Committed a crime? Don’t confess on Facebook

Facebook at Work is a new smartphone app that will allow staff to interactive with each other within a company. Picture: AP

Facebook at Work is a new smartphone app that will allow staff to interactive with each other within a company. Picture: AP

Published Jul 25, 2013

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Washington - There have always been stupid criminals but these days social media have given the average criminal a whole new toolbox for self-incrimination.

Take Rashia Wilson, the self-proclaimed “Queen of Tax Fraud” from Florida in the US. Wilson somehow racked up about $20-million (R1.96-billion) in ill-gotten gains, mainly by defrauding the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). She used stolen social security numbers to file tax returns and collect refunds.

Her Highness was finally brought to justice after authorities were tipped off to some not-so-humble bragging on her Facebook page.

She even taunted the authorities in one Facebook post: “I’m Rashia, the queen of IRS tax fraud. I’m a millionaire for the record, so if U think indicting me will B easy it won’t, I promise you! U need more than black and white to hold me down N that’s to da rat who went N told, as if 1st lady don’t have da TPD under her spell. I run Tampa right now.” Presumably, this was a reference to the police department.

I get it – what good is it being the queen unless everybody from high school knows it? Here’s the bigger question: will Facebook even be around when she gets out of prison in 21 years?

Sadly, Wilson is far from the first or last of her ilk.

A Florida man was arrested after taking to Facebook to comment on his wanted photo.

His “friends” eventually turned him in, but not before he could call the Pasco County sheriff’s office a bunch of fools and argue on the county’s Facebook page about the image they chose to upload as fugitive of the day.

“And by the way (expletive) bag, that picture was for my licence,” the man typed. “I think it would look weirder if I wasn’t smiling.” Good one.

Let’s review five other oversharers from the archives, sad souls who couldn’t resist the siren song of social media.

1. Anybody know a good hit man? After being accused of raping an intoxicated woman at a party, Corey Christian Adams used Facebook to solicit a hit man by posting: “I got 500 on a girl’s head; who wants that bread?” Imagine Adams’ surprise when the contract killer who contacted him was actually a police detective in disguise.

2. Drunk posting: Jacob Cox-Brown is lucky to have made it home alive the night he allegedly got drunk and bashed up a bunch of parked cars on the way home. However, his luck ran out when he posted the following message on Facebook: “Drivin drunk... classic ;) but to whoever’s vehicle i hit i am sorry. :P”

One of Cox-Brown’s frenemies pointed out the post to the police, who had already been investigating the hit-and-run. Cox-Brown’s is a cautionary tale both against drunk driving (duh) and posting to social media while apparently under the influence.

3. Illegal friend request: Imagine you’ve finally managed to get away from a bad relationship and have a court order against your ex’s ever contacting you again. And then – ping – he sends you a Facebook friend request.

This is how Dylan Osborn was sentenced to 10 days in jail, though he was let out three days early because he claimed Facebook automatically sent the request to everyone on his e-mail list – unbeknown to him.

Said Osborn: “I certainly hadn’t intended to contact my wife. I didn’t even know she had a Facebook account. To be honest, I don’t think the judge understood how it works either.”

4. Always remember to log out: Jonathan G Parker is accused of burgling two diamond rings during a daytime robbery. Did the cops track his DNA from the scene of the crime or interview a neighbour who witnessed the whole thing?

No. The guy seems to have logged into his Facebook account on the house computer and then neglected to sign off before fleeing. I wonder if checking up on everyone’s pictures of babies and cupcakes was worth it.

5. Speaking of food pictures: If you’re going to kill and eat an endangered species in a foreign land, you might consider keeping it on the down-low.

In 2009, Vanessa Starr Palm and Alexander Daniel Rust were arrested for allegedly grilling an iguana in the Bahamas and then posting the photos on Facebook. – Slate/The Washington Post News Service

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