Craigslist is a classified advertisements website that started as a local newsletter in San Francisco. It now hosts classified ads across over 450 cities worldwide covering housing, jobs, items for sale, services, and forums. Originally focused only on San Francisco, Craigslist expanded to other cities like Boston in 2000 as its popularity grew. While originally a personal project, Craigslist incorporated in 1999 and has become a successful company. However, it also faces challenges like scam artists posting fake ads or checks to mislead sellers.

1. How Craigslist Works
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Kenta Takahashi

2. Introduction to How Craigslist Works
Craigslist.org, originally a San Francisco community
electronic newsletter, is now one of the most visited
English language Web sites, with local classifieds
for more than 450 cities worldwide. The site's main
function is to host classified ads that cover
practically every category you can think of,
including housing, job postings, items for sale,
services and personals. There's also a forums section
that allows users to discuss topics on everything
from gardening to the Linux operating system.

3. The Craigslist Network
Each craigslist site focuses on a specific community.
Originally, craigslist only listed classifieds and
announcements within San Francisco. As the service
grew in popularity, expanding well beyond founder
Craig Newmark's original concept, craigslist added
other cities to its network. The first city to join the
network was Boston in 2000. A couple of months
later, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City,
Portland, San Diego, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
followed suit. Today, more than 450 cities have a
craigslist community site.

4. Craigslist Financials
Craigslist started as a pet project but blossomed into
a full-fledged company. In 1999, craigslist
incorporated as a for-profit organization. The
company also purchased the domain craigslist.com
to prevent anyone from buying it and misleading
craigslist members. Each year since then, craigslist
has expanded to cover more cities and communities,
becoming a powerful financial force in the process.

5. Craigslist Controversy
One of the biggest challenges for the craigslist
community is weeding out scam artists. The site has
a section describing common scam tactics and what
users should do if they come across them. Scams
might involve fake money orders or checks, bait-
and-switch schemes (in which you think you're
getting one thing but end up with another), phishing
schemes designed to obtain personal information,
identity theft schemes and other unethical and illegal
activities.

6. One scam that has popped up in several craigslist
communities involves a buyer overpaying for an
item. In this scam, an innocent seller advertises an
item on craigslist for a given amount -- say $1,500.
An interested buyer contacts the seller and says he'll
send a check for the item, but when the check
arrives, it's written for a much larger amount. When
the seller contacts the buyer to inform him of the
difference, the buyer apologizes and explains that he
wrote the wrong amount after confusing it with
another purchase. He tells the seller to deposit the
check and wire him the difference. What the seller
doesn't know is that the check is a fake, so he cashes
it and wires the difference to the buyer. Once the
bank researches the check and discovers it's a fake,
the seller is held responsible.