Friends don't let friends use craigslist (or backpage)
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Free Stuff Ad Leads Thieves To Home:
A woman’s ad on the Portland craigslist led to her home being ransacked. She was giving some stuff away for free but she put something on her ad that just invited the thieves.
“I did put in the ad: ‘Knock on the door and if I’m there, I’ll let you see the rest of the stuff,’
So when she wasn’t there a couple of thieves help themselves to the items in her backyard after busting down the fence.
Who would have thought that criminals look at craigslist?
It’s not just craigslist where the scammers have taken hold. Every once in a while we get the odd kijiji story as well and this is one of them. In case you didn’t know kijiji is a craigslist competitor that was founded and owned by eBay.
A couple from Calgary fell for the Nigerian scam by wiring money to Nigeria to a man they thought was a Calgray doctor renting out his home. He was allegedly in Africa doing ‘Christian missionary work.’
The house actually belonged to a 79-year-old woman who is selling the house but not on kijiji.
Some more fake craigslist scammer names to add to the list. The first one is Arsenio Calle which was used on the typical renter scam, thanks to reader Keith.
We also have Peter Terry and Liana Costello with the email address of lai.costello@yahoo.com which were used on rental scams in the Felton, California area. Thanks to reader Denica for those.
This is actually a pretty funny story about some neighbors from Clinton, Conn. who kind of took the law into their own hands when it came to a strange car rolling through their neighborhood.
In the end it turned out that one of their own got arrested. 60-year old William Strom allegedly ordered a craigslist hooker from Rhode Island. He was arrested along with 24-year-old Susie Rosado.
Even though it turned out ok local police have some great advice for would be vigilantes.
“It’s always better to call us. Let the police go and confront anyone,” said Sgt. Dunn.
Word.
N. Calif. Called Craigslist Crime ‘Hotspot’:
This was an interview I did with TV station KCRA in Sacramento, California about violent crimes and craigslist. Yes, I know they call me Trent Reynolds. That’s more TV friendly than Trench. It’s not like either of those are my real name anyway so there you have it.
I thought I would be going head to head with Jim Buckmaster himself but that turned out not to be. I would have loved to have had that opportunity.
First let me brag about my one and only quote in the article…
Crimes such as stolen items for sale, offers of prostitution and money fraud are much more common. A clearing house for these crimes is found on the Web site crimene.ws — a site where victims can share their Craigslist horror stories.
“I see more crimes reported on the West Coast and in the Pacific Northwest. The big hotspots would be in Northern California,” site developer Trent Reynolds said.
The area is a Craigslist fan base: The site was born just down the road in San Francisco, and Northern California’s in turn use it more and are more likely to become victims.
It’s true. Violent crimes like armed robbery are more rare on craigslist than prostitution and fraud but that doesn’t make it any less of an issue. And Northern California is the epicenter of craigslist related crime since that’s where the site got it’s start and people have been using it longer there than anywhere else.
Now let’s hear from craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster…
According to Jim Buckmaster, CEO of Craigslist, the percentage of postings that end in significant crimes is low when compared with the legitimate use of the site.
Buckmaster claimed Craigslist is unable to track the number of crimes involving the site. He said the task would be daunting, pointing to the 50 million monthly users, 35 million listings and 12 billion monthly pageviews.
“The incidence is not zero. We’d like it be zero, but it’s not zero,” Buckmaster said.
It’s definitely not zero but like I said it’s a large enough number to cause concern yet Mr. Buckmaaster just washes his hands of it and refuses to do anything to protect his userbase.
User profiles, while not a perfect solution, would go a long way to discouraging a lot of crime on craigslist. So would eliminating the erotic services section. Two things that craigslist is not considering. So anonymous crime will continue unabated on craigslist. Eventually people will get so fed up with it they’ll move on to other sites and then the big wigs at craigslist will wonder what happened.
Again, how have they not hired me as a consultant. I’m not above selling out to the man. craigslist and its users see themselves as going against the grain but in reality they’re just another corporation hence they are ‘the man’.
100 arrested in Bay Area in prostitution sting:
Over 100 pimps and prostitutes were arrested in the Bay Area thanks to a nationwide prostitution sting run by the FBI. Of course craigslist was one of the many avenues that authorities used to conduct the stings.
Also 46 child prostitutes were rescued in the nationwide sting operation. You know them, they’re the ‘non-victims’. Some people will say that 46 is pretty small number compared to the 642 arrests made across the country. I say that’s 46 too many.
Thanks to SFist.
Queens Man Sentenced For Craigslist Pimping:
33-year-old Tyrone Waite of Jamaica, Queens was sentenced to up to seven years behind bars for being a craigslist pimp and lying to a grand jury. Not only was he a craigslist pimp but he was trying to pimp out a 13-year-old girl on craigslist. At the time of his arrest he also had naked pics of the 13-year-old on his laptop.
As a special bonus the D.A. pontificates on prostitution being referred to as a victimless crime.
“Prostitution is not a victimless crime but a terrifying and despicable offense against society practiced by callous people who enslave young women without hope and victimize them one day at a time”, district attorney Richard A. Brown said. “This guilty plea and sentencing allowed the young victim to avoid testifying at trial and hopefully will help her to recover from her ordeal.”
Word.
Tigard man convicted of Craigslist rapes:
Ronald Marcus Leistiko of Tigard, Oregon was convicted yesterday for raping two craigslist escorts one of which was only 15-years-old. He also supplied alcohol and cocaine to the 15-year-old.
He claimed at trial that he didn’t remember the 25-year-old escort who he tackled and raped after she only agreed to a striptease.
He was acquitted of raping an 18-year-old who placed a personal ad that said she was lonely and wanted to meet men.
Leistiko almost seemingly bragged about all the sex he had through craigslist. I wonder how many of those alleged conquests were victims who didn’t come forward.
He’s looking at 26 years.
Woman Pleads Guilty To Prostitution:
27-year-old Amy Marie Haynes of Yankton (heh heh) South Dakota pleaded guilty to being a craigslist hooker. She was busted in Sioux Falls by local police who were conducting a craigslist sting.
Amy Marie Haynes says she was desperate for money, adding that the arrest has ruined her life.
Maybe she should have thought of that before pimping herself out on craigslist.
She got five days and a $300 fine.
Bellevue man charged with rape:
Authorities believe that 27-year-old Sasidhar Vanapalli of Bellevue Washington by way of India is responsible for the rapes of two craigslist escorts.
Police believe that Vanapalli posed as a police officer to force the women into having sex with him.
Since Vanapalli is an Indian national prosecutors have requested that his passport be seized.
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