Would Tony Soprano have logged onto Facebook and posted his location? Fuhgeddaboudit!
But Italian police are using Facebook to track and arrest Mafioso, reports a Rome magazine, L’Espresso, and they’re finding that while mobsters are smart about some things, some of them are just like the rest of us and share too much online.
“For us it is an important tool. It shows the interlinkages between people. The photographic material is also a starting point for investigations.”
Mobsters used to use landlines and then cell phones, but now they’re moving onto the Internet, and find Facebook allows them to send messages quickly and directly.
But sometimes, they’re still just stupid criminals, no matter how tech-savvy they like to think they are. For one example, one Mafia boss is behind bars after he posted pictures on his girlfriend’s page, showing where he was. Police also tracked down a murders suspect after they traced his IP address through his Facebook account.
Whatever happened to the good old days when mobsters just whacked people without worrying if someone would click the “Like” button?