Tom Murphy links to a fantastic story about a creative bank robber who used Craigslist to recruit loads of people to act as decoys while he robbed a security truck.
“The robber had planned ahead. In case anyone was hot on his trail, he had at least a dozen unsuspecting decoys waiting nearby, which he recruited on Craigslist.”
The decoys were told to show up at a certain place and to wear a yellow vest, safety goggles, a respirator mask and, if possible, a blue shirt. After the robbery, the entire street was full of people who fit the description of the purpetrator who could flee without getting caught.
This reminded me of an incident that recently happened in my neighbourhood. A guy that wanted to sell his car put up an ad on one of the Swedish online trading sites with a photo of the car. One morning a day or two later, he discovered that the entire back wing of the car was missing. Someone had apparently been looking online for a car not too far away, of that exact model with that colour, checked the license plate to find the owner’s address and gone and dismantled the part. See, isn’t internet great?
I’m just waiting for reports of shrewd criminals that monitor Twitter, Jaiku or Facebook to see reports like “I’m going out of town for the weekend. Ciao” and use the information to break into some poor geek’s house. It wouldn’t take a genious, that’s for sure.