Man loses everything in Craigslist hoax
/v3-uk/news/1993093/man-loses-craigslist-hoax
25 Mar 2008, Iain Thomson , V3
An Oregon man has lost nearly all his possessions after a bogus advert on Craigslist offered the contents of his house for free.
Two posts appeared on the site on 22 March stating that Robert Salisbury, an independent contractor, was leaving the area at short notice and was giving away the contents of his house along with his horse.
The first Salisbury knew about it was when he received a call from a woman who had come to pick up his horse.
As he returned home he stopped a truck which contained his work ladders, lawn mower and weed eater. Salisbury told the occupants of the truck of the mistake but they refused to give back his property and drove off.
"I informed them I was the owner, but they refused to give the stuff back," Salisbury told Associated Press.
"They showed me the Craigslist printout and told me they had the right to do what they did."
When Salisbury got to his house he found around 30 people rummaging through his home looking for things to take. Again he told them that the advert was a hoax but again they refused to accept his word.
"They honestly thought that because it appeared on the internet it was true, " he said. "It boggles the mind."
Local police are in contact with Craigslist to find out who posted the advert and are checking several licence plate numbers of looters that Salisbury noted down.
Any items can be returned "no questions asked" but police said that prosecutions will follow if people fail to do so.
This is not the first time that Craigslist has been used improperly. A woman posted a similar advert about her aunt's house last year, while police have busted a prostitut ion ring and an arranged marriage scam on the site.
Do you agree?
looting...
It is rare in these tough times that we find something for free...but almost impossible that everything is free. Criagslist should implement a simple verbal pass key code that is emailed to the owner and implied verification of the verbal pass code repeated at receipt. In questionable situations no passcode verification should be considered looting. No questions asked.
Posted by Dan, 26 Mar 2008
Shut Down Craigslist
Shut down the site. It has caused too many problems. In Korea to log onto the net you have to enter your national id # and so when someone does something illegal on the net it is easy to trace it back.
Posted by Josh, 28 Mar 2008
haha...very funny...not
I would've started shooting...right to bear arms...protect your home. US second admendment
Posted by Joe, 25 Mar 2008
What has this world come to?
How awful for this poor man. The people who refused to return his belongings should be ashamed of themselves and hopefully they will all face charges, for what this man does not get returned I hope the poster is charged and has to pay for it. What an awful awful horrible thing. May God have mercy on you all, bless this man for not beating you all down as he watched his life being toted away in your pick up trucks! You awful people.
Posted by anonymouse, 26 Mar 2008
He brought it upon himself
He did it as a hoax. What did he expect? It's his own fault.
He put it online, and people have the document to prove it. How foolish is that! Craigslist gets abused enough as it is, and he goes and does this?
What made him think by placing a lie in an advertisement people were going to believe the truth? He wanted to lie to see what the results were; he got it.
If you cry wolf, that's what's you get.
Posted by Anonymous, 28 May 2010