Angela,

I would be very grateful for your professional opinion. Do you feel there is high risk in replying to a blind ad with a Craigslist address?

Many thanks and kind regards,
Patricia

There are several legitimate reasons a company might choose not to identify themselves in an employment ad, including:

1. They may be replacing someone and don’t want that person to know they’re getting canned.
2. They are trying to prevent future inquiries once they do hire someone (these firms/individuals usually use a free, temporary email address that they can the terminate after they’ve hired someone).

Of course, there are also reasons companies or individuals run anonymous ads, including:

1. They already have a bad reputation online and don’t want people Googling them before applying.
2. They intend to scam the applicants in one way or another.

I would apply for anonymous ads online because many of those ads are completely legitimate. But, as with everything online, always proceed with a great deal of caution.

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