Ever Wonder Who Is Behind That Random Email ID from Craigslist?

Have you ever been just a little curious, maybe even a little concerned, about whether or not the person on the receiving end of the job you are about to apply for is who they say they are?  Identity thieves and others with less than altruistic intentions have been using websites like Craigslist, that allow for anyone off the street to publish content to the web anonymously, for every possible scam and crime that you imaginable.  This isn’t new and it isn’t a surprise, but what is a surprise is that companies don’t do more to pre-emt such activity.  Many of these sites wait until their hand is forced to act.  Craigslist’s recent announcement that the company will be doing something to limit some criminal activity is a prime example of this.  In their announcement Craigslist continues to sandbag against pressure to do more by suggesting that allowing users to flag abuse and by charging for listing they are doing enough.  They go on to suggest that law enforcement will be able to use data collected by Craigslist to prosecute illegal activities after the fact.  But in my opinion, that is just throwing users in front a speeding bus.  Why wait until a user has been violated?  Allowing someone to flag a single classified listing does not solve the problem of someone posting dozens of them.  By contrast, Facebook has a very low tolerance for spammers and people who would seek to do things that are outside of acceptable parameters.  At times I’ve been frustrated by Facebook’s smackdown enforcement actions on users, but at least I know that if someone spams me on Facebook that when I flag their activity someing will be done.  On Craigslist by contrast, if I post an ad I am assured that I will be spammed by dozens of people who routinely spam my listings there.  It is the same people every time, with an occasional newby.  So I ask again, are you even a little curious who is behind that email on Craigslist?