Mafia Boss Betrayed By Facebook

An anonymous reader writes "One of Italy's 100 most-wanted criminals, a vicious mafia boss who had been on the run for months, was betrayed by his passion for social networking and flushed out thanks to Facebook. Using the name 'Scarface' from the gangster movie starring Al Pacino, Pasquale Manfredi, 33, a boss of the the ferocious 'Ndrangheta mafia organization from the Calabria region in southern Italy, had logged on to his Facebook account so often that police were able to trace the signal from his Internet key and find his hideout.' Seems the Mafia Wars Facebook phenomenon goes deeper than it seemed!"

Comments

Eh

[Dyinobal]

I dunno I can't seem to bring myself to take a mafia boss who uses facebook seriously. I can only imagine how seriously people will take him when he's in jail. Getting caught by using facebook can't be good for your criminal reputation.

Re:Eh

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I'm guessing that "'Ndrangheta boss" counts for more than "uses facebook" when it comes to calculating an individual's ranking in the criminal respect index.

Re:Eh

[ShakaUVM]

>>I'm guessing that "'Ndrangheta boss" counts for more than "uses facebook" when it comes to calculating an individual's ranking in the criminal respect index.

Yeah, but tweeting your crimes is definitely worth -50 points.

Re:Eh

[Bender0x7D1]

Perhaps he was using it to keep in touch with his "family".

Re:Eh

[justthisdude]

Facebook should cater more to their "made" clientele: Along with relationship status, there should be a "legal status" pulldown menu:

- Totally legit
- On the lamb
- Locked up
- It's complicated

Re:Eh

[Sulphur]

- On the lamb

For priests?

--

DiGiorno and delivery.

Re:Eh

[flyingsquid]

I heard the guy was actually turned in by his Facebook friends. They finally got tired of reading all the annoying news about his FarmVille game.

Re:Eh

[flappinbooger]

The existence of the mafia (and the general culture of doing everything and anything you can get away with) is just the way the Italians ARE.

The government only deals with the organized crime periodically, like when it's so bad it gets embarrassing.

A thirty something mob boss on facebook isn't all that surprising, something tells me it's not like the movies where all they do is sit around eating pasta and talking in cliche like "Paulie sleeps wit da fishes".

There's probably a mafia presence in the malware scene, anyway, as organized crime keeps up with the times.

Trace the signal from his internet key?

[Anonymous Coward]

WTH is that supposed to mean?

Re:Trace the signal from his internet key?

[Pojut]

It's likely simplified language for something too complicated for the general public to understand.

Re:Trace the signal from his internet key?

[canajin56]

They linked "Trace the signal" to an article about companies using GPS trackers in employees' cell phones. I think it's simplified so that ABC can understand it, and they still don't ;)

Re:Trace the signal from his internet key?

[Anonymous Coward]

Technically speaking, it works like this. There is a guy in a brightly lit room with about 30-40 computer screens of various sizes. He sees the bad guy log in to facebook and runs a trace on the internet key by typing furiously. A few of the screens show maps of the world with lines tracing the signal as it gets closer to the mafia boss's hideout. If he doesn't log out before the connect the dots reach him, he gets busted. Make sense now?

Re:Trace the signal from his internet key?

[Mr_Silver]

I assumed that internet key was a badly translated Italian phrase for IP address. But your explanation probably makes more sense.

Whereas we call it a USB Modem, in Italy they call it "Internet Key".

Basically, they got his IP address from Facebook, took it to the Mobile Broadband supplier who gave up his billing address.

Re:Trace the signal from his internet key?

[dnaumov]

I assumed that internet key was a badly translated Italian phrase for IP address. But your explanation probably makes more sense.

Whereas we call it a USB Modem, in Italy they call it "Internet Key".

Basically, they got his IP address from Facebook, took it to the Mobile Broadband supplier who gave up his billing address.

Or actual triangulated physical location. If you are a mobile provider, these things are quite possible, although whether the law enforcement agencies get access to this kind of data depends on the laws of your country.

Re:Trace the signal from his internet key?

[Mister Whirly]

And of course he is running a custom OS where you can type in complete phrases that it will understand like "find the bad man's internet key" and 1.5 seconds later it has a GPS location, pictures of the bad man, all his recent activity, etc. all on the screen. It could also find any DNA or fingerprint info from it's imaginary worldwide database that contains this info everybody in the world and can also return the results in a matter of seconds.

Seriously though, if law enforcement had any of the programs and databases they seem to have on every cop show on television, I am pretty sure the unsolved crime rate would be below 2%.

Re:Trace the signal from his internet key?

[Exitar]

A wireless USB stick, known in Italy as "chiavetta internet"/internet key.

Re:Trace the signal from his internet key?

[Anonymous Coward]

As an italian, I can tell you that "internet key" is the way the average Joe in Italy calls a 3G usb dongle.

Re:Trace the signal from his internet key?

[commodoresloat]

It basically means that law enforcement whipped up a GUI in Visual Basic in order to trace his IP address.

Re:Trace the signal from his internet key?

[heckler95]

Then they just "log in" to get grainy security camera footage from a convenience store that shows him 50 feet from the camera at the back of the store. A few zooms and "enhance!" operations and you can clearly see each of the hairs in the suspect's beard. Case closed.

Re:Trace the signal from his internet key?

[guzziguy]

One of the investigators sat down at a terminal and said, "Hey... this is UNIX! I know this!" Then, he used the UNIX GUI to fly around the interwebs until he found a box with the name "scarface" on it. He clicked on that box, and it brought up this guys address, phone number, names of his family members, and favorite color.

It was pretty simple, actually. The investigator learned how to do it by watching Jurassic Park over and over.

Re:Trace the signal from his internet key?

[Mister Whirly]

You are really skimming the bottom of the barrel now. Butter luck next time.

Re:Trace the signal from his internet key?

[Anonymous Coward]

BWAHAHA, TV fail

Greetings, yabos,
I see that digg and the chans have gotten to you. It was inevitable. But if you should happen to see through the fog of groupthink and hive mind,
remember, you are only allowed to use approved slashdot memes here (examples, in soviet russia, beowulf cluster jokes, i, for one, salute... etc). Digg and chan memes are a little too childish for us, and we tend
to frown upon them. Thank you for patronizing slashdot, and please remember to stick to the guidelines or forever be banished as -1 troll.

Al Pacino was not the first scarface.

[Nadaka]

Mr. Capone would like to have a word with you.

Re:Al Pacino was not the first scarface.

[RevWaldo]

Not to mention Paul Muni.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Fan of baths in the canal

[Nautical Insanity]

Pasquale Manfredi has sent you an invite you cannot refuse. Do you want to accept?

Re:internet key??

[ls671]

Just Google for it ;-)

"Internet key"

I found this one really quickly:

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/review/broadband/3-mobile/broadband_internet_key/222237

First Rule of Not Being Seen

[LaminatorX]

<Python>"As you see, Sergeant Smiley has not learned the first rule of Not Being Seen: Never stand up."</Python>

His last Facebook status update...

[dclozier]

Saying goodbye to my little friends!

Re:Internet key?

[Andy Dodd]

Apparently that's how the term Italians use to describe USB 3G wireless modems translates into English. (See earlier comments...)

why do these mafia bosses live like peasants?

[alen]

when they arrested the boss of bosses in Sicily a few years ago he was in a farmhouse running from the cops and sleeping in a different house every night. this guy lived in a basement. why do people choose a life where they have millions of $$$/Euros but have to live where they can't show it off and like they are poor?

Re:why do these mafia bosses live like peasants?

[Bigjeff5]

why do people choose a life where they have millions of $$$/Euros but have to live where they can't show it off and like they are poor?

Because before they were on the lamb they were living like kings.

Seriously, why the hell else would you think they do it? You've only seen them at the end of their time as mob boss, they haven't been living in basements for the last 20 years, they've only been living in a basement for the last three weeks. Get it?

It takes years, decades even, to close the noose on these guys because of their money and influence, and even then you'd better have out-witted them at every turn or they'll find a way to slip away clean. In the mean time, they are living in multi-million dollar houses, eating like kings, wearing clothes worth more than ordinary people's cars, etc. There is a lot of advantage that goes with the risk - the only thing that sucks is if you get caught you are as bad off as the poor people these guys despise.

Re:why do these mafia bosses live like peasants?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not always so. Some mafia bosses have been known to hide in pathetic basements for years, and indeed the parent poster's question makes a lot of sense. It seems that these people's kick ain't money but power and respect, and in mafia subculture the latter aren't tied to money. And those who make an excessive show of wealth are often snubbed as parvenus, kids without the balls etc etc. because money is a proxy for power only when power isn't apparent - and thus not existent.
That of course may change depending by geographical area, exact type of mafia (mafia proper from Sicily, 'ndrangheta from Calabria, camorra from Campania) etc., but basically it's the way it is with those dorks.

Re:why do these mafia bosses live like peasants?

[blue l0g1c]

Because before they were on the lamb...

I thought he was Italian, not Welsh.

Re:Is this good or bad?

[Anonymous Coward]

207.148.2.2

A Warning

[MrTripps]

He should have known there was a problem when someone posted a picture of a horse's head on his wall.

Driveby shooting ?

[freaker_TuC]

Don Zynga strikes again! so, Facebook may be expecting a drive-by shooting any moment ?

Re:internet key??

[Enderandrew]

What is this Google that you speak of?

Do I need an internet key to access it?

That depends

[commodoresloat]

What's his score on Mafia Wars?

Italy needs your help defeating a mafia boss

[shadowrat]

I wonder how many toolbars and trials Italy had to install to defeat this boss?

What really bothers me...

[Hoi Polloi]

What really bothers me about this is that this guy became a mob boss at 33. I really need to pick up the pace.