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I've been trying to sell an item on Craigslist and a buyer wanted to buy from me, but first he wanted me to text him a code to make sure I wasn't a bot. So not realizing this was a scam, I did that. I didn't think texting a couple of numbers to somebody was anything, but then I read that it's so they can get access to your account. So I have contacted customer service a couple of times and it is non-existant. Nobody from Craigslist has even gotten back to me. Now I'm afraid my identity is going to get stolen and Craigslist isn't responding to any my feedback.
Unless you put your personal information address social security bank account numbers there is nothing on Craigslist that would divulge all your personal history.
Because the random caller claims to be from your bank, etc.
Five years ago, I could see that working. One would have to be a hermit or so gullible as to have your picture appear next to the definition* to fall for this variant of the pigeon drop these days.
Someone calling (at all, given that responsible institutions have stopped doing calls for sensitive contacts), probably with a pronounced accent, out of the blue, to ask for an email or text code that came out of the blue, should set off an alarm in even the dimmest pigeon.
* If the word were even in the dictionary, which it's not.
CL is offered as a free service, and does not have the extensive protections built in, such as you'd get on eBay or Amazon. It is assumed that the user will self-protect.
The best thing you can do (and you can use this for other purposes also) is to buy a burner phone and use it for activities like this. A $19.95 TracFone with a $20 minute card for 90 days, is all you need. This will give you a phone number entirely separate from your main phone. You can give out this number online or in person to anyone you don't want to have your real number. It will limit the damage that anyone on CL or elsewhere can do.
CL is offered as a free service, and does not have the extensive protections built in, such as you'd get on eBay or Amazon. It is assumed that the user will self-protect.
And CL accounts have very little to protect. About all a scammer can do is hijack an account, which lets them manage the account's ads. I suppose there's some elaborate game to be played by diverting the email for a listing and scamming the responders, but not much else. And why bother; they can just set up as many shill/scam accounts as they like. There aren't even ratings or feedback to limit activities.
All of the issues in this thread are with third parties, connected only by CL contact.
I've been trying to sell an item on Craigslist and a buyer wanted to buy from me, but first he wanted me to text him a code to make sure I wasn't a bot. So not realizing this was a scam, I did that. I didn't think texting a couple of numbers to somebody was anything, but then I read that it's so they can get access to your account. So I have contacted customer service a couple of times and it is non-existant. Nobody from Craigslist has even gotten back to me. Now I'm afraid my identity is going to get stolen and Craigslist isn't responding to any my feedback.
FYI Craigslist does not care about you, they couldn't care less what you have to say.
They do have a help forum where an army of trolls will be happy to jump on you with condescending snide remarks and cracks about your intelligence.
And you just believe anything some random caller says to you??
I know a lady who almost fell for the IRS scam. Yes, the callers have a thick accent. But she is an immigrant from the middle east and has an accent herself. English is not her first language.
I think I would have a hard time distinguishing different accents if I was listening to a language that was not my first language.
I know a lady who almost fell for the IRS scam. Yes, the callers have a thick accent. But she is an immigrant from the middle east and has an accent herself. English is not her first language.
I think I would have a hard time distinguishing different accents if I was listening to a language that was not my first language.
I'm not sure what accents have to do with anything. Does the IRS only hire people with perfect American accents to man their phone lines?
I just wouldn't trust someone calling out of the blue, no matter what type of accent they had. I would call the official number listed on their official website, not some number an unknown person told me to call.
Craigslist is not moderated. It's "at your own risk". Craigslist has a very bad reputation for being filled with scammers, both buyers and sellers. Stay away. Use facebook garage sales because those at least have some moderation. I sold lots of stuff on my local facebook garage sale pages and always arranged to meet the buyer in a public place and they would hand over cash only.
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