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BBC Uses Skype Links In Murder Hunt

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the free-and-anonymous dept.

Nico M writes "The highly publicized UK murder hunt for the serial killer(s) of five young sex workers in Suffolk is using Skype to ask the public for information. BBC News is embedding freephone Skype links to both the police incident room and Crimestoppers UK. Is this the first time Skype has been used in this way?"

3 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sex workers? by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sex worker, is that the PC term for prostitute?

    I am amazed that so few slashdotters (reading the first 10 posts or so) are unfamiliar with that term. (Do you all live under rocks or something?)

    Its basically a superset of prostitute - including people in the industry who don't actually fuck for money, ie strip dancers, porn stars, topless waiters, dominatrixes (sp?) etc.

    Nothing PC about it.

    --
    There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
  2. Re:This is probably a really bad idea by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is probably not a good idea, because there is no anonymity with Skype

    1) They have a normal number in addition to the skype links.
    2) You can anonymously use skype from an internet cafe (most have it installed, with mic + headphones these days)
    3) Its for convenience sake, so someone who doesn't think it's worth calling (for the little thing they remember seeing walking past) will just click on the link when reading a story.

    --
    There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
  3. Re:Sex workers? by 1u3hr · · Score: 5, Informative
    I hate to say it, but better illegal than legal *and* legally recognized by the State as a "normal" profession like in Germany. There was the recent case of an unemployed lady there who was refused continuing unemployment benefits

    Note there are no names or dates in that stpory. It's an urban legend. Never happened. http://www.snopes.com/media/notnews/brothel.asp

    ...a story was sensationalized for political purposes and passed from one news source to the next, and somewhere in the rewriting and translating process what was originally discussed as a mere hypothetical possibility has now been reported as a factual occurrence.