Someone's posting our personal information on Craigslist

Ugh, I could just cry right about now.

It all started at about 11:00pm two nights ago. My mom gets a phone call, and she answers it. This lady on the other end asks if the "***-kicking machine is still available". My mom said a few choice words to her then hung up. We didn't really think much of it.

The next day, my parents are out, and the phone rings. I just let it go to voicemail. This guy leaves a message, it was kind of staticy, but it was something like "Hi, I was wondering if the stacks of porn you had on Craigslist are still available". This is when I go upstairs to my computer and see what the bleep is going on. I searched our city's Craigslist for our phone number, and sure enough, there were posts advertising an "***-kicking machine", "Stacks of porn DVDs", and "free bras". Hmm...

Anyway, I let it go. About 10 minutes later, another phone call. I let it go to answering machine again. The person asks if the "Handsets" (????) are still available. These calls just keep going on and on. Asking if random items are still available. I check CL again, and this person just keeps rapidfiring posts with our phone number.

My parents come home, I tell them they might want to check the answering machine. They listen to the messages, stuff happens, they call the phone company and end up enabling some "Call screening" service for $2 extra a month.

I was later called into my parents room to sit with them. The three of us all had our laptops, we were just surfing around CL trying to find clues. This is when I search for our address, just because the thought came to me. Sure enough, there was an ad that said "FREE GAMING PC, COME TO (my address) NOW!!!". Oh jeez

The posts continue. "FREE PIECE OF (bleep) TOYOTA, COME TO (my address) AND JUST TAKE IT, WE DON'T WANT IT". There was also "FREE HUSBAND THAT DOESN'T DO WHAT HE IS (bleep)ING SUPPOSED TO". Just completely random stuff.

Fast forward to this morning. I get on my computer for the usual routine. Check my email, RSS, Mac-Forums, Gizmodo, etc. My mom walks in and says "Good morning Jamieeeeee ", seems normal enough. I go downstairs to grab some grape juice, I see her in the hallway and I couldn't quite understand what she said, but it was something like "I think you should stop now". I had no idea what the heck she was talking about, so I just said "Stop what? Stop....... walking?" - She said "Nothing" and goes upstairs (Picture a Russian accent on the woman). Strange-o.

This is when my dad comes in. He thinks that I did it!!
I'm the male teenaged son, what defence did I have? The female parent doesn't even know what an IP address is. My mom starts raving on about this "Maybe you don't like living with us" bull. Nothing really new. She's the type who instantly takes an idea then keeps it forever.

All I can say is it wasn't me, but who else would have that much information?
They're emailing CL and dealing with it, but the lack of trust worries me, I've never really been a bad boy (Well, unless you remember the "Anyone awake, can't sleep" thread, but I still stand by my right on that one.)

Basically my question is, what do I do at this point? Is this some idiot just trying to be funny? Am I being framed? Having both my parents mad at me for something I took absolutely no part in just worries me is all.

Yikes, all the phone calls don't bother me as much as having your address listed. Who knows what kind of weirdos are around? I'm not sure what I would be doing either but I'd definitely be e-mailing Craigslist, considering changing my phone number, and possibly getting the police involved if anyone weird shows up.

Too bad about your parents thinking you did it. I think it's just a parental thing though, lol. One time our window broke and my mom tried to say I took a stick and started hacking away at the window even though I'm a girl and have never done (or wanted to do) anything like that.

Start thinking about who might have a gripe against you. And suggest to the parents that they call the police. If it's not you, let them know. Don't know exactly what the police can do, but CL will have an IP of where those posts are coming from. Let them know you're all for getting the police involved in this. That kind of stuff is not a laughing matter.

That's too bad. You should probably start by changing your phone number. changing addresses isn't that easy unfortunately, but hopefully the person doing it will get bored and move on.

Make sure you're more careful with your info from now on.

Sounds like one of your friends hate you or something like that, so I'd let your parents know that it is not you. I'd start with some emails to Craigslist letting know what is going down, if gets any worse police time. But honestly remind your parents that they taught you right that you are not doing it, its not easy trust me I was in a similar road block in my life a few years ago but well my parents don't exactly get along well my father wanted to press charges and blah blah blah end turn it was the neighbor and my father doesn't believe that I was innocent, so we don't exactly have a good bond.

That's a pretty horrible situation to be in.

The only way for you to prove to your parents that it isn't you, IMO, is to get CL and the police involved yourself. I feel really sorry for you. Are you an only child, or do you have siblings? Maybe it could be a sibling.

bobtomay said:

Start thinking about who might have a gripe against you. And suggest to the parents that they call the police. If it's not you, let them know. Don't know exactly what the police can do, but CL will have an IP of where those posts are coming from. Let them know you're all for getting the police involved in this. That kind of stuff is not a laughing matter.

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The problem is some people have a random IP assigned by the ISP every time you go online, so this may not be effective.

Thrilling said:

That's a pretty horrible situation to be in.

The only way for you to prove to your parents that it isn't you, IMO, is to get CL and the police involved yourself. I feel really sorry for you. Are you an only child, or do you have siblings? Maybe it could be a sibling.

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Thanks everyone.

I'm sixteen, would the police even take me seriously?

I have an older brother, but some of the ads involved his car. "BLACK BMW ON DRIVEWAY OF (address), WON'T START, SMASH IT ALL YOU WANT" - It's either some guy who drinks 25 hours a day, or someone really against me and/or my family.

Oh man, do you have a garage to park your cars in? And this definitely sounds like a case of someone trying to mess with you.

Craigslist should easily be able to track this guy down by IP. Even if his IP changes constantly, it will still trace back to the same ISP segment. If you decide to involve the police in the matter (hopefully they have someone who specializes in Cybercrime), they should be able to use the information supplied by Craigslist and the ISP to identify the culprit. With recent events in the news, like the MySpace suicide, online harassment has become a very serious crime.

Yeah I think it is time to get the proper people in on this, hopeful they can find out who it is or at least block his ip address from craigslist.

What CWA said is DEAD on. They can trace exactly who is posting this junk. Especially if the police get involved.

technologist said:

craigslist | about > help > abuse

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Been there. Do they disclose information to individuals if requested, in a situation like this? Or will they only give it to the coppers?

Unibody said:

Been there. Do they disclose information to individuals if requested, in a situation like this? Or will they only give it to the coppers?

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Not sure but I would still pass on the info down to the blues and 2s.

Unibody said:

Been there. Do they disclose information to individuals if requested, in a situation like this? Or will they only give it to the coppers?

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Doesn't matter. What are you going to do with the info if you have it besides get into trouble yourself. With those type of posts, it's time to call the police and let them deal with it.

You need to be printing those things out so you have something to show them.

An update. My parents are still mad at me for nothing. They are still convinced I did it. ("The wording style" matches my type). I talked to a few friend about it, they also think it's crazy that they are dumping this all on me with no solid evidence.

Put an add on Craigslist. $100 to whoever kidnaps the knot head that's posting ads with my information on it. $10 more if they actually make it to the police station....

Village Idiot said:

Put an add on Craigslist. $100 to whoever kidnaps the knot head that's posting ads with my information on it. $10 more if they actually make it to the police station....

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Haha good plannnnnn

It only gets worse from here. My parents are now making unnecessary argument over this. Every day, they're yelling at each other about weather I did it or not. It's becoming unbearable.

Let them search your computer for the username (and password of course) for the person who's posting that stuff. If they don't find anything, it's obviously not you. You have to have an account to post on craigslist, right?