It's a story doomed to endlessly repeat itself: A man answers a Craigslist ad from a woman wanting a one-night stand on a bed piled with money. They hash out the details; he arrives with said money at the proposed address, only to be robbed at gunpoint.
If only we'd learned something the first time this sex-atop-a-pile-of-money plan went awry. But no. The ads keep appearing, the sad sacks keep getting bilked. It's an infinite regression.
San Leandro-based entrepreneur Titus Green thinks he can help. His new service, modeled after the new crop of car-hire apps in San Francisco, affords Craigslist customers the opportunity to hire a personal bodyguard for their transactions -- shady or not. As a bonus, some of those bodyguards will double as gadget-testers, to sniff out defective Craigslist products before any money changes hands.
See Also: Erstwhile Romeo stiffed for $2000 in Craigslist scam.
Green's service, called The Drop, might feed off of -- if not outright depend on -- salacious, horrifying yarns about petty cons and trysts gone wrong. But he says it's not an indictment of Craigslist -- especially given that he plans to advertise on Craigslist.
He also plans to pass out fliers and discount coupons to announce the site's launch on February 15. And he promises to personally vet each chaperone, so that you don't have to worry about hiring a chaperone to meet your chaperone. (He says most of them will be poached from job fairs and college campuses, so rest assured, you're in good hands.)
We're still waiting to hear how Craigslist feels about the service.
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