I was considering advertising on craigslist. I did a search and found all kinds of scary things. Is this site a big no?

Craig's List is just too risky for a hobbyist to rely on (at least without some coroborating reviews on here) and for both hobbyists and providers, a very risky place to be set up by LE.

You can do better.

(still not a lawyer)

CR can be the wild west for both clients and providers..full of guys wanting cheap dates and girls who may not look remotely like the pics they post. Rates posted are lower than... say EROS for sure and in many cases the guy is going to get what he pays for.
In some cities its' pretty well established LE lurks CR.
Im not familiar with Los Angeles but do know something about Las Vegas. In Vegas several very attractive and quality girls list on Craigs List. Some start there and move up the ladder of success. The clients tend to be more local I think as tourists often dont have transportaion and prefer the conveince of outcall to their door.
I would try CR in Vegas at least and see what the response is if youre wondering. Hope this helps. Best wishes to you!

ive never had a singel probelm with ( CL) at all..ive called girls from ( CL) which i have also seen on eros for much more money

Avoid outcall to your place or hotel.  Lots of cash and dash scams.  It easy for a girl to leave your room - much harder to kick you out of her room if you are unhappy.  If you look for incall, only go to a hotel.  Too easy for her pimp or boyfriend to mug you in an appt.  Only go to a busy hotel during the day.  YOu do not want her pimp or boyfriend to ID your vehicle.  

I say this only if you insist on trolling for whores on CL.  Its one step up from the street and half the ads are posted by a pimp.

I have had a lot of success with Chicago CL. It's a good place if you want a younger provider who has not been around the block 1000 times. (One needs to be patient with this group of providers).

Chicago LE appears to work the list more than others. The county sheriff's department just culminated a big operation going to CL providers and made 90 arrests. Only customers arrested were those soliciting on the street. (I occasionally scan the Chicago list of pictures and info for those arrested for sex solicitation and my conclusion is that the arrests are almost always on the streets.)  So CL in Chicago is riskier for providers but it is not clear it is much riskier for customers. I do not know if this is true elsewhere.

My approach is to check TER to see if there is a review which happens occasionally, call only adds with good pictures and writing, continue only if I am speaking with the provider, chat on the phone mostly about anything except business looking for someone well spoken and polite, conduct business talk only about an appointment time and location, do incall only at a motel (except for AMPs), arrive early at the motel and watch all activity for a while, and leave immediately if the pics are a misrepresentation whether the provider is visually pleasing or not.

I agree with Looking4her.

Its best to avoid a private apartment.  Hotels are much safer.

I love craigslist, but its the appeal of the chase.  To be safe look for a TER review from someone who has had a variety of reviews.

That said one time I met a girl posting on craigslist, went to her apartment,  We had a good time and had each other's yahoo messenger accounts.  It evolved into an affair as she quickly gave up being a provider.

I posted on CL, it does seem to be kind of lower class, I am not thrilled with it by far, but had not really considered LE would troll it to bust people, either.
As a provider with limited knowledge, is there anything I should be wary of in the responses I get from prospective clients??

thanks,
Sheri