20 crimes solved with Facebook (infographic)

In the U.K., more than 100,000 crimes have been linked to Facebook over the past five years, and crimes related to the social network in the country have skyrocketed 540 percent over the past three years. Maybe that's why You can now report criminals via Facebook in Scotland. The data comes from the Criminal Justice Degrees Guide.

For those who prefer text to an image, here are the 20 crimes highlighted in the group's infographic between 2007 and 2011:

1. Sheriff Al Lamberti: Leveraged social media to solve a series of air conditioning thefts happening in Florida's Broward County. He posted a description of the suspects on his Facebook page and got a 911 call two days later that led to an arrest.
2. Preteen U.S. girls: Charged with cyberstalking and first-degree computer trespassing after hacking into a classmate's Facebook account and posting sexually explicit content on her profile page.
3. 16-year-old male: Faces jail after playing a prank that resulted in $247,000 worth of damage and a five-month closure of a public library because of flooded toilets after talking about it on Facebook.
4. Mark Musarella: Lost his emergency medical technician license and was sentenced to 200 hours of community service after posting crime scene photos of a beaten and strangled woman on Facebook.
5. Andrew Dart: Jailed for a year after breaching a sexual offenders' order banning him from communicating electronically with young girls. Forty of his Facebook friends were girls under 16.
6. John Palmer: Jailed after he was caught laughing in a photo on his Facebook profile with an article detailing how his pit bull savaged a man who later died. He was sentence to jail for three and a half years.
7. Corey Christian Adams: Used Facebook to try to hire a hit man to kill a woman who accused him of rape. Now faces 11 to 22 years in prison.
8. Naomi Anderson: Taken to court after posting a video on Facebook of her decapitating a mouse. She received an 18-month probation order, 180 hours of community service, and was banned from owning animals for two years.
9. Nona Belomesoff: Found dead in a creek after agreeing to go on an overnight camping trip with a complete stranger she met on Facebook who offered her a new job.
10. Keri McMullen: Posted footage on her profile of a burglar she caught on video in her house before realizing it was a man she had befriended on Facebook the week before.
11. Paul Franco: Arrested after hacking his ex-girlfriend's Facebook account, changed the password and information, and began spamming her friends. He demanded money in exchange for the password, and she had him arrested for coercion.
12. Phoebe Prince: Committed suicide after being harassed and tormented on Facebook by a group of her fellow classmates. Nine teenagers were arrested in connection with her death.
13. Jason Smith: Received a lifetime restraining order after cyberstalking a girl on Facebook and threatening her for two years after she refused to go out with him.
14. Shannon Jackson: Violated a restraining order by poking a contact on Facebook.
15. Adam Mann: Killed his ex-wife with 25 blows of a hammer and a knife to the throat after she pursued him for child-support, and posted on Facebook that he was a waste of space and everyone knew it.
16. Camille Mathurasingh: Stabbed 20 times by her jealous ex-lover after she posted about their breakup and her new relationship on Facebook.
17. Vanessa Starr Palm: Arrested and thrown into a Bahamian jail with Alexander Daniel Rust after posting photos on Facebook of eating an endangered iguana. Charged with violating an animal protection act and released on $500 bail each.
18. Fouad Mourtada: Arrested after posing on Facebook as Prince Moulay Rachid, the younger brother of the king of Morocco. Charged with villainous practices linked to the alleged theft of identity.
19. Tracy Grinhaff: Bludgeoned to death in her family's shed by her husband after announcing on Facebook they were splitting up.
20. Dylan Osborn: Jailed for seven days for adding his wife as a friend on Facebook. His wife had a restraining order against him.

You'll notice that Facebook crimes are becoming more frequent as the social network continues to grow. One crime was mentioned for 2007 while six were listed for 2011. Of course there have been more than 20 Facebook-related crimes in the last five years, but the ratio should give you a good idea of the growing trend.

See also:

• Girl predicts her death on Facebook, shot by mother
• Father posts "bout 2 kill ma kid" on Facebook, then murders daughter
• Mother apologizes on Facebook, kills herself and children
• Couple unfriends woman on Facebook, father murders them
• Facebook Parenting: For the troubled teen. (NSFW video)
• Mother beats son for having a Facebook account