Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Craigslist Ads

OK. What is the deal everytime I list something on CL I get a bunch or questions wanting to know if the item is still for sale even if it was just listed. That is all they ask and the names of the people are usually crazy unrealistic names. I do not respond to them as you can pick them out but what is their catch??

Keith

it is a scam to get you to respond, once you do they have your email address and I notice a lot on emails I get, many people have their full names and addresses on the emails

Yes look for the crazy names and dont respond
Temple Siwek for example

I've gotten some where
they ask to reply to another email and give a link(dont touch!)

or have a question then send you a reply with "You dont have to sell this item, you could make it rich with blah, blah, blah making money at home"

Now there is a group that cant seem to remove the ads in a timely fashion so actual buyers do have to ask if its available.
You can put in your ads that you wont respond to ads if thats what they ask or say "if you see the ad, its still available."
Or keep the email out of it and put you phone number-I'd spell out area code then numbers for the phone number so no one lifts that for telemarketing calls.

But the majority of responses WITHOUT detailed interest replies-(phone #'s, location, time to meet etc) are simply phishing for email addresses.

The big thing you will notice with a scam email is they will ask

"Is this item still available" or "I am interested in this item".

Seems like most real people will ask a more specific question like

"Is this Sinclair sign still for sale?"

Makes it pretty easy to weed out the phonies, which there are alot of.

There's a lot of scamming going on on CL. But things do sell fast. I've called on something listed for less than half an hour and it's sold already.

I once listed a used car, got a phone call while I was still in front of the computer (less than 5 minutes after listing). The person was at my house within 20 minutes, and at about 50 minutes after pressing the "Enter" button, I had cash in hand and was signing over the title. That's fast.

I generally reply to ads asking if the "(insert item name here)" is still available...

OR HERE'S ONE,THE "SCAMMER" WILL WANT YOU TO CLICK ON A VIDEO LINK ,THE LINK IS SUPPOSED TO BE A SIMILAR ITEM ON VIDEO,THEY ARE ASKING IF THE ITEM IS LIKE YOURS FOR SALE,IF SO THEY ARE INTERESTED! STAY AWAY FROM ANY VIDEO LINKS! THOSE ARE TROJAN'S SENT TO SEEK & DESTROY ! THAT'S A QUICK WAY TO LOCK YOUR COMPUTER RIGHT UP,CLICKING ON ONE OF THOSE LINKS!

Opening ANY link in any email from someone that you don't know VERY well is dangerous! Even if you know the person there is no guarantee the link isn't possessed with a nasty virus. I lost a hard drive once from opening a link sent by a good friend. The catch was he didn't send it. His computer was infected and the virus used his email address book to send itself to every one of his contacts!

One of the best ways to eliminate spam on craigslist is tell them what you want them to put in the subject line in the email.

Most scammers use auto programs that just blindly respond to listings.

I usually tell them to put 'not spam' in the subject line. Have very few problems that way. Once in a while a spammer will slip in but not often at all.

I have had tremendous success this year on craigslist. (both buying and selling)

In your ad tell them to send their phone number and you will get back in touch with them.

I had a CL reply once, with all the usual, I'll send ya' extra $ after a friend inspects it because I'm 140 years old and my wheelchair batteries are dead so I have to use the batteries from my wifes pacemaker but shes out playing bingo right now, Blah blah blah.

I told the guy I'd make it easy for him. Because I own a trucking company, I'll deliver it. And to be sure it gets there safely, I'll be sure that it has a protective escort. They'll be easy to reckognize when they get there. They'll be the guys in Black Suburbans, wearing jackets with FBI on the back.....

Kinda funny tho.... He never did give me his address.....

Good info.

Thanks guys.

i agree ,i do a whole lotta business off of c.l ,some really cool finds! so as far as putting "not spam" that sounds like a great idea,im gonna try that,i get flooded with spam,BECAUSE OF MY DEALINGS OFF OF C.L! THANKS FOR THE INFO!

I stopped including my email address in the CL ads that I post. I just put my phone number. I figure that the person will call me if they really want the item.

If your going to put your number in the ad use a combo of numbers and spelling out the numbers--there are bots that crawl the web looking for email addresses and phone numbers as well.

Ex--- 335 one 2 3 four