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Googling For Prospective Date Unmasks Fugitive
pgrote writes "So you're a guy on the run - you decide to switch towns, put down some roots and start dating again. But if your special new friend happens to be someone who checks her potential dates by searching on Google, you're in trouble. Seems that LaShawn Pettus-Brown was caught by his date's discovery of him on an FBI site of fugitives, even after local Cincinnati news media couldn't find him. Score one for the Internet."
When I was in the market for my first house (9 months ago), I thought I had found the perfect house.
Then I searched Google for the address and learned that the previous owner had died in the house.
He was in the attic working on the electrical when a small fire broke out. He got the fire out but died from the smoke.
His father was selling the house.
It was all a little too much for me.
-Jackson
Only a moron would use his real name when he's on the lam. I can go to several locations in my city and come away with an authentic-looking drivers's license, social security card, whatever. Hell, I can even get a Mexican Matricula Consular card, even though you can read in the dark by my skin color. This woman deserves a reward for removing this guy's genes from the pool, even if temporarily.
I used to be the top result from google, but now it's some tennis player. I'm on the first page, but it's not my homepage, just something I posted to a PHP mailing list a thousand years ago.
Seriously tho, anybody who dates somebody off the internet without at least having a go at googling their name, is nearly as stupid as anybody who's got an outstanding arrest warrant and gives out their real name.
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
Especially as a gerund !
Contrary to popular belief, Google is not supposed to be a verb
Google decidedly does not approve.
"Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech."--Benjamin Franklin
I like to do simple background checks I on people I meet online (not random people), the first place I check is google (sometimes i use visisimo). Admittedly, I'm no where near as good as those companies you pay (at least I don't think I am, I really wouldn't know though). Generally I only trust people that I can find legit information on (whether it's big or small), otherwise they're just another Alias to me.
As popular as amiafugitiveornot.com?
I know god exists. I read it on the internet, so it must be true.
I guess it's just a sign of the times. Previously, it seems that nobody had to worry about diseases and a criminal history and everything (well, diseases because we didn't know many of them existed), but this is certainly because people wouldn't travel as much and tended to know their dates for a long time before they began dating.
Now, people are dating others whom they haven't even met, and who might be only telling lies to them, so clearly there's a need for this.
It's like an incorporation of romance and love. If you're running a small business or a small store, you will very likely know your customers (and employees) very well and be able to trust them without too many problems, but when business scale up and become increasingly large, there's no way that you can account for all of the people, or know them personally, and so there's record-keeping and spying and every such thing.
Obviously with online (or more anonymous) dating you have access to so many more potential mates, which improves selection and makes things somewhat easier, but all the anonymity and deception makes me wonder if this whole trend is actually a good thing or not.
But all this doesn't affect me. Joining slashdot is like taking a vow of celibacy.
Insightful? Balls
How would it be different if he had been named Shawn Brown, instead of LaShawn Petus-Brown? He'd still be 'wanted', there would still be numerous news articles about him, including his picture, and she still might have called the FBI to check him out.
The only difference is that there would have been more hits on that name.
When I was a little kid, a little girl named Emma would have been snickered at. That was an 'old lady' name. Today, that's a very common girls name.
Times change. Names change. Live with it.
After having some suspicions about a neighbor, I too decided to run her though Google. The search brought up this Article http://groups.google.com/groups?q=Katherine+Saddle r&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&selm=199808 1213325800.JAA00250%40ladder01.news.aol.com&rnum=1 (Her name is Katherine Sadler), the relevent part being
"Another accused hooker, Katherine Saddler, 35, answered the phone at Sunnymede.
"When we have something to say, we'll say it," said Saddler, who was also
charged with possession of nine bags of heroin. "
Yep, that was my neighbor. A few more searches resulted in two open arrest warrents for her in NJ, time spent in prison, and several other convictions of assult and death threats. So the moral of the story is, if you have suspicions, it doesn't hurt to take 1 minute to run a quick google search.
In my personal experience, it's just like globalization and open markets: real scary if you are engaged in deception, and absolutely fantastic if you want lots of choice.
A few years ago, in my early thirties, I decided it was finally time to find a wife. I was (finally) ready to commit. My parents urged me to "shop around". So I did, using means an admittedly very shy geek can do: online sites (ie, match.com) and personal-intro services (ie, Table For Six).
To make a long story short, I met a lot more women in a few months than I had in the previous 10 years, despite my introverted nature. After dating a few of them, I wound up marrying a very nice woman. And -- please forgive me, I cannot resist saying this -- she's a stunning blonde, tall, gorgeous, busty, and has a degree in mathematics. Ca-Ching!
Probably I shouldn't post this and probably most people will assume I'm an ad-bot, but the 2 or 3 people who know me that read slashdot know I'm on the level.
Anyway, I'm all for improving selection and making things easier. Go for it. If you're introverted like myself, it could be the difference between passing along your genes or not! Hell, we desperately need smart people to procreate...
Part of the Second American Revolution!
Regardless, please do us all a favor and get a proper book of names, and don't give a child a name that is going to raise hackles for their whole life.
There are far better ways to express individuality than naming a poor infant LeDeZeppelin.
Have you taken a look at a baby name book lately? They're full of all kinds of crappy names that will turn a reasonable set of DNA into a watchtower-dwelling rifle toter.
The Social Security Administration's web site has a pretty neat feature... for the last 12 years, they've kept statistics on the 1000 most popular baby names each year, for boys and girls. They've got all kinds of features, such as searching on a particular name for its rankings, top five names in each state, and so on.
When my husband and I were mulling over children's names, for the boy's we started at 40 and read down the whole list to get ideas. For girls, we started at 300. (Though we ended up picking a girl's name from another source.)
Names go through fads. Jennifer was the number one girl's name from about 1969 to 1987. And couldn't I tell, when half the girls I went to school with were Jennifer, Jen, Jenny, Jennie... right now, the fad is kinda weird, but we'll get to a point (in about 60 years) when those will all be "old lady" or "old man" names.
Don't you wish your girlfriend was a geek like me?
The company I work for is one of those tight-lipped "we aren't telling the employees anything" sort of shops.
One day I was bored and googled for both of the names my company is associated with.
Paranoid bastards shouldn't create companies with unique names that partner with other compies who release press releases.
I learned more from one night searching in google then I ever did working at the company.
Now, people are dating others whom they haven't even met, and who might be only telling lies to them, so clearly there's a need for this.
This has been going on since at least the mid-16th Century, complete with their version of Photoshop.
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
When I met my wife (via the internet, although we met IRL within a week), and realized that it would be a serious relationship I got a bit worried...you see one time one of my friends (and I think I might know who...) thought it'd be funny to post in my name on some pot growing site....okay so it would've been funny - but one day while googling for my own name - well let's just say that's how I discovered their joke!
So I told my wife-to-be right away, and she thought it was funny also....still I have to wonder who else I know that might just google my name! >:(
I often google problematic eBayers and scammers email addresses - I would say 1/2 the time I get good results and 1 in 10 I get VERY interesting results.
For instance - one time I had an eBayer email me telling me I should be ashamed for selling a Bang & Olufsen turntable at the price I was selling it at. Turns out - it was HIS that he sold to someone in Charlotte (nearby) - they in turn sold it to a Pawn Shop - I bought it for a deal (under $100) - come to find out - he only got $35 for it on eBay - he had left negative feedback for the buyer because the buyer made him sell it to him (he didn't have a reserve. To make a long story longer - It turns out he starts harassing my bidders, telling them not to buy from me. I google and find something similar to this with his email address attached.
Gay male looking in Colorado (Denver Area) for discreet meetings - no kinky stuff but very adventurous. Since he had bid in my auction (fraudulently) I instantly ended the auction and made him the winner by cancelling other bids. I threatened to post the information to several websites and his feedback. I never heard from him again.
I have ALWAYS googled anyone's email address before I met them from match.com - although usually a girl's email address won't show up with any results.
I occasionally google my email address and always get new stuff - usually 4-5 of my slashdot replies show up.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny