Dear Jim and Craig —

           You may feel that “just” 20 murders linked to Craigslist during the past three-and-a-half years — 12 of them during the past year alone — are acceptable. You shouldn’t.

          You may be unconcerned that almost every day in the United States, someone calls police to report that they were assaulted, robbed or ripped off by someone they met through Craigslist. You should be concerned.

          You may feel that “hundreds of millions or billions” of safe transactions mean that everything’s okay with Craigslist. You’re kidding yourselves.

          And you may think the ridiculous analogy that Craigslist is “safer than the city of Oakland” means something. It doesn’t.

          The sad fact, and I say this with great respect because I use Craigslist too, is that your site has indeed become a cesspool of crime. Despite your post that “crime is exceedingly rare on Craigslist” and Craigslist is a site of “exceptional safety,” you’re wrong.

          Your response to our report about crime and Craigslist, and the reaction you inspired, proves you’re not paying enough attention and not doing enough to protect your users. Working with police to catch criminals after the fact is not enough.

         Robbers, killers and con artists have found that Craigslist is a great place to ply their trade.

         One killing would be one too many. Twenty in three-and-a-half years is an outrage. You should be outraged, not defensive.

          Can crime happen anywhere? Sure. It happened in the past with newspaper classifieds, it’s happened with EBay, it happens through e-mail and it happens on a street corner. That doesn’t mean you should say “CL is unusually helpful and cooperative with law enforcement” and leave it at that.

          Anonymity, prostitution ads and “casual encounters” all add to the ethos of Craigslist. That’s good in many ways, and bad in many ways. Craigslist has developed a “wild west” sensibility about it that is part of what makes it Craigslist — but also part of what makes it such a dangerous place at times.

          Crimes are connected with EBay from time to time. What does EBay do about it? It operates an extensive safety and security section. It tracks — not just “flags” — abusers. It spends millions of dollars every year to keep its users safe. It employs former FBI agents and police officers.

          There was a reason the AIM Group report published last week included a link to every one of those 330 crimes we catalogued. Each one of those crimes affected a person. Some affected many more than one person, and changed their lives forever. Each one was about someone who was killed, or mugged, or ripped off, or violated in some way. Being defensive about it doesn’t help any of them. You can’t deny them, or point to “the exceptional safety of Craigslist” because those are only happening once a day.

          Craigslist takes in more than $120 million a year — we know, we’ve counted — and spends probably less than $40 million a year. (We’ve estimated it with some degree of accuracy.) What do you do with those millions that you don’t spend? Could you strengthen safety on Craigslist? Absolutely. Could you make it a healthier site for people to use? Most assuredly. Could you help users understand that even “meeting in a public place” is not precaution enough? You could and you should. Craigslist can and must do more to help its users stay safe, not just help cops catch the bad guys after someone has been defrauded, attacked or killed.

          You can be defensive, or you can do something about it. You should certainly choose to do something about it.

          Finally, a personal note. You can claim someone paid the AIM Group to “falsely portray Craigslist as fraught with criminal activity,” and it’s true we were paid. There’s no reason for us to be ashamed of that, just as there’s no reason for you to be ashamed of the millions of dollars you’ve received for operating Craigslist. That’s the system we live under, after all. But to impugn us personally and say that our “research” (you even put it in quotes) was “bought and paid for by a client” so it has no perspective, is shameful. And “falsely portray?” Every one of those crimes is enumerated. There’s nothing “false” about it. Read the clips for yourself.

         The research and detail of the 330 crimes reported in the media in the past year, and the 20 killings in three-and-a-half-years, is out there for you or anyone to see. Sadly, there were probably even more crimes than we reported. While the crimes are undisputable, the conclusions are ours. You, and the millions of people who read about this online, can agree with us or disagree with our conclusions as you wish. Oodle supported (i.e., paid for) the research and publication of the report. They didn’t cause the crimes, they didn’t kill anyone and they didn’t tell us what to say. We’re independent. That’s why we’re consultants to such a wide range of companies, worldwide, in the interactive-media industry.

       We’ve been following Craigslist since it was in five cities, and we’ve seen its remarkable growth and its tremendous success. We’ve also seen its failings. And 20 killings, a crime a day (almost) and an attitude that it’s exceptionally safe because there’s not more crime is just outrageous.

      You know us well enough. Because it suited you, you had our positive coverage of Craigslist’s elimination of prostitution ads read into the Congressional Record during last December’s Congressional investigation into human trafficking.

     So now, because it suits you, you blame the messenger. You shouldn’t.

     Instead, do more to fix Craigslist. You’ll never make it perfectly safe. That’s impossible. We understand and acknowledge that. At the AIM Group, most of us use Craigslist, and we’ll continue to do so. But we think sticking your head in the sand and claiming to be a safe place, when even a single user is either being robbed, mugged or killed, is a sad response to a rampant problem that you can and should address.

     Best regards,

     Peter M. Zollman