Quoth the article: City police [...] say she has not committed any crimes. Officers have responded to more than a dozen reports, but, "it’s not illegal to ask people for money" [...]

I'm no lawyer, but this seems like a textbook case of fraud to me: A deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair gain.

Asking people for money certainly isn't illegal, but deceiving them for that purpose?

The City police is not doing their job as they should. It is the textbook definition of fraud.

Here's a link to the Crying Girl Con Artist page on DavisWiki.com, the site they mention in the article:

http://daviswiki.org/Crying_Girl_Con_Artist

(The internet is amazing.)

Maybe I've been in a big city for too long, but it's really heartwarming to see how many people in the wiki comments were taken in by her story and gave money to her so generously.

It's been years since I've given money to anyone on the street, and I'll never do it again. I've seen it all--the guy who stands outside Wawa all night and then goes around the corner to his car and drives home. The guy who got me to buy him a hotdog who I later found out had more than enough money to buy dinner but was saving it for heroin. The thousands of people who just need a "bus transfer" or got stranded by their boss/girlfriend/boyfriend. The kids from the suburbs who play homeless for a few hours in the morning so they can buy some Starbucks after shoplifting all afternoon.

Anyway, I gave up on listening to people asking for money. All they get out of me is "sorry, no cash." It's nice to see others are more hopeful.

The only time I've given money to someone on the street he gave me a lengthy story which boiled down to "I just got into town and I need $5 to stay at the hostel down the street". (I was aware that such a hostel existed.)

I wouldn't have believed him except that he said "I figure that if I can get 20 people to give me a quarter each..." -- I figured that a scammer wouldn't have concocted such a complicated story just to ask for $0.25.

So I gave him the $5 he said he needed, and the look of shocked surprise on his face -- and his effusive thanks -- convinced me that I was right to believe him.

I used to be that way, but now I just don't worry about it. $10 to buy someone some food at Taco Bell isn't going to break me, and there's a chance it will help someone, so why lose sleep over it?

I do wonder though - when does this sort of thing stop being community policing and cross the line into web vigilante-ism?

If you go to the actual Wiki page you'll find all sorts of warnings and calls for refrain, eg:

"Please please please do not try to contact her or her family through Facebook or Myspace. They are definitely her profiles, but it won't do any good to try to contact her this way. You could get in trouble for harassment if you don't choose the right words, and she could potentially retaliate against you. I learned from someone who knows this girl that her family is already well-aware of the situation and gets several emails each day about it. They do not talk to her, and they are very upset by the whole thing. No need to upset that family any more than they already are."

So it's still pretty alright. I'd say the line lies where there is malice.

I wish every city had something like this (with good content).

That's what we're trying to do! If you see the message at the top of http://daviswiki.org -- we've just gotten a grant from the Knight Foundation (i.e. Everyblock) to do software development, and we're now trying to fundraise (in the interim) to cover outreach & education efforts (a huge aspect of success).

http://localwiki.org has more information. It's going to be an entirely non-profit, open-source effort.

If you think your community would be a good pilot then you should definitely fill out the pilot recommendation form (and have other people do so as well). We're really looking for places with creative, inspired, amazing people -- and we want to work alongside them to really refine this model for local media!

When a comment starts with "I wish" there is usually an opportunity for a startup.

A "Citypedia" of sort, where communities could publish local information at <city>.<whatever>pedia.com could become big quickly and be ridiculously useful as well.

This is actually a pretty old scam. I remember one time I helped a guy get a 'greyhound ticket' but the second time (weeks later) he asked me for money for the same thing I said no.

Although I am glad to hear that there are good people that give out there.

This is an example of Human Flesh Search (人肉搜索) that has become an internet phenomenon in China:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_flesh_search_engine

I am encouraged to see this happening. A continuation of taking responsibility for our own safety/health/fiscal heartiness.

Speculation: Carrying this forward, as more of the data gathering, documentation, and other work is provided in a neat package, does this promote the type of police department we see depicted in the "Harry Cannon" short in the original Heavy Metal? A "menu" of charges for various police services?

The Internet makes it harder to lie. Internet:1 Con Artists: 0