Craigslist safety questioned after slayings

Responding to an ad on Craigslist for a used car in East Palo Alto got one man shot and robbed. A woman selling a laptop on the classifieds site was held up at gunpoint in Vallejo when she met with a prospective buyer. Although millions of transactions spawned by Craigslist are completed without a problem, a small number end in violent crime. That potential was underscored this week by the arrest of a Boston University medical student, who is charged with killing a woman he met through Craigslist and robbing another. Philip Markoff is accused of murdering Julissa Brisman, with whom he had allegedly arranged a massage in a hotel room, and of pulling a gun on a second masseuse in a separate attack. The high-profile slaying raises the questions: How safe is Craigslist? And should the company do more to prevent violent crime? "We believe the violent crime rate is vanishingly small," said Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist's chief executive. "But no crime is acceptable." Craigslist, based in San Francisco, has evolved into a major destination for everything from selling futons to apartment hunting to finding a date. Not just a bulletin board, it is known as a community, where people share tips about pets and rant about their neighbors. More than 42 million people used the site in March, according to comScore. But some have tried to take advantage of the service by posing as legitimate users to find victims. Many users think nothing of inviting strangers they meet through the site to their homes to sell a sofa. SOURCE:SFGATE.COM