by Michael James

Created on: November 03, 2009   Last Updated: November 26, 2009

I love the question. Is Craigslist safe to use. So now I would love to answer that question. Absolutely Craigslist is safe to use. If your careful. Just because it's a safe and a free classified service, doesn't mean the user should get lazy and not think about protecting themselves.

Just like any online service. Your gonna get people who try to take advantage of others. It's part of the game. Sure it's wrong that they do this, but we really can't stop them from trying. However we can counter attack and practice a little self protection. Which might include not trusting everyone. Because anyone who uses the service should already know. The chances of you knowing the people responding to your ads or the ads you respond to. The chances are slim that you know them. In fact I can guarantee you don't know them. So don't fully trust them right off hand. Protect yourself. It's good to question things.

Personal ads can also be a scary thing, and this is where you need to be the most cautious. Sure everyone wants to find their someone out there, and these personals and dating sites are expensive. So who wants to use them when you have a free and local service right at your fingertips. I mean yeah it's easy to put yourself out there to meet someone. However the best way to protect yourself from freaks and people who may try to hurt you is simple. Since you met online. Get to know them online. Email back and forth for a while till you can build up a small trust structure. Then possibly proceed to phone only contacts so you can listen to them and how they talk. Then you can find out if their worth meeting, because 9 times out of 10. The people who get hurt, are the people who rush into it and meet people at night, then end up alone with them somewhere. Which makes you an easy target. So it's best to take the time to get to know the person before having any face to face meetings. If their interested in you enough. They'll keep calling and they'll be ok with waiting.

The other thing that I see people getting scammed by is the housing market ads. Apartment listings that say something like 'put a down payment and the place is yours'. How do people fall for these really? Why would you want to put a down payment on a place you've never seen before? If you find a house or apartment your interested in. Contact the seller/renter. Meet with them first. Tour the property. Then make your decision. Then you know if you put money down. The lease agreement saves you if you need to resign due to damages or anything else. With out a signed agreement. Your not covered if you openly give someone money for a place you've never seen, or a to a person you've never met.

So after sharing some simple tips on self protection from using Craigslist. It's not the website that's not safe. It's the users. Sure the criminals who prey on people online are just that. Criminals. It's still the users full responsibility to protect themselves. There's no excuse for not watching out for your own well being.

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