Dear Robert and list; So is this anyone that we know...posse or the hunted? Best Tucson wishes, Oh, gasp, isn't it about time to update the Tucson list again? Dave F.
Robert Verish wrote: >FROM: LA Times - January 24, 2002 - High Tech Section > >"Rounding Up a Posse" - A bad EBay auction experience >spurs an ad hoc Internet manhunt by ordinary folk, >who, like frontier vigilantes, find themselves >skirting the law in their quest for justice. > >By CHRISTINE FREY, TIMES STAFF WRITER > >The posse dogging an online auction seller seized >control of his e-mail account, grilled his mother and >even assumed his identity in a nationwide hunt for a >man they believe swindled as much as $125,000 from >buyers through fraudulent Internet auctions. > >The members of this squad are not federal agents, >police detectives or even private investigators. They >are salespeople and investment advisors and registered >nurses who say they were bilked online by the >35-year-old Arizona man and used the Internet to track >him down. > >Like a modern vigilance committee, the 50 or so people >from Florida to Alaska seized the community-building >power of the World Wide Web both to prompt and to >preempt investigation by legitimate law enforcement >agencies. Although most have never met, members of the >group swapped information daily on a Web site and >divided up investigative duties--most of which also >were carried out online. > >Such a rapid, wide-ranging response by ordinary people >would have been virtually impossible just a decade >ago, before the Internet gave anyone with a cheap >dial-up account instant access to e-mail and massive >public databases. > >They are growing increasingly common, particularly in >the realm of online gaming, where players gang up to >mete out punishment to miscreants. > >But like vigilante gangs of the American frontier, ad >hoc communities seeking justice on the electronic >frontier sometimes trample the very laws they seek to >enforce, as their quest for justice warps into a plot >for revenge. > >[For the complete article, go to ><http://www.latimes.com/technology/printedition/la-000006012jan24.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dpe%2Dtechnology>] > >__________________________________________________ >Do You Yahoo!? >Great stuff seeking new owners in Yahoo! Auctions! >http://auctions.yahoo.com > >______________________________________________ >Meteorite-list mailing list >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list > > ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
