Laptop containing Southend children's social services case notes bought on eBay

Machine 'went missing' from disposal contractor

By Tash Shifrin

Southend-on-Sea borough council is reviewing its procedures after a laptop computer containing social services case notes on local children turned up on the eBay auction website.

A council spokesperson said the laptop had gone missing from Revitalise, but the council had not been aware of the loss until the individual who bought the machine on eBay found the social services information and reported the matter to the council. The data found on the machine is understood to include fostering, adoption and child protection information dating from between 1999 and 2003,

The laptop is now in the possession of Essex and Surrey Police.

The spokesperson confirmed that Revitalise was supposed to wipe hard disk drives before reselling the machines. He added that the council did not know how many other computers had gone missing from the organisation.

The council is contacting the families of the children whose details were found on the recovered laptop and has also set up a helpline.

Paul Greenhalgh, corporate director of children and learning at the council, said: "We are taking this matter very seriously. We are working with the police and have conducted a full investigation and review of our IT disposal procedure. As a further safeguard we have commissioned the Society of IT Management (Socitm) to undertake a further audit of our procedures.

The council said this was the first incident to have come to light in the five years since Revitalise began handling its used computers and it was in dialogue with the organisation to find out how the problem occurred.

The loss of the Southend machine follows a string of other recent data security breaches involving laptops. Earlier this week Marks & Spencer warned 26,000 staff that their personal data was at risk following theft of a laptop computer containing pension information from a printing firm contracted to produce pensions correspondence.

Last week a laptop holding payroll data on 10,000 NHS staff was stolen from locked and alarmed premises at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals trust. And in March, police recovered another NHS laptop, containing the names, addresses and dates of birth of 11,500 children, which had been stolen from Nottinghamshire Teaching primary care trust.

lieworld wrote:

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I talk to people all the time and Guess What they say about ebay?

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 What do the say?

eBay Now Sells Suicide

All of which, apart from raising bile into your mouth, brings up a rather gross but interesting question. How do famous people dispose of their recreational materials? Dinguses, Buzzyboingers, Doinkydiddlers, old dog-eared copies of Bigguns magazines - you know theyve got em. But how do you get those DNA drenched nasties off their property without having some trash-picker selling it on Ebay the next day?

Is there a bonded pick-up service? Throw it out the car window at a hair-pin turn? Is there some poor, confused rube on Mullholland Drive picking battery-operated delights out of his hedgerow all summer?

I have always maintained that life is vastly more interesting if you just peek under the surface now and then. I offer you this as an example to ponder.

A soldier is in trouble for allegedly selling the Queen's guards' famous bearskin hats on eBay.

The staff sergeant is also accused of trying to sell guardsmen's red tunics and weapon parts, reports The Sun.

An investigation was launched after bearskin hats, worth £650 each, started showing up on the auction website.

The 38-year-old who works in the armoury at Victoria Barracks in Windsor Castle, was held and items were found in his house.

He faces losing his £35,000 salary and his pension if charged and convicted.

The Sun quoted a Royal Military Police insider as saying: "The allegations are extremely serious.

"A large number of items of kits including bearskins, boots and scarlet tunics had been stolen from men's lockers which had been broken into, usually after dark.

"It's a very long and complex investigation. Officers are going through eBay archives tracing what was up for auction. His computer is also being looked at."

The MoD confirmed the investigation into "allegations of theft and fraud".

Pol Pot's Mercedes for Sale on EBay

(more images at link)

He was one of the most brutal dictators of the 20th century Now Pol Pot's car is up for grabs on eBay. A Brit is offering the 1973 Mercedes Limousine that is said to have once belonged to Cambodian dictator for 35,000 pounds.

"For Sale - one classic 1973 Mercedes Benz Stretch Limousine (short-wheel base stretch) -- previously used by one infamous owner -- Pol Pot who led the Khmer Rouge during its genocidal regime in Cambodia from 1975-1979." This is the tantalizing, if morally dubious, offer to car shoppers on eBay. The going price is 35,000 pounds (about 50,000 or $72,000).

It's not likely to go much higher than that. Whether the black luxury car actually belonged to the blood-thirsty dictator, who died in 1998, has yet to be confirmed. Paul Freer, the British banker who has put the car up for sale, was not to be reached for comment.

According to the eBay ad, the car was discovered while being used to transport water melon to the central market of Phnom Penh by the former editor of the Phnom Penh Post. Freer bought it in 2001, restored it and used it "for Sunday drives around Phnom Penh and the outskirts." He claims that Hollywood star Matt Dillon used it while shooting "City of Ghosts" in Cambodia in 2001. The car is currently on display at the French colonial Renakse Hotel, opposite the King's Palace.

Historians are debating the authenticity of the story. Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, which archives and researches the crimes of the Pol Pot regime -- which killed some two million people during its regime of terror -- explains that the infamous dictator owned several black Mercedes limousines. "It's impossible to determine which of the cars belonged to him," he says.

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Meg Whitman ebaY ID Theft, Porn, Whore,Trust & Safety Fail

David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, November 16, 2007Boxes of energy-saving lightbulbs that California utilities are supposed to distribute within the state to save power are instead turning up on eBay, where anyone in the country can buy them, a watchdog group reported Thursday.

As a result, California may not be saving as much power as it planned.

The Utility Reform Network bought from eBay several boxes of compact fluorescent lightbulbs that bore stickers saying they were subsidized by the utilities, in some cases Pacific Gas and Electric Co., in others, Southern California Edison.

A few errant bulbs may not seem like a big deal.

But each bulb was subsidized with money gleaned from the electricity bills Californians pay every month. In return, state energy regulators expected those bulbs to be installed in California, where they would help the state use less electricity.

But buyers on eBay can be anywhere. TURN also received word that some of the PG&E bulbs were being sold in a Reno hardware store.

"If Californians are going to be paying for it, the benefits should go to California consumers," said Bob Finkelstein, the group's executive director. "It's going to be the equivalent of if the state built a power plant in California, but they only plugged three-fourths of it in."

Finkelstein said his group didn't know the extent of the problem. Nor did the group know how the bulbs ended up on the resale market.

Keely Wachs, a spokesman for San Francisco's PG&E, said the company already takes into account the possibility that not all of the bulbs will be used. In the company's planning, PG&E assumes that it will only get the energy savings from about 80 percent of the bulbs distributed.

PG&E also has its own program to check out online lightbulb sales and see if they are using bulbs that came from the utility. The company estimates that 5,000 or fewer bulbs for sale online originally came from PG&E. The company will distribute or subsidize between 25 million and 30 million compact fluorescent lightbulbs this year, Wachs said.

"From PG&E's perspective, it's disappointing to see a group that claims to represent customer interest undermining programs that have great benefits for our customers," he said.

California is desperate to save electricity, both to fight global warming and to cut the number of new power plants built in the state. California utilities can receive financial rewards - possibly worth hundreds of millions of dollars paid by their customers - if they meet energy savings goals set by state regulators. The utilities are relying heavily on compact fluorescent bulbs to meet those goals.

If some of the bulbs disappear into the online market, the state and the utilities may not save all the power expected.

"There's a challenge there in figuring out how much we save versus what we were promised," Finkelstein said.

E-mail David R. Baker at dbaker@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Killers make money from collectors paying for art, letters

Collectors sell the items, called "murderabilia," for prices that can reach thousands of dollars. Lawmakers have banned the sales in five states and are now pushing for a federal law.

Florida bans felons from using their notoriety for profit, but violations are hard to prove and rarely enforced. While the state successfully prevented Gainesville student killer Danny Rolling for profiting from a book on his crimes, it failed to stem the sale of his art and letters through online auction sites.

Collectors benefit from a Florida system in which inmates can get money mailed from virtually anyone. Other states limit the number of people who can send money, do background checks on them and place caps on the amount of money in prison accounts.

Prison records show five Florida inmates whose items are being sold online received at least $767 from collectors since January 2005. The figure represents just money from well-known collectors and not family members, who officials say can serve as conduits for selling items.

Tod Bohannon said the figure validates his argument that inmates are not making big profits on selling items. The Georgia-based collector runs a Web site, Murderauction.com, where murderabilia items are offered in eBay-style auctions.

Bohannon said inmates often have to pay restitution to victims, spending the rest on toiletries, snacks and other small items bought through prisons.

"The real people that are profiting from murderabilia is the Department of Corrections," he said.

Andy Kahan, a victims' advocate in Houston, has been leading the fight against murderabilia sites. He said inmates should be prevented from receiving any money for items, no matter what the amount.

"Whether it's one cent or a couple hundred dollars, it's blood money," he said.

He said Bohannon's site is one of five major Web sites where murderabilia is sold. The sites list items from some of the nation's best-known criminals, including Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy and Charles Manson.

A self-portrait of Rolling, who was executed last year for killing five college students in Gainesville, was being offered recently for $350.

But most items come from lesser-known criminals. Collectors say if a murderer committed crimes notorious enough to earn them a nickname in the media, there's usually a market for their letters or art.

Glen Rogers was dubbed the Cross-Country Killer for being convicted of murders in two states and suspected of killings in two others. He's on Florida's Death Row for stabbing a 34-year-old mother of two and leaving her to die in a motel bathroom after meeting her at a Tampa bar in November 1995.

Records show at least three collectors deposited a total of $330 in his account from January 2005 to October 2007. At the same time, items from him were being sold online such as a jail canteen order for $15 and a signed card for $45.

Florida prisons ban inmates from conducting business behind bars. But the Florida Department of Corrections has no active investigations against inmates for selling murderabilia, spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said.

She said the department investigates complaints, but wasn't aware of inmates getting money for items.

"We don't know what we don't know," she said.

The Florida Attorney General's Office is not prosecuting any cases under a law banning felons from profiting from their crimes, said spokeswoman Sandi Copes. She said the corrections department has not provided any information showing such incidents are occurring.

"Our office was assured that this was not in fact happening," she said.

But collectors freely admit that they give money to inmates who provide art.

William Smyers, a collector who recently moved to New York from Florida, said inmates typically don't ask for outright payment and often get nothing for items.

"Most inmates are lucky to see one person send them anything," he said.

Smyers said he has written to more than 40 inmates, including Rolling before he was executed. He became interested in writing serial killers to learn more about what leads them to commit heinous crimes.

"It's the fascination of what makes them tick," he said.

He said he valued items from Rolling and was hesitant to sell them, but recent financial problems led him to offer a letter and thumbprint online. He said he's deposited small amounts of money in Rolling's account and those of other inmates.

"There wasn't a financial agreement that I send them anything," he said.

Deposits are easier to make in Florida than other states, he said. In Florida, inmates receive deposit slips that they can send to anyone. Collectors fill out limited personal information on the slips and send them with a money order to the corrections department, which puts the money in inmate accounts.

The deposit slips themselves are even collectibles: a slip from Rolling was being sold online last week. Bohannon said he sometimes puts his Web site address on the back of slips and distributes them at horror shows.

Other states have more restrictive systems for depositing money in inmate accounts. In Alabama, inmates are limited to eight people who can make deposits. Each person must give a name, date of birth and Social Security number to an inmate, who then provides the information to prison officials for a background check.

Five states - California, Michigan, New Jersey, Texas and Utah - have taken additional steps to stop murderabilia. The states ban the sale of the items, but Kahan said enforcement has been limited and the constitutionality of the laws has not been tested.

He said a federal law could provide the best way to regulate an Internet trade that crosses state boundaries. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced legislation in May to bar federal and state prisoners from placing almost any item in the mail for the purpose of selling it.

Criminals would face fines and a minimum of three years in prison to be served consecutively with any other sentence.

But the law likely wouldn't pass constitutional muster, said Jim Tucker, policy counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington office.

After a publisher offered to pay "Son of Sam" killer David Berkowitz to tell his story in 1977, New York became the first of about 40 states to prohibit criminals from profiting from crimes. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1991 that the laws violated the First Amendment.

The court has not ruled on the constitutionality of subsequent laws focused on murderabilia.

Tucker said the efforts might be well intentioned, but speech cannot be restricted based on content.

"That's what the First Amendment is all about - we've got to protect the good with the bad," he said.

Porn star politician auctions breast implants

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - Porn star Mary Carey, who shot to fame by running for California governor against Arnold Schwarzenegger, unveiled plans on Tuesday to auction off her autographed, recently removed breast implants for charity.

Carey said the size 36-D implants were taken out two weeks ago and replaced with larger 36-DDDs and while under anesthesia she realized they could be used to raise money for breast cancer research.

"The doctors asked me what I wanted to do with them and I said, 'You know what, I'm going to keep them and try to sell them. Because my grandmother had breast cancer," Carey told Reuters in an interview.

The 27-year-old star of such adult films as "Boobsville Sorority Girls" and "Big Breasted Beauties" will be seen in the upcoming VH1 reality show "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" and said that during taping she kicked addictions to the anti-anxiety drug Xanax and alcohol.

"Now that I'm sober I wanted a new physical state to go along with my new mental state," Carey said. "I thought the auction would be a great way to spread some holiday cheer and make sure someone out there would have a Mary Mary Christmas."

The autographed implants have been placed on eBay and Carey, whose real name is Mary Cook, said she planned to donate some 90 percent of the proceeds to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

She intends to use the rest of the money on medical bills for her mother, who suffered major injuries after jumping off a four-story building in 2006.

"I'm actually overall very anti-plastic surgery," Carey said. "I watched my mom go through 11 surgeries (for her injuries) and it's like, for me to voluntarily put myself through that, the only right thing to do is make money and donate it to charity."