Just Because Craigslist Is Used In A Scam, Doesn't Make People Craigslist Victims
from the blame-the-scammer,-not-the-platform dept
It's amazing how often Craigslist gets blamed for stuff that it didn't do. The latest, as sent in by an anonymous reader, is that a scammer used Craigslist to rent the same house out to at least 20 different people. The guy who owned the house put up ads on Craigslist, saying the house would be available May 1, and then collected first and last month's rent from at least 20 people. Those 20 people and their families discovered the situation as they showed up to the house on May 1. Clearly, these folks are the victim of a scammer (most likely the guy who owned the house). But the local newspaper, the Pasadena Star News refers to them as "Craigslist victims" as if it's the fault of Craigslist. It makes you wonder, if the same scam had been done via a classified ad in the Pasadena Star News, would the headline have read: "Number of Pasadena Star News victims increases"? Somehow, I doubt it.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: blame, scam, victims
Companies: craigslist
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That said, this is either a failure in journalistic integrity at the "Pasadena Star News" or simply incompetent journalism.
I vote the latter-- it's the simplier explaination. Expecting competence is also optimistic.
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Scamm...
This speaks of the need for (ye aulde) "letter of credit" - a document which authorized payment for something upon one or more conditions. It could have been written on a conditional indicating successful habitation of said residence...
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Re: BFE Travel
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Explain please, I don't understand why the classifieds in the paper would have offered more protection - has there never been a scam ran in the new paper classifieds?
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In their paper anyway.
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Craigs List is Blamed for Everything
Open any major city newspaper and you will find ads for "massage parlors", ads with 800 numbers on how to make millions in real estate, ads with several cars and a cell number, ads with claims you too can work from home and make $1200 to $2000 a week answering email.
The newspapers know about these rip offs but take the money and remain silent. At least with CL other users can warn you if an ad is hinky.
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The rest of us know that there are plenty of idiot journalists out there.
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Another victim of newspaper shorthand
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i blame them.
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Craigslist is part of Ebay
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No care no responsibility
Lets hide behind legislation!
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Reference Point
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What can we do?
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