Free Republic

SLIPPERY ROCK (KDKA) – Three African nationals from Cameroon are facing charges in an organized, intra-national internet fraud scheme uncovered in western Pennsylvania. According to police, large amounts of money were wired through Western Union and MoneyGram at various locations in Butler, Lawrence and Mercer counties. Authorities say among the allegedly crimes, the men were selling boxer puppies online out of a student housing complex in Slippery Rock. Police say the total is at least $20,000, but it is expected to grow. “We have at least 10 victims, and we’re expecting a lot more,” said Pennsylvania State Police Trooper James...

The Mormon Church owns one of the most active and unregulated gun sale portals on the web, according to a national investigation released by the New York City Mayor's office. The website in question is KSL.com, the online hub for Utah's NBC affiliate and sister radio station, which are both owned and operated by the for-profit arm of the Mormon Church. In addition to local news, KSL.com produces a popular classifieds section that reaches millions of users well beyond Utah.The LDS connection drew little notice when Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a leading financier of the gun control movement, published the report...

Although Libyan rebels have been celebrating their advance into the capital of Tripoli this week, just a few weeks ago, they had a problem. Outgunned and poorly trained, Libya's ragtag opposition was the object of pitying--if not unsympathetic--reports by the journalists covering their seemingly hapless efforts to advance and hold ground against Gadhafi's professional forces, who were better trained and better equipped. Naturally, the rebels turned to the Internet for help. In June, members of the Libyan Transitional National Council were "searching the Web," the New York Times reports, when they found information about a surveillance drone--"essentially a tiny,...

Has anyone ever though about this? A FReeper sell or trade area? I'd trust people here more than I would the paper or online auction sites.

THE DOWNTURN IN THE NEWSPAPER business shifted into high gear in the second quarter of 2007, with declines in print revenue steepening as the real-estate market slowed and the economy wobbled. Worse, the one bright spot on newspaper companies' ledger books--strong online growth--seems to be hitting a plateau. The short version: in both print and online advertising, media-specific trends are now combining with structural economic factors to conspire against newspapers. Newspapers' print problems are already common knowledge, but existing trends are getting worse, not better. Leading the pack are classifieds, in past decades--a mainstay of the newspaper business, accounting for...

NEW YORK (AP) - It's bad enough that a cratering housing market is leading to a slump in real estate advertising at newspapers, as a dreary series of earnings reports showed this week. What's worse is that a lot of that advertising may never come back to newspapers even if the real estate sector recovers. That's because a significant chunk of those advertising dollars are moving - you guessed, online. Exactly how much of a shift is occurring is difficult to measure in terms of dollars or market share, but several real estate executives say they are making a conscious...

Craig Newmark--the man who put the “Craigness” into online classifieds--may unwittingly impact the future of journalism in America. Does he care? Not really. Growth of Craigslist really began to skyrocket in 2000 when Craig Newmark bumped up systems analyst Jim Buckmaster to the CEO position. The site began branching out to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York ... and Sacramento. www.craigslist.org It’s been called the scourge of newspaper classified advertising. Kryptonite for newspapers. One publisher compares it to “Sherman marching through Georgia.” “It” is Craigslist, the enormously popular Web site that offers community-specific free classified ads and discussion forums to...

TALLAHASSEE - Attorney General Charlie Crist today issued a consumer alert warning Floridians of an emerging scam in which con artists target individuals trying to sell their vehicles and other items. The Attorney General’s Office has received numerous complaints from consumers across the state reporting the overpayment scam. In this scheme, a thief selects the victim after browsing through classified ads for a car or other large-ticket item offered for sale. The thief pretends to be an interested buyer from out of town and sends payment in the form of a cashier’s check, money order or personal check. The payment...

WASHINGTON : Presidential hopeful and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry today announced he has offered Johnny Depp first refusal of the coveted VP spot in his Democratic bid for the White House. I first saw Johnny in that scissors movie, Kerry told reporters, and I’ve wanted to run with him ever since. A source close to the Kerry campaign stated that Kerry believes Depp’s charm, charisma and intense global popularity is just the thing needed to sway voter support of post-teen females, twenty-something housewives, every woman in middle-aged America and that ‘certain section of guys’ towards the Democratic ticket in November....