Avoiding Spam on Craigslist?

fourstringdrums · #1 07-09-2011, 10:44 PM

I'm moving in September so I posted a few pieces of furniture on Craigslist yesterday. On one of the items I've already gotten 2 scam emails. The first one was just something along the lines of "I want your item. Call me 096-4280" and the second one looked semi legitimate at first with "Is your item still available?" I knew it was probably bull but I wrote back anyway and of course got the same person, from a different email, with the usual "I'm in the military...I'll arrange pickup....cashiers check....take an extra $30 for your trouble" etc..

Is there any way to deter these people or is it just something you have to deal with when using craigslist? I've never had this problem in the past.

Infidelity · #2 07-09-2011, 10:53 PM

Yahoo account seems to work better on spams like this.. IMO/IME

I always use dummy accounts on Craigslist posts just to avoid those spams on my personal email..

fourstringdrums · #3 07-09-2011, 11:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Infidelity

Yahoo account seems to work better on spams like this.. IMO/IME

I always use dummy accounts on Craigslist posts just to avoid those spams on my personal email..

I have Gmail and it's not bad, but for some reason it's not catching it. I just don't know if I mark it as spam if it will possibly flag all legitimate emails in the future regarding my ad?

hrodbert696 · #4 07-10-2011, 05:01 AM

I don't know of a way to prevent spam from coming, but I usually put a phrase in the body of my CL ad with instructions to include that phrase in their subject line when they email. So if I were selling a sunburst Fender bass, the title of the ad would only say "Fender bass" but I would have the ad say "Include the word 'sunburst' in your subject line or I will assume it is spam." Helps to weed it all out. Real people do not use the word "item."