The information superhighway has dark alleys
Even under the best of economic circumstances, employment is not a given. Contrasted with a time when loans, jobs and opportunities are scarce, there is a taste of desperation in the mouths of most students. While the Internet has become a vital tool overcoming these obstacles, students must tread carefully when using social networking and listing services, such as Craigslist.
Even under the best of economic circumstances, employment is not a given. Contrasted with a time when loans, jobs and opportunities are scarce, there is a taste of desperation in the mouths of most students. While the Internet has become a vital tool overcoming these obstacles, students must tread carefully when using social networking and listing services, such as Craigslist.
Craigslist, for those who are unfamiliar with the service, is a Web site that allows anyone to post job listings, goods and even romantic interests. It is, in many ways, the Internet’s version of a completely free-market system. There are virtually no regulations and almost no oversight.
Students troll Craigslist for jobs, free or used furniture, electronics, and even sex partners-sometimes it produces results. Unfortunately, there is a na’veté to most young adults that puts them at great risk when using this service. Like in any free market system, there are socially or morally corrupt people looking to take advantage of the uninformed or gullible.
Let us consider the case of Julia Brisman: According to police authorities Brisman was posting services as a masseuse on Craigslist. While the true nature of her services is questionable, it was not a factor April 14, when she was brutally beaten in the head and shot three times at close range in a Boston hotel. Brisman did not survive the attack.
On April 20 Boston authorities arrested 22-year-old medical student Phillip Markoff as a suspect in the Brisman murder when they traced the computer address of the last response to Brisman’s Craigslist posting. According to reports by the New York Daily News, Markoff is suspected in the kidnapping, beating and robbery of two other Craigslist users who offered sexual services. Markoff is currently confined in a Boston jail cell and has warrants for his arrest in Rhode Island for crimes committed there. Material evidence has been produced, including weapons, cash and stolen belongings of the victims.
What is most horrific about this suspected “Craigslist Killer” is that he appeared to have carried on a very convincing fa
