With violent crimes linked to classified ads sites like Craigslist in Boston and Minnesota recently making news headlines, it’s surprising that no company has emerged to make transacting on classifieds sites safer. That is until now. ListSafer is the first company to provide a ratings and reviews platform for classified ads sites such as Craigslist.org, OLX.com and Kijiji.com. ListSafer, which just entered public beta, seeks to solve issues related to an increase in identity theft, scams, and violence on classifieds sites by building a platform that allows buyers and sellers to post ratings and reviews on their experiences on these sites. Therefore, potential buyers and sellers will be able to view each other’s ratings and reviews before entering into a transaction, making the whole process safer and reducing fraud.

ListSafer provides a seller with an html badge that can easily be placed into their listings on sites like Craiglist.org. This badge provides a summary of the seller, including the seller’s photo, name, location, overall rating and total number of reviews received. Potential buyers can view this or click through to read the reviews posted to the seller’s profile located on ListSafer’s site. If the buyer likes what he sees he can click on the "Place Bid" button located on the badge and place a bid on the item being sold.

Sellers can then log into ListSafer and review all the bids from buyers, and for those buyers who have used ListSafer before, sellers can see ratings and reviews they have received for past transactions. Once the seller selects a winning bid, ListSafer sends the seller the buyers contact information, notifies the winning buyer and bidding for the listing is closed. When the transaction is completed the buyer and seller can rate and review their experience.

ListSafer is essentially providing a "trusted badge" for sellers so that buyers can get comfortable with buying products and services from them, allowing sellers to differentiate themselves from all the people who are selling the same thing. ListSafer helps sellers build a positive reputation of safety and reliability, freeing them from competing only on price. As ListSafer also allows sellers to review buyers, if a seller gets a bid from a buyer that had a negative review in the past, the seller can ignore that bid and avoid the potential hassle. ListSafer helps potential buyers by allowing them to read past reviews which sellers have received and make a more educated decision as to whether they should bid on the item being sold.

ListSafer also utilizes Facebook Connect so that users can signup for the service and create a profile in seconds. Integration with Facebook also allows buyers and sellers to see how they may be connected and which friends they have in common, further lessening the anxiety of entering into a transaction.

One concern is whether someone’s identity on ListSafer can be stolen. ListSafer has cleverly integrated a bidding system into its platform so if you were to steal another person’s badge, all of the bids placed by potential buyers through that badge can only be seen by the true owner of the badge as you have to login to your account on ListSafer to view the bids, thus defeating the purpose of stealing someone’s identity.