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EU Crime Government The Internet

Europe Now Has Its Own "Most Wanted Fugitives" Web Page (eumostwanted.eu) 208

Posted by timothy from the needs-to-merge-with-tumblr dept.
New submitter ffkom writes: European police organization Europol was probably jealous of the fame and popularity of the FBI's Most Wanted site, so they finally launched their own, European version. And if you want to know what a peaceful place Europe is, just consider this: You don't even have to kill anyone to get on the current "Most Wanted Fugitives" list. A mere fraud worth 12€ is currently enough to get you into this "Hall of questionable fame."
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Europe Now Has Its Own "Most Wanted Fugitives" Web Page More

Europe Now Has Its Own "Most Wanted Fugitives" Web Page

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  • Not 12 euros... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 30, 2016 @05:18AM (#51401813)

    ...but 12,563 euros. Some European countries use "." instead of ",".

    Still not much in the grand scheme of things though!

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Livius ( 318358 )

      Some European countries use "." instead of ",".

      The UK and Ireland - where they speak English - do not. The website is wrong.

      Though Slashdot should do better than blindly copying an obvious error.

      • Re: (Score:1, Offtopic)

        by Opportunist ( 166417 )

        Who gives a shit about exactly those two countries that could barely be less European but still qualify for the EU?

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by Hognoxious ( 631665 )

          You couldn't even point to Europe on a map, you fat bastard.

      • Re:Not 12 euros... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by ericloewe ( 2129490 ) on Saturday January 30, 2016 @09:04AM (#51402537)

        ISO 31 specifically states that both "," and "." are valid separators.

        If one cannot infer what the number is in this particular case, they have no business writing anything at all. Confusing 12€ with 12 523€ is a new level of stupidity.

      • It is very common for Europeans, who pride themselves on being multilingual, use disagreeing locales for words as for numbers. It helps to make sure nobody can understand anything without referring to the original language document, and also it maintains the appearance of a translation.

      • So you tell me that this guy bought 12k € of garden furniture? He must have a hell of a garden. Maybe he's just camping in his back yard?

        • When you consider that the furniture in question was for installation in a restaurant, it's not that incredible.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by ffkom ( 3519199 )

      Sorry, but it is not me who cannot read: The text of the story that I submitted specifically said 12 k€, see: http://slashdot.org/submission... [slashdot.org]

      I've got no idea why the "k" before the "€" mysteriously disappeared when the story was published.

      • I've got no idea why the "k" before the "â" [1] mysteriously disappeared

        There shouldn't be anything before the € anyway.

        http://publications.europa.eu/... [europa.eu]

        [1] Slashdot mangles it, as you can see. Better to use the iso code. It's EUR.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by ffkom ( 3519199 )

          The publication.europa.eu site you cite makes other even less ASCII-compatible and some outright stupid proposals:

          They propose to put a "hard space" between the currency and the value, but "hard" or "non breaking" spaces are not included in ASCII.

          They propose "m EUR or bn EUR may only be used when space is insufficent for spelling out", which is outright stupid because there is a SI prefix "M" for "million" already, and "m" is also an existing SI prefix meaning "milli" - 1/1000.

          However, it's a pity this sit

          • Re:Not 12 euros... (Score:4, Informative)

            by arth1 ( 260657 ) on Saturday January 30, 2016 @08:32AM (#51402429) Homepage Journal

            They propose "m EUR or bn EUR may only be used when space is insufficent for spelling out", which is outright stupid because there is a SI prefix "M" for "million" already, and "m" is also an existing SI prefix meaning "milli" - 1/1000.

            And also stupid because the EU countries are split on what "bn" or billion would mean. In most of the EU, a billion means a million million, but then there are a few countries that use the short scale like the US, and a billion means a thousand million.

            • I've never understood the rationale for the non-US billion. Both 10^6 and 10^9 (and to a lesser extent 10^12) are numbers that come up all the time, why not have explicit names for them? SI has a prefix at every thousand mark. You gain very little by "stretching" the scale, since numbers 10^15 and up are exceedingly rare to encounter in a form that's not already SI-prefixed (e.g. petabytes).

              So to bring home the story for the American audience:
              Because of differences in comma/period conventions and the

              • Uhm, you're missing the word milliard [wikipedia.org]. And yeah, we need two scales with confusing names about as much as we need systemd.

                • There is only systemd, and when I choose it, I know exactly which one I'm choosing.

                  If only I could say the same for Gtk, or European numerical units.

              • Re:Not 12 euros... (Score:5, Informative)

                by arth1 ( 260657 ) on Saturday January 30, 2016 @11:18AM (#51403295) Homepage Journal

                I've never understood the rationale for the non-US billion. Both 10^6 and 10^9 (and to a lesser extent 10^12) are numbers that come up all the time, why not have explicit names for them?

                Um, that is the rationale. There are names.

                Million = 10^6
                Milliard = 10^9
                Billion = 10^12 = million^2
                Billiard = 10^15 (and a game)
                Trillion - 10^18 = million^3 ... and so on

                It also makes it easier to figure out that a septillion is a million^7. Likewise, to go the other way, 10^30=10^6^5, i.e. a pentillion.

                The US short scale system has no good relation between the names and the actual numbers. A septillion in US terminology is 10^24 - where does the seven come in?

                • Yeah I found those terms in my searches. Maybe they sound natural to people who've grown up with them; they sound odd and contrived to my ears (but that's just me). "The global economy is projected to grow to over a trilliard EUR by 2250." "There are 7 milliard people in the world." Meh.

                  I don't see 10^6n [and a separate construction for 10^(6n+3)] as particularly more intuitive than 10^3(n+1). I get the rationale you put forth about exponents of a million. But I'm left wondering how useful it is to

    • Re:Not 12 euros... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Z00L00K ( 682162 ) on Saturday January 30, 2016 @08:04AM (#51402355) Homepage Journal

      Notice that the submitted story had it right: http://slashdot.org/submission... [slashdot.org]

      A mere fraud worth 12 k€

      After edited by timothy it changed to:

      A mere fraud worth 12€

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Samour ( 4210391 )
      Yup. That's almost a small claims court dispute.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by rossdee ( 243626 )

      > Some European countries use "." instead of ",".

      spreadsheet data stored in a ..CSV file must really confuse them.

      • Parsing a CSV is harder than you'd think, for that reason amongst others. Even Excel doesn't always get it right, I remember having to get some 3rd party library to correctly read all cases, and it was quite a lot of code. Not just fields=split(line,",")
    • Some Latin American countries copied both the European way and the American way, so you might see a sign for a burger that is 12.32, next to a sign for a car that is 12.476

  • Ah, Slashdot. (Score:3, Funny)

    by aix tom ( 902140 ) on Saturday January 30, 2016 @05:19AM (#51401819)

    The place where the editors don't know the "." is the thousands separator in several European languages. ;-P

    • I could pardon not knowing what decimal and thousand separator is. But there is what is written : "12.353," see 6the comma at the end ? The submitter did not even THINK why there would be a comma at the end. Even if I did not knew that , can be a thousand separator in some regions , if I see 12,000. $ it is quite obvious the . is a thousand (or hundred in some region !) separator and the comma a decimal separator.
      • switched , and . at that last sentence. Mistyped.

        • Maybe they didn't have the ability to edit after they submitted, what then? Wait for Timmy to fix it?

      • You could pardon some random bloke down the pub not knowing, but if you're writing an article about it for all the world to see then it behoves you to do a bit of background reading.

        The (apparent) three decimal places should have made bell ring for anyone with a bit of intelligence.

        Now before somebody pastes the first thing they find on Google, I'm aware that there are (or were) currencies based on a thousand subunits. But neither the Euro nor any of its predecessors is among them.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by arth1 ( 260657 )

          The (apparent) three decimal places should have made bell ring for anyone with a bit of intelligence.

          You're falling into the same cultural trap as those you criticise. Some regions (including the most populous country on Earth) use groupings of four, and a grouping of three won't ring a bell.

          But nevertheless, one should always familiarize onerself with whatever is copied, and especially so if making presentational changes. And the original text also has a strong hint that at least older Americans should catch: the use of ,- at the end to denote no cents.

          If changing, I would change to ISO specs, where

          • You're falling into the same cultural trap

            Please. It's not Friday. Spare me the SJW crap.

            Some regions (including the most populous country on Earth) use groupings of four, and a grouping of three won't ring a bell.

            Groupings and decimals aren't the same thing. If it was a grouping of four it would have appeared as 1.2xyz and not 12.xyz.

            Also, last time I heard, China don't use the Euro.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mwvdlee ( 775178 )

      I wonder what the editors though the ",-" part meant in "12.523,- EUR"?

      • I wonder what the editors though the ",-" part meant in "12.523,- EUR"?

        You make three obvious mistakes here. The incorrect pluralization of editors, the missing t on thought, and the idea that slashdot editors think.

    • Nor do they know that in English the Euro symbol goes in front of the numerals representing the value, not after (same for the Dollar sign by the way).
    • There is a dropdown at the top to change language; english is selected when I go to the site. If they have different languages, they should use the language appropriate thousands separator character. Though, three-digits isn't a valid sub-currency-unit value anywhere I know of so it's still not a valid excuse.

  • Gee learn to read (Score:4, Insightful)

    by aepervius ( 535155 ) on Saturday January 30, 2016 @05:23AM (#51401829)
    It was 12K euro not 12 euro.

    • Sorry, but it is not me who cannot read: The text of the story that I submitted specifically said 12 k€, see: http://slashdot.org/submission... [slashdot.org]

      I've got no idea why the "k" before the "€" mysteriously disappeared when the story was published.

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Ahh, good to see not much has changed in editorial quality since Slashdot's recent acquisition. Gotta keep the traditions alive!

        (and yes I know it's not realistic to expect much to change immediately after a change of ownership, but that doesn't mean we can't still be snarky about it)

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by KGIII ( 973947 )

          It not only doesn't mean that you can't be snarky about it - it means you should. So far, I like the new group of masters. It's probably best that we break them in properly. I, um... I left the guy a few comments in replies to his comments in the thread about the sale. I even left a reply indicating that we'd be needing a picture of them naked and covered in chicken fried steak batter if they wanted any success. I mean, it's the only way...

          So, you have an obligation to be snarky. It's your/our duty. You don

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Livius ( 318358 )

      Twelve kelvin-euro, now we're talking about some serious crime.

  • 12 THOUSAND Euro not 12 (Score:3)

    by bloodhawk ( 813939 ) on Saturday January 30, 2016 @05:30AM (#51401849)
    new owners, same god aweful outright wrong summaries. 12 Thousand Euros not 12.

    • The fact that he made the most wanted list for fraud of less than $14,000 USD is still pretty pathetic. You have to hit at least 6 figures to make the FBI's white collar most wanted list.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ffkom ( 3519199 )

      The text of the story that I submitted specifically said 12 k€, see: http://slashdot.org/submission... [slashdot.org]

      I've got no idea why the "k" before the "€" mysteriously disappeared when the story was published.

    • Americans gotta be American.
      I find it entertaining to watch how uneducated, narrow-minded and chauvinist American are.

      • I find it entertaining to watch how uneducated, narrow-minded and chauvinist American are.

        How humble, broad-minded and inclusive of you.

  • Yeah, I know some places use a "," instead of a decimal point. That's why it's a good idea if dealing with an international audience to use a space separator for thousands. But using a full-stop as a thousand separator and a comma for the decimal point is just whacky. Not as whacky as writing dates in MM-DD-YYYY format, but close. Perhaps one party really did think that the transaction was just twelve-and-a-half euro.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Livius ( 318358 )

      The decimal marker is a more significant separation than the thousands marker, therefore it uses the bigger symbol.

    • In some cases a colon is used as a decimal separator.

      To me the date format YYYY-MM-DD is preferred.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by iTrawl ( 4142459 )

        Colon is also used to indicate ratio, division, so using it as a decimal separator is probably not a good idea. The best we have now is to localise the separator to the language (maybe local variation thereof*) that is being used.

        *Some guy posted a link in a comment earlier that showed that Mexico use the decimal point. I guess that Spanish texts written in Mexico and Spanish texts written in Spain will confuse the heck out of the other nation's people. By now they'd probably invented a vim-like comment to

  • The new 'onion'?

  • As many have pointed out; it's 12.523,- EUR, not 12,523 EUR.

    But that aside, it remains correct to doubt whether such a person should be considered 'the most wanted' on a list of Europol. By any standard, he shouldn't be on there, if one looks at it objectively. Alas, no doubt there was some political pressure or a behind-the-doors-deal or whatever, so he got on there - while persons or companies making a million+ fraud don't, apparently.

    It's a pity, because it undermines the very essence of a 'most wanted'

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ffkom ( 3519199 )

      Just to set the record straight: The text of the story that I submitted specifically said 12 k€, see: http://slashdot.org/submission... [slashdot.org]

      I've got no idea why the "k" before the "€" mysteriously disappeared when the story was published.

  • Our criminals don't seem to be very ambitious XD

  • Since it's obvious that there was no conviction of 3 years in jail for 12 €, why not updating the article?

    • Up...date? You can update articles now? When did that happen? On /.? Never. What is that "up date" you talk about?

      • This is just a wild guess, but I think this up-dating thing is probably the new name for re-posting the same story?

        Shake that second-breakfast out of your neckbeard and get to it, Timmy.

  • I noticed they were all men, except for one woman. Men are bad, real bad. I think we need to start rounding them up and monitoring them more closely. Except for me. I'll take care of the women. When you men start behaving better you can come back.

    • It's probably just positive discrimination letting women off, or some white knights taking the blame for women.

    • Maybe we should stop them coming in, until our lawmakers get a handle of the situation

    • Oh yeah, could we PLEASE start a petition for equal treatment of the sexes when it comes to most wanted lists? I really would love to see SJWs explode in the dilemma of which side to be against.

  • Has anyone looked at the actual website? The fist six people are either looking at around 24 years or around 35 years.

    The people looking at sentences in the mid-twenty year range are all wanted for violent crimes (murder, attempted murder, terrorism) meanwhile the people looking at mid-thirty year sentences are wanted for drug trafficking and fraud. Seriously? You actually kill someone and you do less time than facilitating their high?

    I thought Europe was supposed to be a more progressive place since everyo

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