Virginia man pleads guilty after posting Craigslist ads which sent nearly 100 men to victim's house for sex

A 61-year-old Virginia man pled guilty yesterday to stalking and identification fraud charges after having made over 160 posts on Craigslist in order to have men go to his ex-girlfriend's house seeking sexual encounters.

The posts, over 100 of which were made while at his job at the Library of Congress, contained the victim's home address and photograph. According to the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Virginia,

Between January and March 2013 more than 100 men appeared at or around the victim’s home seeking sexual encounters with her based upon the ads posted by Kuban. In one instance, a man arrived at the victim’s home with a crowbar in order to pry open an electronic gate the victim had installed to protect herself. The man brought the crowbar at the urging of Kuban, posing as the victim. The threat to the victim’s safety became so great that local law enforcement felt it necessary to post deputies at her home to deter trespassing and harassment.

The defendant faces up to 15 years in prison.

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Craigslist wins $233K in case against optimization site

In Craigslist, Inc. v. Kerbel, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 108573 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 2, 2012), the Northern District of California granted default judgment for Craigslist against www.craigslist-poster.com for violations of the CFAA, Lanham Act, California hacking statute, California fraud statute, and DMCA. Kerbel and his website exploited the CAPTCHA function of craigslist, and sold credits for "campaigns" that would blast out posting all over the country ("24/7"), circumventing the Terms of Use specified by Craigslist. As the court described it, the "[d]efendant's activities burden craigslist's systems and cause it to incur expenses to increase server capacity, provide additional customer service and support for its legitimate customers, and investigate and enforce its policies." The defendant also used trademarks of Craigslist without authorization.

With regard to the CFAA claims, the court stated:

Plaintiff alleges that Kerbel's conduct was both knowing and intentional because it was designed to circumvent craigslist's security features and Defendant had to agree to the TOU with no intention of complying with it. Kerbel also continued said conduct despite receiving cease and desist letters. His conduct caused harm to craigslist of over $5,000 per year, including increased costs associated with the burden on Plaintiff's servers, investigation and enforcement costs to maintain the legitimacy of posts to the site, loss of goodwill, and the need for increased customer service and support. Thus, the Court finds Plaintiff is entitled to default judgment on its CFAA claims.

Kerbel was also dinged for violations of California's hacking statute - California Penal Code §§ 502(c)(1)-(7).  Additionally, he was hit for statutory damages under the DMCA equaling 200K, which was at the low end of the spectrum. The high end, according to the court, would have been 1.7 million dollars. Keep in mind that the owner of the site made only 33 thousand dollars. That amount was tacked on to the judgment for trademark infringement, making the total judgment ~$233,000.

If nothing else, this reinforces the binding force of TOU on websites.

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10th Circuit affirms conviction in Craigslist scam

The Tenth Circuit has affirmed a conviction of wire fraud and identity theft and various sentencing enhancements. The defendant, an Oklahoma citizen, had posted multiple ads on Craigslist soliciting people with a great deal of debt. He told them that if they paid him half the amount, the rest would be taken care of through a debt-assistance program. Once someone contacted them, the defendant used stolen credit cards and bank account numbers to pay the bills. When the payments were discovered to be fraudulent and were reversed, the victims contacted the defendant, whose number (a prepaid cell phone) had been disconnected.

While the defendant was not the one who posted all of the ads, others used his alias in relation to the act, supporting the aiding and abetting charge. Another ad was posted from a local library, but it was reasonably attributable to the defendant. The court also upheld the identity theft charge, finding that although the defendant did not actually steal the information, he knowingly used it to make payments.

Sentencing enhancements were also made for being the leader or organizer of the act and obstruction of justice.

The case is United States v. Lawrence, 449 Fed. Appx. 713 (9th Cir. 2011) (affirming United States v. Lawrence, 2010 WL 1875647 (W.D. Okla. 2010).

Craigslist is an online, classified advertising website. Typically, ads can be placed for free without creating an account - users simply provide contact information for those interested. Job posts, apartment rentals, and therapeutic services may have posting fees depending on location. The website has before run into several legal issues including alleged sex trafficking and prostitution. As a result, Craigslist closed its erotic services board in September 2010.

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