Armed Robbers Pose as Craigslist Customers

This story reaffirms something we should all know, which is be wary of anyone you know only from the Internet. In a story released on SFGate.com, a seller on Craigslist, selling "hooded jackets" was talked into meeting someone at a local mall. When they arrived for the meeting, they were relieved of their merchandise at gunpoint.

The good news is that the only loss was the "hooded jackets!"

For the full story on SFGate.com, link here.

In my opinion, Craig and Craigslist - who provide a "mostly" free service - have been extremely honest and proactive about protecting their "users" from crime.

Although, I could find nothing about this (new and frightening scam) - here is a link to their warnings about some of the scams attempted on their site. Hopefully this one will make their list soon.

The dangers of meeting someone that you have met only over the Internet have been well documented. Although primarily written in the context of "romance encounters," anyone meeting someone they meet on the Internet needs to be careful and verify (via a trusted source) who they are dealing with before proceeding.

For a resource from the University of Oklahoma (The Police Notebook), which covers this subject - link here.