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FBI To Use Ad Banners to Find Criminals

Posted by chrisd on from the flash-popups-to-follow dept.

PhuptDuck writes "Federal authorities are pursuing fugitive crime boss James 'Whitey' Bulger in cyber space under a first-of-its kind agreement announced Wednesday between the FBI and Web portal Terra-Lycos. With a presence in 42 countries and in 19 languages, Terra Lycos is known for the worldwide scope of its Web presence."

7 of 241 comments (clear)

  1. Does anyone actually look at them? by jonman_d · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I know I sure don't. I have most of them blocked, anyway.

    What's next, the government spamming us with wanted posters and ASCII pictures? Why don't they invest money in a medium which people actually pay attention to? See: Television Advertisements.

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    http://nemilar.net - Not your grandmother's soup kitchen
    1. Re:Does anyone actually look at them? by tomzyk · · Score: 5, Interesting
      See: Television Advertisements.

      Not just advertisements... actual SHOWS. "America's Most Wanted" already does this. They put criminals faces on TV and the general public can watch the show and be constantly on the lookout for the criminals. From time-to-time (from what I understand... I don't actually watch the show) they put the FBI most wanted list on the screen too. I believe they also have the top 10 most wanted on their website as well.

      Television is a great medium to get this information out to the public! So is the internet. BUT, the good thing about TV is that if you don't want to watch it, you can turn it OFF. If they continue this activity with making deals with internet companies and put pop-ups/banners on everyone's screens, it just going to end up making a lot of people upset.

      If you want to get the info out, just put up a website. Internet ads are not necessary.
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  2. Great Idea by kcroke · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well, first we must all be happy that web advertisement might do some good.

    People all over the world use Lycos. No matter where someone is, there will probably be someone near by who uses the internet. By making it as easy to report to the FBI as clicking a button, they should get results. Since it's over the internet, the reporter may feel more anonymous sending in a report.

    The downside would be false reports. There will probably be more false FBI criminal sitings then elvis sitings...

  3. Bulgar takes the fifth by SpinyNorman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What's really interesting about this isn't that the FBI is using banner ads, but rather why they have to...

    The guy they're seeking, #10 on the most wanted list, and suspected of 21 murders, is the brother of the president of the University of Massachusetts, who just plead the 5th to keep his dear brother safe.

    Bulgar takes the fifth

    Great to see the head of an institute of learning take such a principled stand. Not.

  4. White noise, anyone? by privacyt · · Score: 4, Interesting
    From the article: ''It might simply be a clerk in a grocery store bagging groceries, goes home that night, gets on the Internet and says, 'you know, I think I saw that person bagging groceries today,''' U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said during a news conference in Boston on Wednesday morning.

    Given that Bulger looks like most other balding white men in their 50s, the FBI may get thousands of false leads now. I also feel sorry for American expatriates living in Latin America, who will be faced with having to "prove" they aren't a fugitive.

    Bulger, if he's smart (which is probably is), would have radically altered his appearance so that he no longer resembles the wanted poster.

    All a criminal investigator really can do is sit back, be patient, and wait for the criminal to make a mistake. If Bulger ever calls his brother or an old friend or girlfriend on Christmas, for example, he's busted.

    This wanted poster thing smacks of desperation on the FBI's part, which I'm sorry to see.

  5. Re:The FBI doesn't want to find Bulger by ceo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Bulger wasn't the boss of the local Mafia, if that's what you mean by "the Boston mob". He was boss of a mostly-Irish gang unrelated to the Mafia, but was in a position to give the FBI lots of information on them. The Boston FBI office got a wee bit overzealous in their pursuit of the Mafia, and pretty much gave Bulger and his gang free reign in order to protect this valuable informant, to the point of obstructing state investigations of him and tipping him off in 1995 that he was about to be indicted, enabling him to flee.

  6. probably still in southie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I lived in south boston in '96/97 while going to college in the city. I had the misfortune of getting mixed up with some of the local kids. I found out one kid's dad was a drug dealer and he mentioned that his dad worked for whitey. I knew at the time that he was underground, so jokingly I asked "have you ever met whitey?" not expecting to get much of an answer. He just looked at me and totally nonchalantly said "I just had Thanksgiving dinner with him" (this took place in dec '96) So he's probably still holed up in some church basement in southie.