Like a lot of people, I read about this adventure that happened on Metafilter and I was astounded. The story was that two young Russian women in America were on the verge of being kidnapped into a world of prostitution and slavery but their predicament was tipped off in a Metafilter thread and they were saved. It seemed to be a classical tale of Internet Does Good.

But Miconian asks why so little of this was verified and investigated further. And it’s a heck of a good question to ask, regardless of what you believe happened.