Are you kidding me???

[CbrGirl]

People looted man's house based on Craig's list ad.

http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2008/03/24/craigslist_free_ad/index.html?source=rss&aim=/tech/machinist/blog?source=yahoo

[Disclaimer]

Link doesn't work, but I'm assuming you're talking about the guy in Oregon...

"Man finds house ransacked after Craigslist hoax

An Oregon man lost all his possessions - including his horse - after a hoax ad appeared on the listings site Craigslist"

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3626027.ece

Yea, it's Srsly messed up. But, believe it or not, this isn't the first time. This is a link from April 2007 (Tacoma, Washington)...same idea.

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/04/05/craigslist-hoax-ad-l.html

[CbrGirl]

Yes same story.

My link works now. My bad.

[yotaman88210]

Damn!! thats crazy!!!

[Chrome]

WOW that sucks

[r6allstar]

I smell a Craigslist lawsuit... thats what I would do at least, fuck em.

[Disclaimer]

I smell a Craigslist lawsuit... thats what I would do at least, fuck em.

I'll take your comment at face value, since you really didn't explain yourself, but that sentiment reminds me what's wrong with so many people today. The answer to problems shouldn't just default to "Lawsuit".

Besides, why is it Craigslist's fault? Just like this site, there's nothing stopping me from posting my neighbors address on craigslist and telling everyone on here that there's free stuff for the taking. You can't expect a free classified ad site (or forum like ohio-riders.net) to police the validity of everyone's postings.

Even if Satan, BornSinner, or CBRGirl did identity verification on here, how many people would use this board if they had to give out personal details about their life? It ends up being more hassle than it's worth if everyone had to verify who they were before posting - thus defeating the purpose to have a easy, free, way to gather people who ride in Ohio. Same goes for Craigslist, and suing them in this instance isn't the solution to the problem - they had no malice in providing the service.

I would agree that whoever posted that fake ad however should be prosecuted and civil damages persued. But, like everything in life, it's hard to squeeze blood from a turnip. You sue some deadbeat loser with nothing - you'll still end up with nothing. You're better off saving the lawyer fees.

[Benyen Soljax]

I'll take your comment at face value, since you really didn't explain yourself, but that sentiment reminds me what's wrong with so many people today. The answer to problems shouldn't just default to "Lawsuit".

Besides, why is it Craigslist's fault? Just like this site, there's nothing stopping me from posting my neighbors address on craigslist and telling everyone on here that there's free stuff for the taking. You can't expect a free classified ad site (or forum like ohio-riders.net) to police the validity of everyone's postings.

Even if Satan, BornSinner, or CBRGirl did identity verification on here, how many people would use this board if they had to give out personal details about their life? It ends up being more hassle than it's worth if everyone had to verify who they were before posting - thus defeating the purpose to have a easy, free, way to gather people who ride in Ohio. Same goes for Craigslist, and suing them in this instance isn't the solution to the problem - they had no malice in providing the service.

I would agree that whoever posted that fake ad however should be prosecuted and civil damages persued. But, like everything in life, it's hard to squeeze blood from a turnip. You sue some deadbeat loser with nothing - you'll still end up with nothing. You're better off saving the lawyer fees.

and that concludes the sermon today. thank you reverend JRMmii.

[Casper]

I can tell you that if someone does something illegal on here, the police will come to me for their IP addresses, account names, emails addys, copy of posts, etc and I will comply. Been there, done that on another forum. They wanted to take the server. We told them to fuck off and we'd give them any data they wanted. No fucking way they were taking the server.

So, to further respond, yes legal action can most certainly be taken. Nothing is anonymous online.

But I agree, suing craigslist is retarded. Going after whoever made the post is more acceptable.

[NinjaNick]

I've never went to this craigslist site before. I'm going to check it out.

[Disclaimer]

I can tell you that if someone does something illegal on here, the police will come to me for their IP addresses, account names, emails addys, copy of posts, etc and I will comply. Been there, done that on another forum. They wanted to take the server. We told them to fuck off and we'd give them any data they wanted. No fucking way they were taking the server.

So, to further respond, yes legal action can most certainly be taken. Nothing is anonymous online.

Granted, I've never had any run ins with the law (save for my couple of tickets and not-at-fault accident), so I don't have much experience on the subject like Satan, but...

I run a different forum myself (though much much smaller than this one), and while I agree that data mining for information can be done, there are ways around that too. While my account on here is a bad example since I tend to use this 7-letter callsign everywhere, there would be nothing stopping me from signing up with some totally off the wall name that means nothing to nobody, thus anonymizing myself. E-mail addresses can be created and thrown away on a moments notice, again for anonymity. Verbiage in the posts probably won't help you find someone because they rarely list their REAL address. The IP location would be your best bet, but the wrong assumption there is static IPs, which not everything is. AOL dialup uses dynamic IPs that you could trace to a general area, but not pinpoint. Even if you have my IP logged (using me as an example again), most of my pings to this site would be from my employer. Given there's almost 500 computer users with internet at my employer, good luck pinpointing me (assuming I clear my cache and whatnot on my computer). Yea, my employer has a log that I accessed the site, but I'm not sure if their logging algorithm is sophisticated enough to pinpoint my port and access location. What if I logon with a guest account in a conference room? Unless I'm hopping from porn-site to porn-site on worktime, I bet the log is cleared on a rotating basis. There are also proxy sites out there to anonymize your IP and on and on and on.

There are a couple other factors in play here too. First, the internet criminal would have to be smart enough to completely anonymize himself (including setting up accounts, access locations, etc) and have his crime completely thought out and executed in his head prior to actually pulling it off. But, the major factor being the extent of the crime and the effort it takes law enforcement to extract the information. I'm sure theres no locktight way to completely anonymize yourself (like Satan says), but it's only got to be airtight enough for law enforcement to give up (i.e. misdemeanor cases). The cops aren't going to waste time lookng for a needle in a haystack when you're missing a few lawnchairs.

I'm pretty sure they could extract the IP of the poster of that ad in Oregon, but that IP could lead to another roadblock, and another until the cops say "f*&k it, this guys out a few miscellaneous items, his insurance will handle it, there's bigger fish to fry" and just drop the search.

I'm sure all you people that've had shit stolen from their vehicles and then made a police report know what that's like.

[Benyen Soljax]

I've never went to this craigslist site before. I'm going to check it out.

dont forget to check out the personals!!!

but seriously i got my bike from craigslist. turns out i knew the guy too.

[kawi kid]

dats shitty...........

[2insanezx10r]

Thats tooooo bad.....

[r6allstar]

I am just saying that it is probably the only way that guy is going to get any of his shit back.. and I dont blame him for doing it if he does, although it is quite a stretch. In retrospect I guess a lot worse shit has happened b/c of sites like this and nothing happened then. So I guess it would be a waste of time.