Craigslist ads linked to crimes against potential DeKalb buyers

At least 13 people have been robbed in DeKalb County since January by criminals who used Craigslist.org Internet ads to lure victims to locations where they supposedly would sell them cheap iPhones and Sony game systems.

“Sometimes the robbers had guns,” DeKalb County police spokeswoman Mekka Parish said Friday as the department announced it had two suspects in custody.

Parish declined to identify the suspects —- who will be put in a lineup to see if victims can identify them —- nor did she offer more details about the victims or the locations of the robberies.

“They [the suspects] are still being questioned to determine if they will lead us to others who are involved in the robberies,” Parish said. “We know they are not responsible for all 13 robberies.”

The victims all had responded to postings on Craigslist.org, the free online classified advertising site, offering to sell iPhones and Sony PSP game systems, Parish said. The buyers were told to meet the sellers at night “at various locations.”

In a news release issued to alert the public to the scam, DeKalb police advised Craigslist users to meet buyers or sellers during daylight hours, in public places, and to never go alone.

Crimes connected to Craigslist.org occur often enough that there’s a Web site that tracks them, http://crimene.ws/category/craigscrimelist/.

Trench Reynolds said he’s tracked about two dozen crimes tied to Craiglist in the two years since he launched his site.

On Wednesday, for example, a Minneapolis man who prosecutors said called himself “The Craigslist Murderer” was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the October 2007 murder of a woman who had responded to his Craigslist help-wanted ad for a baby sitter.

Last month, New York radio journalist George Weber was stabbed to death. A 16-year-old youth who was arrested for the crime allegedly told police he and Weber had met through a Craigslist personal ad.

Reynolds said Craigslist could take steps to make its site safer.

“They need to do away with the anonymity,” Reynolds said. “All you need to post is an e-mail.

“You should have to provide more profile information that people can check out.”

Parish said Craigslist is cooperating with the DeKalb investigation.

The San Francisco-based company did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.