Harassment

Fake ads on Web site make woman a target:

Complete craigslist anonymity strikes again.

A woman by the name of Amber from Atlanta, Ga. had a harassing ad posted about her on craigslist. It wasn’t your typical ‘for a good time call’ type harassment either.

Her name, address, and phone number were listed on the ad that said she was into rape fantasies. To make matters worse the ad said for guys to just come on in and ’start the fantasy’. So whoever took out the ad was hoping she would get raped.

Not only did she receive phone calls and text messages about the ad but she said she also had guys showing up at her house with some of them trying to get in.

I don’t know which is scarier, the ad itself or the guys who actually believed it and tried getting into her house.

Teen falls victim to Internet harassment:

This is an article about a teenage girl from Las Vegas who shared too much personal information about herself on the internet. Then some scummy 23-year-old guy used it to post an ad on craigslist saying how much she likes kinky sex.

It’s too much teenage drama for me to recap. Just read it as a cautionary tale on why you shouldn’t post your personal info on the internet.

Cops bust Realtor over raunchy dirty trick:
Mr. Bug-eyed Potato Head over there is 40-year-old Dean Isenberg. He’s a Miami area real estate agent. He was arrested last week for posting phony hooker ads on craigslist that listed the phone number of his top rival, Debbie Blasberg. I originally posted about the Miami real estate wars here at MyCrimeSpace back in July.

At the time police did not have enough evidence to charge Isenberg but apparently that has changed.

Miami-Dade Detective John Jones, of the Intracoastal station, also began investigating.

Nine of the 26 ads came back to an IP address that belonged to Isenberg. Investigators believe the rest of the ads had been done by laptop, accessing other people’s wireless Internet service.

In June, Jones raided Isenberg’s North Miami-Dade house, carting away computers.

”There is always a little bit of a trail. A little crumb and we were able to follow it back enough to get search warrants,” Jones said.

Investigators found ‘various portions’ of the ads on his hard drive, including the photos of scantily clad women, Jones said.

Isenberg is being charged with four counts of using personal information to harass and one count of using a computer in committing a crime. No word yet on what the potential sentencing could be.

‘I just didn’t expect this kind of violation’:
Harassment is stating to become such a regular theme with craigslist that I may have to give it its own category.

This time it’s a woman from Tacoma, Washington who is feeling the wrath of an ex-employee that she fired. The harrasor (is that a word?) took the usual route of posting a pic of the harassee on craigslist along with several phone numbers advertising what can be called “a good time”.

The calls to her work phone and a strange man’s voice telling her, “hope you’re having a good day and look forward to hearing back from you.” And the calls to her work phone: “I just replied to your e-mail and uhhhhh, calling this number…” and messages via e-mail.

And then, strangers started calling her personal cell phone and home phone. “At that point,” said Ann, “it became personal.”

Ann and her husband discovered the men were responding to an ad on the Craigslist Web site. It said she was a single female looking for sex with a couple. The ad even included Ann’s photograph taken from her company website.

A friend of mine and his wife used to have a phone number that was one digit off from one of these ads. After a while instead of telling people they got the wrong number they just started messing with the people calling. You need to not freak out over these things. What I would have done in this situation is since I know who placed the ad I would tell the men calling to meet me at the following address. Then I would give the address of the ex-employee who placed the ad. Problem solved.

Craigslist, helping people gain revenge since 1995.

Woman Harassed By Online Ads:
An unidentified Baltimore woman had her phone number listed on craigslist on three separate ads that she didn’t place. One for a room for rent, one for a free TV, and another for a free Playstation. Craigslist removed the ads each time but won’t do anything to keep her number from being posted again.

Again, craigslist removed the ad, but refused to divulge any information about who posted it without a subpoena or search warrant.

Police weren’t much help either.

“They basically told me I would have to identify the person to move forward with a harassment case. My point was that I don’t know who the person is. I need their help,” she said.

After contacting craigslist again the calls finally stopped. What is the woman’s opinion of craigslist?

“What upset me most is that craigslist took absolutely no responsibility,” the woman said.

They never do.

Woman Targeted By Fake Craigslist Ad Offering Sex:
A woman by the name of Rochelle from Mill Creek, Washington had an ad placed on craigslist with her picture and cell phone number advertising “erotic services”. The thing is Rochelle did not place the ad and is not a prostitute.

Whoever posted the ad used an image of Rochelle from her MySpace.com page alongside an image of an anonymous nude woman.

Rochelle’s MySpace page is set to private so she suspects whoever did this had access to her page and cell phone number and has access to someone she knows.

And yes, this is against the law…

In 2006 Congress passed a federal cyber-stalking law, and in 2004 the Washington State Legislature passed a similar state law after a Seattle woman was stalked online by an ex-boyfriend.

Again craigslist’s anonymity practices lead to criminal practices.

Craigslist Ad Leads To Hate Mail:
Even if you’re trying to use craigslist for charity you get harassed.

Leah Galindo’s brother David had to evacuate because of the Southern California wildfires. They lost everything. So Ms. Galindo decided to start up a charity drive for her brother’s family on craigslist. Did she get a wad of cash from good Samaritans? Of course not, this is craigslist we’re talking about.

“I got hate mail, saying that I was a scam artist and I’m trying to take advantage of the families,” said Galindo.

Galindo replied to every message by sending pictures of what used to be her brother’s home but because so many people complained, the Web site pulled her listing.

“I think how it’s really going to hurt the family who really are in need,” said Galindo.

She would have been better off using Facebook.