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Feds mine Facebook for info


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“To be honest with you, it bothers me,” said Wilson, 25, who was indicted Tuesday on bank robbery charges after the FBI compared Facebook photos with images taken from a bank surveillance video. “Facebook could have let me know what was going on. Instead, I got my door kicked down, and all of a sudden I’m in handcuffs.”

Federal investigators defend the practice. “With technology today, we would be crazy not to look at every avenue,” said Special Agent Donald Dawkins, spokesman with the ATF in Detroit.

The FBI suspected Wilson was behind a string of bank robberies across Metro Detroit that netted more than $6,300. Special Agent Juan Herrera said an informant told the FBI about Wilson’s Facebook account. It was registered under the name “Anthony Mrshowoff Wilson.”

In several photos on Facebook, Wilson was wearing a blue baseball hat and blue hooded sweatshirt, both featuring a Polo emblem. That’s the same outfit the FBI said the suspect wore when he stole $390 from a Bank of America Branch in Grosse Pointe Woods on Nov. 26, according to federal court records.

His Facebook photos also included one in which Wilson wore a red Philadelphia Phillies baseball hat, which the FBI said Wilson donned while robbing $1,363 from a PNC Bank branch in St. Clair Shores on Dec. 21, according to court records.

 

 

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QUOTE (iamshack @ Apr 26, 2011 -> 06:41 AM)
What kind of idiot robs a bank to steal $400?

If you want to get in and out quick, that's probably all you can really get. Each cashier probably has ~ that much. If you pull a gun on a single cashier, that's what you'd get.

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They'd be stupid to not be using things like facebook.

 

Yeah, it's no joke and they definitely do. My brother works for the feds (IT job for the "State Dept") and went through a year and half of background investigation before he could get his clearance. It's scary what they look at and how many candidates are dropped just because of what is dug up on them in the social networking scene....

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I dont have Facebook, Ive always advised my friends that Facebook can only lead to bad things.

 

As for the guys complaint, Facebook is about as in the public as you can make information. If you make information public, you have no legitimate expectation of privacy.

 

Thus, if you dont want people to know you committed a crime, dont post a picture on facebook bragging about it. (Not saying that this is what happened in this case, but plenty of people post stupid things.)

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QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Apr 26, 2011 -> 11:47 AM)
I dont have Facebook, Ive always advised my friends that Facebook can only lead to bad things.

 

As for the guys complaint, Facebook is about as in the public as you can make information. If you make information public, you have no legitimate expectation of privacy.

 

Thus, if you dont want people to know you committed a crime, dont post a picture on facebook bragging about it. (Not saying that this is what happened in this case, but plenty of people post stupid things.)

You can make your facebook profile extremely private btw.

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QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 26, 2011 -> 11:48 AM)
Note to Self: Delete Facebook Account prior to next felony.

 

With this guy I think it's more the fact that he wore the same clothes that he did in many of his FB pictures.

 

My wife watches a lot of those real-life crime solving shows and I'm always amazed how many people they catch because they don't get rid of their clothes and/or shoes.

 

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QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Apr 26, 2011 -> 11:55 AM)
With this guy I think it's more the fact that he wore the same clothes that he did in many of his FB pictures.

 

My wife watches a lot of those real-life crime solving shows and I'm always amazed how many people they catch because they don't get rid of their clothes and/or shoes.

Note to Self: Consult with this dude and his crime-solver wife prior to next felony, and also delete Facebook account.

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So I hear that Osama kept posting pics and getting tagged in photos of the compound, but what really gave him away was the "I answered 15 questions about Osama" game his top advisors kept playing.

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