Woman Charged after Posting Craiglist Sex ad with Neighbor’s Phone Number

A 40 year old woman from New York, Margery Tannenbaum, has been charged with “aggravated harassment” after posting an ad on Craigslist with her neighbor’s phone number. Her neighbor (and her neighbor’s 9-yr old daughter) received 22 calls from men before the ad expired or was removed.

The ad, entitled “Looking for a good time?-w4m 21″, indicates a woman seeking a man (w4m), and the “21″ tag indicated the nature of the solicitation — sexual encounters — as does the title.

According to Fourth Precinct Sgt, Tim Burns, “Men were responding to that Craigslist ad, and when they did it had an email address to respond to — I assume just for this purpose — and they were given the phone number of [the neighbor's] residence.”

Burns indicated the reason for the ad was “an underlying dispute between their two daughters”, though he did not have additional details. A nearby 60-yr old neighbor described the Tannenbaums as amicable, long-time residents.

Craigslist CEO, Jim Buckmaster, responding to complaints by three states, posted in a blog that while there are many complaints about Craigslist, there are far more predatory acts committed by responders to traditional print ads. The only difference is “Craigslist users have posted more than 1.15 BILLION classified ads to date, easily 1,000x the combined total ever posted to the print publications involved in all of these ‘print ad murders’,” he wrote.

See Newsday and The Wall Street Journal for additional similar case descriptions.

My Opinion

Craigslist is so popular and useful, and literally millions of people each month visit the site and many of them find what they’re looking for. Acts like these, while illegal, should not be held against Craigslist. People will always seek to use technology to their own twisted advantage, but that doesn’t mean the technology is bad.

I’m with Buckmaster on this one. Craigslist has a community which can remove ads that are posted incorrectly or are offensive, or really for any other reason, and completely automatically without even a fighting chance to defend your ad. And historically, companies like Craigslist do not have any problems removing ads the police ask them to, or even working with police to help track down lawbreakers, provided there is just cause (or possibly a warrant, which is also in keeping with the law).