03/25/08 Craigslist

The recent story of the man who was the victim of a phony Craigslist ad really sent chills up my spine, as well it should! How easy it appears to have been for someone with a grudge or a very bad sense of humor to so swiftly and succinctly demolish another person's life. You have to question the gullibility and morality of the people that actually carted off this man's possessions all because they read an ad on the internet. It also screams out that the safety features, if any, of Craigslist is seriously flawed. Now, do we blame the internet, or rather the people that use it. Go back fifty or sixty years and you'll find a similar story, only the technology was different. Remember the Orson Welles fiasco with his War of the Worlds story on the radio? The constant in both of these incidents are the people. We wouldn't like to admit it as a society but deep down we haven't really changed all that much. Someone should have reminded these people, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.