In the early to mid 1980′s on the campus of the University of Washington in Seattle Washington a serial killer was targeting co-eds. This killer was loose all over the Seattle / Issaquah area but primarily targeting young women. One girl was walking home at night less than a block from a party to her house when she disappeared without a trace. ( At the same time the Green River Killer was building his number of victims but he was primarily targeting prostitutes in the Renton Tacoma area and so we didn’t worry about that one quite as much ).
If you were a co-ed at the time, as I was, you never walked alone at night. If you had to go to the library there was a number you could call to have someone walk with you to your destination. Many women were carrying mace and whistles. While general safety tips were being followed we weren’t all that scared because surely we would be able to identify a slimy scary serial killer just by looking at him.
As we were about to find out this wasn’t the case. We would all find out several years later that this serial killer had worked his way across the country and repeated his brutal killing spree in Florida. His name was Ted Bundy. He was attractive, charming, and smart.
Flash forward 20 years and the news was filled with updates on what was being referred to as the Craigslist Killer. At the time of this writing they have taken someon into custody. Apparently, he wasn’t quite as smart as his counter-part, Ted Bundy, but there are striking similarities.
Both men preyed on women; trusting, gullible, women. Craigslist was the perfect tool for this beast to find his victims. It was almost too easy. He is good looking, charming and seemingly successful. In all other situations he would be considered a catch. It seems as though his motive was burglery and not murder but it progressed to murder and he had a gun so there had to be some premeditation involved. And, if the person they have in custody, is truly the Craigslist killer then this is a huge wake up call for all of us who may have become complacent with protecting ourselves online.
With Facebook and other similar sites, we have all become a little more trusting with our personal information. After all, it’s just our friends who are looking at our profile information. We put our family pictures out there along with other personal information including travel plans and cell phone numbers and we pay little attention to how our virtual life overlaps with our real life. And we pay even less attention to how much of that information overlaps to areas on the site that is viewable by the general public.
For the past 15 years my main focus has been on keeping kids safe online – safe against predators and exploitation. But the Craigslist killer story is a reminder to all of us grown-ups that we need to remember to look both ways before we cross the street too.
Personally, I love Craigslist. I have used Craigslist with great success. And because I will continue to use and support Craigslist it became important to put together some safety tips for using websites like this one. In putting together these tips it occurred to me that they were many of the same things my mom used to tell me to do when I was a kid. Here are my top 6 tips for keeping yourself safe when buying items on Craigslist.
1. Don’t Talk to Strangers – Anonymous contact information
As grown ups we have to develop the skill of talking to strangers. We have to interact with strangers every day. It just means we have to learn HOW to talk to strangers.
Use a junk email account for initial contact. You can set up a free email account with Yahoo, Google, Hotmail etc. that does not have your name in the address or other identifiers like “momof4″. Also, remember to not have your real name or other identifer in the “From” line. If you have questions for the seller of an item or service on Craigslist there is no reason you have to give them your life story from the very start.
If a phone call is required to get more information I will typically make the call from a central location and not use my home phone or cell phone for this call. No need to leave your private number on their caller ID. You can make your phone number private too so that it doesn’t show up at all on their end too.
2. Use the Buddy System
NEVER EVER go alone!. If you are going to preview an item or pick up an item then definitely make sure you have someone with you and you have your cell phone with a fully charged battery.
Another good tip is to make sure your gas tank is full so that if you do need to get out of a bad neighborhood quickly you won’t need to stop anytime soon.
3. Be Home before it gets dark
If at all possible ONLY meet in the daylight. Never meet at night. Be very careful about going into a strange home. If you are even the littlest bit uneasy about this read tip #4.
4. Be Rude
This one may need a little explanation. Of course, I’m not suggesting you should be rude to people BUT if your gut is telling you that there is something wrong with the situation then this is not the time for niceties. Don’t get yourself in a bad situation because you don’t want to be rude or hurt the feelings of a person you just met 3 minutes ago. I would rather be rude and wrong than polite and dead.
A must read manual for life is Gavin DeBecker’s ” The Gift of Fear
5. Leave Bread Crumbs
Basically, leave a trail. Let someone, besides the person who is with you, know where you are going and when you are planning on being home. Then be sure and check in with that person when you do get home safely.
6. Don’t judge a book by its cover.
Ted Bundy was an attactive, unintimidating young man. He would wear a fake cast on his arm and ask women for help loading up his car. Then he would hit his victim over the head and shove her in the trunk. We are still waiting for all the details on the Craigslist killer. But in both cases, women felt comfortable enough with these guys to let their guard down.
BE SMART. There are alot of dangers out in the world but there are also some great things going on too. We just have to learn how to be on guard and protect ourselves.
So just remember – Be safe online and IRL ( In Real Life ).
