Donna Jou was a 19-year-old, Honor student at San Diego State University when she disappeared in June 2007 after placing an ad in an online classifieds website looking to earn a few extra dollars tutoring high school kids in math.
When I first learned about the very tragic story of Donna Jou and felt the incredibly palpable anguish of her Dad, Mr. Reza Jou, in a birthday greeting that he posted on the website dedicated to her at www.DonnaJou.com, I became even more determined to build a gated classifieds website that only allows users whose identity has been verified. Unlike shopping and auction sites (e.g., Amazon and eBay) where users conduct business mostly by mail, users of online classifieds sites, on the other hand, generally transact business in person. By allowing users to post ads anonymously, these websites create a perfect breeding ground for criminals, who, thriving on anonymity, can hide behind their web browsers and prey on an unsuspecting and trusting public with all kinds of nefarious activities, ranging from fraud to even more dangerous crimes, including rape, robbery, and murder.
In 2009, police arrested John Steven Burgess, a 3 time convicted sexual predator, who confessed to luring Donna to her death after reading her classified ad online. As a father of 2 young girls, I made it my mission in life to build a safer classifieds website so that my two daughters will never have to fear for their lives when using an online marketplace.
Please join me in building a web community where members may participate in all types of activities—trade, commerce or social—free from fear and suspicion. If the Safelist marketplace can help save just one life, or help prevent just one woman from being raped or prevent just one child from falling into the dangerous world of child prostitution, then we will have made a significant contribution to society. However, with your help, I am convinced that Safelist.com will play a significantly bigger role in cleaning up the web of criminals and make it safer for everyone. We must not allow Donna’s untimely and tragic death be in vain but instead act as a catalyst for us all in creating a better and safer Internet!
Karim Pirani
Founder
Safelist.com
