Posted on 03/24/2008 9:55:48 AM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Oregon man's property ransacked after Craigslist hoax
Monday, March 24, 2008
Associated Press
JACKSONVILLE, Ore. -- A pair of hoax ads on Craigslist cost an Oregon man much of what he owned.
The ads popped up Saturday afternoon, saying the owner of a Jacksonville home was forced to leave the area suddenly and his belongings, including a horse, were free for the taking, said Jackson County sheriff's Detective Sgt. Colin Fagan.
But Robert Salisbury had no plans to leave. The independent contractor was at Emigrant Lake when he got a call from a woman who had stopped by his house to claim his horse.
(Excerpt) Read more at kgw.com ...
Whoever placed the ad has to know the owner. The owner probably could provide the police with a short list of suspects.
CL allows for people to flag and down-rate suspicious ads. I guess there weren’t enough people to stop this person from inciting theft.
Give me a break. Your 'analogy' is like comparing apples and oranges.
So we should never trust that anything being sold on any website is valid, and operators of websites are absolved of any responsibility for ensuring that what is on their sites is valid.
Got it.
>>Verify with who? The person who posted the ad, or the operator of the website?<<
Let me answer with a question. If you see an ad for free puppies on a bulletin board at your local restaurant, but there is no address or phone number, do you ask the restaurant manager where the puppies are?
Answer: He is likely to say, “I never look at that thing. It is just a community service I provide for my customers to buy and sell stuff. But if you see anything there that offends or there is no contact information, feel free to remove it.”
Come to think of it, if there is no contact info in an ad, here is what Craigslist posts in it:
“No contact info? if the poster didn’t include a phone number, email, or other contact info, craigslist can notify them via email.”
But it doesn’t say the poster will contact anybody back. Or that the email is not an anonymous hotmail account, etc.
Neither have I. But many people that have been 'taken' by scams had follow up communication. Apparently, you are saying that the operators of websites have no responsibility to ensure that what is posted on their sites is valid. On that we disagree.
If I rent a car from avis and use it to go to and get away from a bank robbery should avis be responsible because they made money off me?
Oh, please. That's a very poor effort at making an analogy. A better analogy would be for you to make arrangements to rent a car on Orbitz, then find out the car rental company was nothing but a scam, and that they were renting stolen cars. Who is responsible in that case? Does Orbitz bear any responsibility for making sure that companies who rent cars to consumers through them are validly operating firms? Or do you hold the person who rented the stolen car responsible for not knowing the car was stolen?
Guess we disagree on that. That is like saying Orbitz has no responsibility for making sure the car rental firms on their site are valid companies.
Sure, as soon as you give me yours so I can hunt you down like a dog when I return. ;)
Surf a neighborhood for an unsecured wireless network.
Anyone who’s used CL knows that it’s plastered wall-to-wall with disclaimers and scam warnings. It would be very difficult for a literate person not to get the message that they need to do all the vetting themselves.
I would ask the restaurant manager if he/she had any other information, yes. In this particular case, the people knew where the puppies were, so to speak.
“I never look at that thing. It is just a community service I provide for my customers to buy and sell stuff. But if you see anything there that offends or there is no contact information, feel free to remove it.”
If there were something criminal on the bulletin board, and it came to my attention, I would approach the manager and let him/her know in no uncertain terms that, since the bulletin board is in his/her restaurant, I would expect him/her to keep tabs on what is posted on it. If he/she doesn't have time for that, then the bulletin board should be removed.
>>So you’d prosecute those who trusted that the ad had been vetted by the operators of Craig’s list?<<
That is a “Is it true you’ve stopped beating your wife?” question.
What exactly should they have trusted? Where did Craigslist say the ad had been vetted by the operators of CL. You cannot trust a statement that was never made. Rather, Craigslist is VERY clear that the ads are NOT vetted by CL: Any moron knows that before you complete a transaction on CL (or even from a newspaper ad, for crying out loud) you confirm the other party is legit. After all, what does a newspaper ad vet, other than to be sure they can contact the person running the ad. And even that can be faked easily enough.
Folks, snap out of it. Seriously. The implications of actually holding Craigslist responsible go far beyond CL. They go to the heart of the freedoms we all enjoy. Those freedoms come with risk, which is exactly what the liberals and socialists want to remove. Life is risk. People are killed by drunk drivers every single day, but we all still drive. Individual freedom (the strongest pillar upon which this constitutional republic was built) and the responsibility and accountability that comes with it, is being directly attacked by those who feel CL holds ANY responsibility in this. It is really that simple.
CL is the gun in a robbery; the beer in a dui death, the car in any other traffic fatality; the bathtub in a death due to slipping in a bathtub.
Do you really want to go there?
CL makes money only off of “jobs” ads. Test it for yourself - it’s all free except for that one section.
>>Whoever placed the ad has to know the owner. The owner probably could provide the police with a short list of suspects.<<
Yup again. And the type of person who does this is probably not bright enough to cover their tracks. Either that, or they didn’t think it would be SERIOUS enough to cover their traks. If they were young enough, it probably never crossed their mind that someone would ACTUALLY take anything.
> ** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY -— AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
> ** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
> ** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
> ** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html
I’m pretty sure their butts are covered. This gets attached to every message that gets sent through their system.
“Yup, back in the day when the cops walked in the bar you could hear a half dozen guns hit the floor.Back when a handshake really did mean something or meant nothing at all.If you ever heard the song Colorado Koolade, there was a lot more truth in that song than most people know.Been there, done that and I don’t care to relive it but wouldn’t take anything for the memories.”
I was fortunate enough to be able to start my 21 year old adult life at age 17, when I started hitting the bars and had an account at the liqueur store.
The Texas bar scene was all over the city, but for me Airline drive and the Third Ward really hit the sweet spot for consistent adventures.
>>A better analogy would be for you to make arrangements to rent a car on Orbitz, then find out the car rental company was nothing but a scam, and that they were renting stolen cars.<<
That model is utterly different from CL. It is actually 180 degrees different.
As I have said in other posts, the CL model is the bulleting board in a store or restaurant with business cards and ads. And should be treated as such - by those posting ads and those answering ads.
Caveot emptor.
>>Apparently, you are saying that the operators of websites have no responsibility to ensure that what is posted on their sites is valid.<<
If their business model is like CL, then the answer is a resounding YES.
>>But many people that have been ‘taken’ by scams had follow up communication.<<
If that is true, they really ARE dumb. But that is not the sites fault:
http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html
This is posted at the top of every category. “There’s a sucker born every minute. And two to take him.” I do not want to live in a rubber padded world that eliminates all normal, rational human being’s freedoms to protect a few suckers that are gonna be suckers no matter what.
MEGoody, the law doesn’t agree with you.
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