Los Angeles (CA) – Craigslist has always extolled a “damn the torpedos” mantra when it comes to ad postings, but things at the world's most popular online classifieds site may be getting out of hand.  A simple scan of Google News shows dozens of stories of Craigslist-related robberies, prostitution stings and other shenanigans in recent days.  Sure, there’s always one or two Craigslist robbery stories every day, but in the past few weeks things seem to have exploded for no apparent reason.

Earlier this week in Clearwater, two teenagers were arrested after they robbed 18-year-old Johnathan Bronson for his Xbox.  Bronson placed an ad on Craigslist selling his game console and agreed to meet the suspects in a dark parking lot just off the freeway.  Both of the criminals were arrested shortly afterwards.

In San Diego yesterday, a man and a woman tried to rob someone who answered a Craigslist ad to buy a plasma television set.  The trick here is that the couple didn’t own a television set and arranged to meet the man at a vacant house that, you guessed it, didn’t belong to them.  The attempted robbery happened in broad daylight, 2:30 PM, but the victim managed to get away.  Unfortunately, the robbers got away.  Apparently no alarm bells in the victim’s mind were raised after he was told to only bring cash.

In Minneapolis, there has been a spate of Craigslist-related robberies in the past weeks.  The robbers pose as sellers of high-ticket items like television sets and electronics and they know the victims will probably be carrying hundreds to thousands of dollars in cash.  In all the cases, the victims were lured to secluded areas and then robbed of their wallets and other valuables.

Craigslist’s freewheeling postings of “casual relationship” seekers and massage providers has also provided easy victims for criminals and police alike and in Greensboro North Carolina, five people were recently arrested for robbing people responding to Craigslist ads for massages and sex.  And in nearby Suffolk Virginia, police turned the tables and placed Craigslist ads themselves offering paid sex.  Three people were arrested after responding to the ads.

Major media is also getting into the act and NEWS.com recently analyzed Denver-Area Craigslist postings during the Democratic National Convention.  Using simple Unix text manipulation utilities, News.com’s Declan McCullagh found that sex ad postings spiked 70 to 80 percent during the convention.  Hopefully he’ll do the same analysis for the Republican National Convention that’s happening right now in Minneapolis.

But to be fair, people being robbed on Craigslist is nothing new and the vast majority of transactions go off without a hitch.  Back in July 2006, the San Francisco Chronicle interviewed Craigslist’s founder, Jim Buckmaster.  Buckmaster said people should take obvious precautions when meeting people and added that robberies were “rare”.  In fact, Craigslist provides very visible safety information on its pages.  On its “Personal Safety Tips” page, Craigslist advises people to always meet in a public area like a mall or café and to consider bringing a friend along.

But the most important tip that Craigslist gives seems to be lost to many of those robbery victims – “Trust your instincts.” Hey what could go wrong carrying $1000 in cash and meeting someone in a dark alleyway?

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