Men using online ads to stalk and harass women

[Kheldarson]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/...080_story.html

Basics: article talks about a few women who have been harassed and nearly raped by complete strangers because their ex put up online ads on Craigslist and other sites indicating the woman was looking for a "good time".

One woman's ex went so far as to list her children as being up for sale for sex!

Major issue seems to be the fact that Maryland/Virginia doesn't have specific laws to deal with this type of harassment. The charges on one guy is getting him 5 years max if convicted; the other (the one who was offering the kids up for rape) is looking at up to 115 years (but he was apparently still harassing the woman himself as he posted the ads).

What's really scary is how hard it is for these women to get the sites to pull down the impersonating ads, though. They have to fight and reveal more information than their stalkers did in order to get things back under control.

[Andara Bledin]

Wouldn't it be possible to prosecute these guys for soliciting hit men?

They're placing advertisements attempting to incite others into assaulting the women. Just because they're doing so online and by deception shouldn't change the basic nature of the crimes being committed.

[hinakiba777]

That is horrifying. The amount of information the women had to reveal to have the fake sites taken down, the horror of being in their homes, and the threats to children.

It's horrible that the first man is going to get 5 years in prison, max. There must be other charges that could be laid upon him.