Beware! The Craigslist Bandits Strike!

More and more of these stories have been surfacing lately, and the trend is scary: Latter-day bandits have turned to Craigslist to find people to rob.

The scam works like this: You advertise something nice for sale on Craigslist. You get a call from a buyer, who offers to meet you at your house or, say, behind the Target at midnight. When you show up with the goods, you're mugged and they're stolen... along with your wallet. It's a deceptively simple ploy: Why wait in a dark alley for someone to meet you when you can simply email them for you to meet there at the time of your choosing.

The scam has also worked with the mugger as the "seller." So if that Xbox 360 looks like it's being sold at a really good price, it may not really be worth showing up at the docks at 2 a.m. so you can pick it up, cash in hand.

I've used Craigslist to buy and sell all manner of things over the years, and I'm sure the vast majority of sales are legitimate. Still, it pays to be cautious. Set up any meetings during the day or in public places. Don't buy or sell highly-coveted and easily-cash-converted items on Craigslist. And remember that if a price is too good to be true, it probably is.