CSI: Craig's List, Victims Strike Back At Thieves And Online Scammers

An excellent article from the Oregonian detailing how a few victims recovered stolen items from online scammers on Craig's List, eBay and other sites. Good Job!

CSI: Craigslist

Vigilant crime victims are using crooks' own e-tools against them

Friday, May 04, 2007

Ten or 15 years ago, if somebody broke into your house and took a bicycle or a bunch of compact discs or a utility trailer or a child's coat, odds are you'd never see them again. You might go to the trouble of posting fliers about your lost property or visiting pawnshops, but you knew it was unlikely that you'd be able to recapture what was yours.

But these days, newspapers such as this one routinely carry stories about savvy victims who become online detectives, hunting -- and sometimes recovering -- property stolen from them and listed for sale on various online marketplaces.

Two stories in The Oregonian this week show how crime and recovery have been altered by the advent of anywhere-in-the-world, anytime-of-day marketplaces. .

In one example, a Washington County mom grew suspicious when she found a listing on eBay for a $114 coat exactly like the one her daughter lost or had stolen at school the day before. The mom noticed that the listing was posted by a frequent seller who claimed to be from Hillsboro and had the same name as a teacher at her daughter's school. She alerted police, who charged the teacher with the theft. The coat was recovered at the school, in shreds. The teacher told police she found it in the lost and found, took it home to sell online, but her dog chewed it up. Her court date is today.

The day before, The Oregonian detailed the elaborate sting arranged by a man whose bike was taken from a Pearl District sidewalk last month. He found an identical bike listed for sale on Craigslist, contacted the seller and arranged to meet so he could ostensibly buy (back) the bike. Unbeknown to the seller, the man had enlisted five friends who acted as lookouts at the scene. They used spoken code phrases and hand signals to communicate with each other and to delay the man until police could arrest him. The victim, Dory Van Fleet, got his bike back.

Other recent stories have detailed the case of the serial trailer thieves who sold as many as five trailers a day online, the Portland family accused of stealing goods from Target and Nordstrom, then selling them on Craigslist, and the case of alert Best Buy employees who saw stolen merchandise proffered on eBay.

These cases demonstrate that the Web is an equal-opportunity tool of empowerment. While online sales outlets give thieves an unprecedented ability to fence stolen property, they also enhance the ability of victims and police to track them down.

And for victims, that beats sitting at home and hoping the phone will ring.

OregonLive