Thursday, May 26, 2011

Facebook is not a Friend of Bank Robbery Suspects

The news media have been reporting about some people who used the social media Facebook to take advantage of other people.

There were stories about young girls who were abducted or seduced by their male friends whom they met in Facebook, there were other stories about people losing money because they deal with the people they met in Facebook, etc.

However, there were also good stories about Facebook, for example an article by Paula Martersteck in Legal Blog Watch tells us about two bank robbery cases in the U.S whose suspects were arrested by the Police based on information available in Facebook.

In the first case, two bank tellers and their acquaintances were indicted this month in connection with a Texas bank robbery that netted US$ 62,000.00.

Investigators determined that the robbery was an inside job in part because of an anonymous Crime Stoppers tip that led them to two suspects' Facebook pages.

Two days prior to the bank robbery, one of the tellers posted a Facebook status update that read: "Get $$$." And two days after the crime, she posted, "I M RICH".

Meanwhile, the teller's boyfriend, who is apparently prone to similar celebratory online outbursts, allegedly posted the day after the robbery: "WIPE MY TEETH WITH HUNDEREDS." 

In the second case, a Michigan man was indicted after an informant told the FBI about the suspect's Facebook account, which was registered under the name of  "Anthony Mrshowoff Wilson."

According to U.S Federal Court records, Wilson's Facebook photos show him wearing attire (some with Polo emblems) that matches the clothing worn by the suspect in at least two bank robberies.

Facebook gave Wilson's birth date, cell phone number, photos, messages and friends information to the FBI, which compared the Facebook photos to images taken from a bank surveillance video.

This is a good news, and I hope that Facebook will keep on supporting our society in the future.

18 comments:

Meutia Halida Khairani said...

i remember a story. a friend of mine lost her brother. and i suggest to identify his place using ubertwitter. because when he lost, he always update his status and uber twitter identify where he was. just copy place and paste into google map and she found him..
thanks to twitter also. :D

Unknown said...

Hi Meutia,
Yes I remember reading your post,
it was good and informative.
Facebook and Twitter have really given us lots of things beside friendship, silatutahmi etc.

TUKANG CoLoNG said...

begitulah facebook pak. bagai 2 mata pedang. bisa jadi teman, bisa lawan..

Unknown said...

TUKANG CoLoNG,
Sebenarnya dalam hidup ini semua ada sisi baik dan buruk. Karena itu kita harus selalu berhati-hati.

Unknown said...

It has positives to go with the negatives.

Unknown said...

Peter/Kiwi,
Yeah just like other things in life.

Unknown said...

saya sudah menduga kasus demi kasus akan bermunculan di facebook.
maka sejak beberapa bulan yang lalu. mulai saya kurangi Ol si Fb..

colson said...

These amateur criminals may not really be the smartest representatives of their profession.
Yet even if the social media may only help to bust the stupidest members of the crime force, it still is good news.

attayaya-mading said...

begitulah...
dapat bermanfaat
dapat berbahaya

Mushfique said...

Excellent!! I always heard of those stories such as girls being kidnapped, people tricked and all. But this news is definitely a good one!!
But on the other hand, this will alert all the other criminals not to share the infos and everything. So sometimes i believe, news such as this must be kept secret!

sawali tuhusetya said...

ada yang bilang, blog dan jejaring sosial (termasuk fb) bisa menjadipilar ke-5 demokrasi setelah eksekutif, legislatif, yudikatif, dan pers, mas harry. asalkan, memang dimanfaatkan secara benar sbg alat kontrol yang kritis.

Jolly Princess said...

Nice post Harry. :)

Anything can happen online. It is just up to our judgement to be wary of some people we invite on our site.

Setyo-Utomo Said said...

Be careful ! Crimes are everywhere.

Unknown said...

@Wisata Murah,
Saya juga begitu, kegiatan online saya berpusat pada blog ini, lalu direlay ke FB dan Twitter.

@Colson,
The good thing is FB has shown that it doesn't tolerate bank roberry.

@Attayaya-Mading,
Oleh sebab kita kita harus hati2.

@Ibucketbot,
At least the bad guys would not be so arrogant.

@Sawali,
Saya setuju dengan anda mas Sawali. Tentunya semua berpulang pada masing2 individu.

@JP,
Yes we should select who we invite as friends in FB.

@Utomo,
Yes pak we must be careful.

Flameheart said...

I think it's great that Facebook can also be used as a tool to get criminals. There are good and bad parts to anything I guess, and Facebook is no exception.
I'm now following you on Google friend connect; thanks for following me. Have a great weekend! :D

Unknown said...

Heart,
Everything in life has its own good and bad.

r10 said...

aku juga pernah baca seorang dokter mendiagnosis seorang anak menderita leukimia dari foto facebook

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3445628/Doc-spots-4-year-old-boys-leukaemia-from-his-picture-on-Facebook.html

Unknown said...

@R10,
Ini informasi yang sangat bagus dan perlu disebar luaskan. Terima kasih