FBI To Use Ad Banners to Find Criminals

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."

Comments

Punch the terrorist ...

[Ezubaric]

and win a free wiretap!

Does anyone actually look at them?

[jonman_d]

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.

Re:Does anyone actually look at them?

[tomzyk]

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.

Re:Does anyone actually look at them?

[NeuroKoan]

Umm... don't forget that a majority of people don't know how to block banner ads. *AND* most people *do* look at banner ads, *and* click on them, *and* read them *and* freak out when they look like error messages.

Most people are *not* like you or me.

Re:Does anyone actually look at them?

[CaseyB]

*Many* people, especially *stupid* ones, think that their *statements* are more *important* when all the *words* are *surrounded* by *asterixes*.

"WHY ALL the CAPITALS?"

Ad Blocking

[kjd]

Now ad blocking is no longer just stealing, it's a violation of the good samaritan law. ;)

Re:Ad Blocking

[C0LDFusion]

I just want to add that people think "Good Samaritan Law" is where you are FORCED by law to help someone. However, in most states, the law is actually designed to protect the person who makes their own decision to help from malpractice suits.

Example: Someone gets into a car accident and you decide to help him. You pull him out of the car and bandage his wounds. The bandage material used whas not sterile and he gets an infection that kills him. Good Samaritan law prevents his family from suing you.

IANAL, but I've never heard of any law that forces you to help someone.

Attorneys and grammar

[sacremon]

"''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. "

Why would someone who is wanted for 21 murders be bagging groceries?

Re:Attorneys and grammar

[Dannon]

Why would someone who is wanted for 21 murders be bagging groceries?

The local fast food places aren't hiring?

Re:Attorneys and grammar

[Cruciform]

Because the CIA was in a hiring freeze when they applied?

Re:Attorneys and grammar

[DaveAtFraud]

The Dallas Cowboys don't have an opening on their roster?

If this banner is flashing...

[Anonymous Coward]

...you've won a free pardon! Click here!

Web Bugs?

[Bonker]

Heaven help you if your email address happens to begin with 'jbulger@' and you don't know enough to protect your cookies from being read by web bugs or your machine from spyware apps.

No, of course the FBI wouldn't stoop this far. Homeland security is completely benevolent and the United States is not... despite all appearances... turning into a police state controlled by wealthy resource and media industries.

CLICK HERE

[_ph1ux_]

It looks like your terrorist network is not optimized!!!!

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Manage your Cell Remotely, call in bomb threats via VOIP!, remotely detonate your operatives!!

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Lycos should come out with a new game...

[craenor]

based on this for their game site....Escape from Levenworth.

The FBI doesn't want to find Bulger

[swm]

The FBI doesn't want to find Bulger (his testimony would be too embarrasing), so they are posting wanted ads in a medium (web banner ads) that is known not to work.

It all makes sense.

Re:The FBI doesn't want to find Bulger

[e_lehman]

I'm ignorant, who is this guy and why would finding him be too embarrasing?

James Bulger was the leader of the Boston mob for quite a few years and, at the same time, an FBI informant. However, as it turns out, he was running his FBI handlers rather than the other way around. In effect, the FBI kept Bulger out of jail while he murdered and extorted merrily along for years. His main handler, fomer FBI agent John Connolly was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison. But plenty more FBI agents were involved. Futher complicating matters, James Bulger's brother-- William Bulger-- was the dictatorial ruler of the Massachusetts senate at the time and currently heads the state university system. In the last couple weeks, we've learned that William has been in touch with his fugitive brother and urged him NOT to turn himself in. William just recently took the 5th when forced to testify before Congress on the matter.

So this is a very messy case. Likely the FBI is using this initiative in part to dispel the notion that they don't really want to catch James Bulger for fear of further embarassment.

Re:The FBI doesn't want to find Bulger

[Spasemunki]

Whitey started life as a thug in South Boston's Winter Hill Gang, an Irish organized crime ring. He agreed to turn informant for the FBI in exchange for protection from prosecution and other favors. The FBI agents charged with handling his case were both enamored of him; one of them had grown up in Southie idolizing him as a local hero, and the other was following his bosses lead.

Whitey largely provided information of dubious value to the FBI, but his handlers continued to hype him as the most valuable informant in the Boston FBI system. They protected him from prosecution numerous times, and in at least one case refused to give any kind of warning to a witness that Whitey and his associates later killed. Bulger was shielded from multiple murder investigations, as well as a number of associated crimes.

Most importantly, most of the information that Whitey gave the Feds regarded the Italian mafia that was operating in Boston's North End at the time. The FBI moved in and largely wiped out the Italian Mafia- giving Whitey's Winter Hill gang the opportunity to take over all of Boston's organized crime. Whitey then systematically eliminated his rivals in Southie, and effectively made himself underworld king of Boston- with the FBI doing a lot of his dirty work, thanks to helpful "tips" regarding criminals that he wanted out of his way.

Finally, one of the FBI agents assigned to the case had an attack of conscience, and the whole story began to emerge. Whitey bolted, and no one has been able to find him since. The past several years in Boston, not a day goes by that there isn't a story about Whitey; sightings from Maine to Mexico, and periodic excavations of isolated fields where victims of his spree are allegedly buried. The scandal tore the Boston FBI office to pieces, and was one of the biggest black eyes that the Feds have received in recent years

And...?

[Hadean]

So they're buying Wanted posters which has been done a million times before - what's the big deal - it's digital? ooh, it's the net! It only makes sense - more eyes, more chances to catch someone... But I've seen legitimate Have You Seen This Person? type ads on the net, so why not Wanted Dead or Alive ads?

Misleading headline

[AntiFreeze]

Disclaimer: This is not an attempt at humor (seriously).

From the headline, I thought that the FBI was attempting to track criminals through the use of banner ads (i.e. use something embedded in the ads to track those who view them). Although it seems like a very hard thing to pull off - how would you track a criminal with the data you'd collect anyway?

And then I thought about the recent article Because Only Terrorists User 802.11 and got very worried about my ability to block popups via Mozilla or hosts.deny. I was afraid of the headline "Because Only Criminals and Terrorists Block Popup Ads to Avoid Detection".

Oh well, thank god the article clarified that. The article states that the FBI will basically putting up wanted posters as ads to help find the criminal they're after. That, I don't have a problem with.

Re:Misleading headline

[AntiFreeze]

Eh, the headline was 100% accurate. But take the headline with some of the other news we've been recieving through slashdot lately and it comes out completely different. Accurate. But misleading.

That is all.

Sounds familiar....

[Shawn Baumgartner]

Wiggum: If you've committed a crime, and want to confess, click "Yes". Otherwise, click "No".

[Homer clicks on "No"]

Wiggum: You have chosen "No", meaning you've committed a crime, but don't want to confess. A paddy wagon is now speeding to your home.

Homer: Hey!!

Wiggum: While you wait, why not buy a police cap or T-shirt. [T-shirts and baseball caps with the SPD logo circle Wiggum's head] You have the right to remain fabulous!

Uh oh!

[Eric(b0mb)Dennis]

Just wait until the FBI starts talking about how "Blocking ads support terrorism"

Here it comes... 5 4 3 2 1...

ARGH!!! RTFA!!

[EschewObfuscation]

OK, OK, I know that the lead-in blurb was a little misleading, but come on, people.

1) The FBI is not using cookies to hunt down the suspect.

2) The FBI isn't paying for the banners.

3) Prof^H^H^H^H The "clerk" example in the article is *not* the suspect, but rather someone who might have seen the suspect.

Somehow, I think that G. Cooke, Tx, would give this whole set of threads a very poor review...

I think this post's title should have been...

[FFCecil]

"Ad Banners Finally Have a Purpose"
from the other-than-causing-epilepsy dept.

Bulgar takes the fifth

[SpinyNorman]

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.

Re:Bulgar takes the fifth

[Dirtside]

I find it hard to believe that someone would honestly not report his own brother for murder, but blanches at typing the word "shit" in a public forum. I think you need to reassess your own moral code, pal. (Man, I'm saying that a lot today.)

White noise, anyone?

[privacyt]

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.

It's a bargain

[TopShelf]

In the article, it states that Lycos isn't being paid for this - sure, that's probably because this is a trial of the idea, but going forward this is a pretty cheap way to get the word out...

This is familiar.

[racerx509]

Why does this remind me of minority report?

Finally a good use for banners!

[Lobsang]

Granted: Most of us don't directly look at the banners at all. But you always take a quick glance at them. Why not use the same idea to find missing children?

"...an Irish organized crime ring."

[metamatic]

aka The Murphia?

Where's Whitey?

[jpellino]

1. Nobody looks at these ads. Pop-ups, maybe.
2. They'd have better luck putting posters in every Dunkin Donuts from Saugus to Ptown (the day he made the most wanted the gal at the Bourne DD's swore to us that he was in there that very morning)
3. The only one who could safely turn him in is his own brother (high profile, public figure) and he won't, so this really is a wild goose chase.

Re:Where's Whitey?

[pmancini]

Being originally from Massachusetts and having lived near Winterhill myself, I wanted to chime in. Whitey is a notorious criminal who had managed to corrupt the FBI, literally get a way with murder, theft, assault and other crimes. He's not one of the good ones.

I don't think this will work as a general tool for crime fighting (America's Most Wanted will probably prove to be more successful for example) -- the point is, he most likely isn't in the United States. He's been seen in Mexico and South America. Wave a few million in reward money in US dollars and you will start to get some hits. Who knows. The criminal underworld down there my have to decide if they are more sympathetic to him than to some easy money selling him out.

Maybe they should (if it hasn't already happened) open a Dunkin' Donuts in Mexico City and see what happens... Just save me a Cruller, or is that El Crulleo?, for me.

Why there's a Fifth Amendment in the US

[billstewart]

Eighteenth-Century Britain had a popular investigative technique called "We'll keep torturing you until you confess". One of the traditional methods was to keep piling heavy rocks on the accused until he either confessed or died; I've forgotten which defiant holdout's last words were "More weight!". This sort of thing wasn't a new invention of the time, and the Brits weren't the only people who used it (nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition...), and it was more popularly used on political enemies, accused heretics and witches, and people who had "accomplices" on whom it was desired that they should rat, rather than on common criminals, who usually had the sense to confess or frame someone else, especially since they were often actually guilty of something. That's the main reason for the Fifth Amendment. That doesn't mean we've totally abandoned the practice - cops still beat people up or threaten to do things to them or their families - but it's certainly reduced the problem, and at least it's a rare illegal event in the back room rather than a common event on the courtroom floor.

American jurisprudence also has a bunch of 1960s practices like the Exclusionary Rule and the Miranda Warning which say that courts can't admit evidence that was acquired improperly, whether it was from beating prisoners until they confess, illegally searching homes without warrants, or getting warrants by lying to judges, or lying to prisoners about the law when they don't have lawyers to advise them. Again, it didn't totally eliminate abuses, but the traditional example for its effectiveness is that the year before the Exclusionary Rule, police in New York City didn't bother getting any search warrants - they just illegally searched anybody and any place they wanted to, while the year after the rule, they almost always got warrants when they needed them (even if they still lied about their evidence on occasion.)