Sick Babies Denied Treatment Thanks To Patents

Small Business Owners Track Down Dumb Criminals Online

from the you-can-run-but-you-can't-hide dept

Wed, Dec 3rd 2008 10:35am — Blaise Alleyne

Looks like cops aren't the only ones looking online for evidence of crime. Just in the past week, we've seen two stories of small businesses using the web to do some detective work of their own. Canadian retailers in Cape Breton are hiring loss preventional specialists who are making use of social networking tools to track down shoplifters, finding dumb criminals bragging about items they've stolen on YouTube and then using Facebook to help identify the thieves. When a shoplifter has been identified, that information is shared with other members in the retail association who may choose to block that person from their stores. One of the mall owners interviewed also notes in the comments that Facebook is especially useful in checking for potential accomplices (friends who were there at the time of the theft). Despite the effectiveness of using the internet as a crime fighting tool, politicians elsewhere have been trying to get evidence of crime removed from YouTube even though it helps police -- and now retailers -- to catch dumb criminals.

The second story involves an Australian restaurant owner who tracked down bill dodgers using Facebook. The group of five diners stepped outside for a smoke and never returned after racking up a bill of $340 USD. Restaurant staff recalled that one of the diners had inquired about a former waitress when the group arrived. They contacted the waitress, searched a few names on Facebook and came across a profile belonging to one of the diners, who was pictured with his girlfriend (also in the group). Facebook showed that they worked at a restaurant down the street. They contacted the manager and, within hours, the diner returned to pay the bill (along with a generous tip and an apology). Later, the restaurant was notified that the man and his girlfriend had both been fired. No criminal charges were filed.

Whether it's dumb criminals who can't resist bragging or sloppy criminals giving away clues to their identity, the web makes it a lot easier for law enforcement and victims to track them down.

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Filed Under: criminals, social networks

7 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 3 Dec 2008 @ 11:39am

nice job on to the Canucks and the Aussies.

concerning:
"politicians elsewhere have been trying to get evidence of crime removed from YouTube even though it helps police."

Im assuming that said politicians do not want ppl to know that there is crime in the communities they are "related" to its kind of an ostridge syndrome
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- Anonymous Coward, 3 Dec 2008 @ 11:50am
  
  Re:
  The rationale that I've heard is that they don't want "impressionable youth" exposed to material that glorifies or otherwise promotes illegal activity. If said youths were to see such material they would obviously think that such behavior was "cool" and acceptable ("Look, all the other kids are doing it!") and would do the same themselves.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 3 Dec 2008 @ 2:26pm
    
    Re: Re:
    So replace the video with the same video but add a new ending showing them getting arrested or stating that they were arrested. Problem solved
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- Anonymous Coward, 3 Dec 2008 @ 3:18pm
  
  Re:
  It's ostrich, not ostridge, you maroon.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Dec 2008 @ 12:11pm

GREAT! Then all the kids would do it, and then brag about it online, and then get caught, and then have to pay some form of consequence, thus teaching the little cherubs that there ARE consequences to actions. Something the banks, stockbrokers, and automobile CEO's never learned as children.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Dec 2008 @ 12:50pm

I get sick of hearing about impressionable youth. I grew up around gangs, guns, knives, violence, drugs. Kids fresh out of puberty were having sex under bridges that were not one city block away from school. (It was a very dry region so there was rarely water under the bridge unless it rained and it was all poured concrete) I played Doom and other violent and sexual video games during my "formative" years. And here I am with no criminal record with a mortgage and a car I actually own.
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Buck, 3 Dec 2008 @ 1:41pm

Bothersome
This assumes that the bragging is about an actual crime committed. Authorities and employers often forget that the online world can be much different than the real world.
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