hurt.

Well, since craigslist isn’t changing it’s anonymity policy anytime soon maybe this will send a message to other would be pranksters.

Man Charged With Trying To Sell Baby On Craigslist:
Ok, I’m officially confused. Previously I posted about how the baby for sale on craigslist out of Oregon was just a prank. Now someone has been arrested for it on some pretty serious charges…

Patrick Lee Ryan, 33, was charged with buying or selling a child, disorderly conduct in the first degree and computer crime stemming from an advertisement that said the author needed more “tweak,” or methamphetamine, and offered a baby for sale.

This is no joke either because he’s being held on $35K bail.

Was he actually trying to scam some money off of this fake ad or are authorities just playing hardball?

Online hoax: Craigslist baby sale investigated:
So remember the baby that was posted for sale on craigslist by some alleged tweakers? Not only is it fake but it turns out that someone is playing a prank on the actual parents…

The couple could not be reached by phone this morning but Lt. Steve Birr with the Salem Police Department said they had nothing to do with the hoax.

“It looks like somebody played a sick prank on these people,” Birr said. “It’s pretty despicable.”

Pay close attention to this next quote from Lt. Birr…

Birr said it’s easy to commit fraud on Craigslist because of the website’s anonymity.

Now where have I read that before?

And let’s once more from craigslist…

“Misuse of Craigslist for illegal purposes is absolutely unacceptable to us, and we will work together with law enforcement until the perpetrator has been brought to justice,” wrote spokeswoman Susan MacTavish. “Craigslist is an extremely unwise choice for committing crime, since criminals inevitably leave an electronic trail to themselves that law enforcement officers will follow.”

But they’re still not doing anything about their anonymity policy.

I want to thank Daily Tech for giving craigscrimelist a little link love for my post on Robert Salisbury the gentleman from Oregon who had his house ransacked.

However Daily Tech, you got the link wrong.

UPDATE: They fixed the link. YAY!

Task force targets sex services on Craigslist:
A joint task force in Massachusetts known as the WEB Task Force has arrested two on prostitution charges. The WEB Task Force is a joint project between Bridgewater, West Bridgewater and East Bridgewater.

47-year-old Lynne M. Libby of New Bedford was arrested for agreeing to sex for money after WEB Investigators saw her ad on craigslist for a “true girlfriend experience”.

Also arrested was 54-year-old David J. Anderson of Bridgewater for assisting “Libby in her illegal acts within his residence for a year or more.”

Robeson lawmen say prostitution was organized online:
Police in Lumberton, North Carolina have arrested 49-year-old Connie Blackmon of Wisconsin on prostitution charges. Of course she was running ads on craigslist…

Lumberton police say that over the past month Blackmon posted at least four ads for erotic massages on Craigslist, a Web site that offers goods and services.

Blackmon used two names — Cloe and Candice — in the ads. In one ad, she asked law enforcement not to respond. In another, she assured potential clients that she was legitimate.

The ad listed the motel’s location, phone number and room extension number. She charged $70 for 30 minutes and $100 an hour for massages, according to the ads.

For once craigslist had a different response. Now they’re acting like they’re doing police a favor…

Susan Best, a spokeswoman for Craigslist, said using the site for prostitution is unacceptable.

“As is evident from news reports around the country, Craigslist actually makes it easier for police departments to conduct sting operations against prostitution rings,’’ Best said. “If you’re a prostitute or a potential john, you’re taking a big risk putting a listing on Craigslist, because we cooperate actively with police departments.’’

Best said the Web site recently implemented new requirements for erotic services ads that make it more difficult for prostitutes to advertise. The company bans illegal activity in its terms of use, warns against illegal activity and has a community moderation system that flags inappropriate ads. People whose ads are flagged are removed and are prevented from posting future ads, she said.

“There tends to be a great focus on Craigslist ads of this sort, but, factually, phone company directories, weekly newspapers and other media not only carry such ads but charge for them, and even if we somehow could ban them altogether, they’d just start putting them on offshore Web sites, out of U.S. control altogether, making it more difficult for law enforcement officials to detect and prosecute criminals using the site,’’ Best said.

It is true that craigslist makes it easier for cops to arrest hookers but conversely craigslist also makes it easier for prostitutes to operate in the first place. This is the first I’m hearing of new requirements for erotic services on craigslist. I’d like to know what they are. I’ll have to remind myself to check that when I’m at my home computer. The new requirements must not be that stringent because I’m still posting stories about craigslist hookers being busted.

And again the flagging system does not work for the erotic services section. People using the erotic services aren’t going to flag the ads because that’s exactly what they’re looking for. People who don’t use the erotic services are not going in there just to flag the ads either.

Its also true that phone books and newspapers also run ads from escort services and massage parlors. However because phone books and newspapers don’t allow the anonymity that craigslist does it makes it easier to track down the people that placed the ad.

If the hooker ads were to move to an offshore website police would still arrest hookers the same way they are now, by calling them up, setting up appointments, and arresting them.

Online rental ad revealed as scam:
According to the article someone is trying to scam would be renters in Portland, Oregon using the name Cole Smith Properties out of South Carolina.

Cole Smith does not appear on a list of licensed real estate professionals provided online by the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

So before you give information or money to an out of state realtor you may want to do a background check on them.