I called a guy on craigslist about a gun safe. He tells me the safe has just been sold. He makes some small-talk asks where I live and if I was interested in protecting guns or documents. Said he was casting his mind thinking about anyone he knew who might be selling a safe. Sounded nice, like a talkative good-ol-boy.

But afterwards I was thinking that he was mighty curious for someone claiming to have sold his safe. And that this would be an excellent way to target people for theft/robbery.

It's possible, if this guy were in this kind of business, to trace my cell number and find me. On the one hand it makes me sick that I have thoughts like this, but on the other hand it makes me sick that we very well could have people engaged in operations like this.

I'm not going to email anyone about gun safes, and if I call anyone, I will block the number. And I'm recording this guy's phone number just in case.

hopefully you're just a bit paranoid seems a bit of a reach to me but what do i know. but if not.....always keep one loaded where you can get to it.

So this guy wants to know what you have and where it is? Tomorrow is Monday and you'll likely be gone to work all day. He is definitely phishing for targets. I'd be nervous to leave the house unattended at this point.

But maybe thats because I grew up in the suburbs and don't trust people farther than I can throw a cookie cutter house.

Had the same thoughts. Sounds like a good reason to work from home this week.

I'm in the business of tracking people down and even we (me & others I know in the same business) have trouble tracing a lot of cell phones to an address or even to a name. And we have special databases that we can subscribe to, due to our licensing. Of course there are others that I can completely nail right off the bat and then have someone sitting in front of their house within minutes.

This assumes you only called him and didn't email him as well. If you emailed pretty easy for him to find you with name.

I called him with a google voice number. I'm not sure how a google number traces.

[This message has been edited by shiftyandquick (edited 5/1/2011 9:28p).]

Well...in that case disable your call forwarding to your cell/home on that number and sleep easy.

As FSGuide said, some cell numbers are more difficult but it just depends. It does seem kind of odd about the conversation.

f--- craigslist

If it really raised concerns for you, call the police. I'd think they'd appreciate the tip.

Howdy Ben.