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I've been selling stuff and marketing my business on Craigs List for a few years with no problem. Lately when I place an ad on there I get so much spam from it. The spammers have figured out a way to respond to ads even if you don't have an email listed. Has anyone else experienced this? Have you figured out a way around it? I wrote to CL about it but they never wrote back. They use to answer emails but I guess they don't anymore.
I think it happens to just about everybody who uses craigslist (one word, BTW).
Use an anonymous, separate email address, not your primary one. Delete spam as it comes in; takes a few seconds, no big deal.
I'm sure the CL help desk gets millions of emails and abuse/spam forwards a day - I don't think it's realistic to expect an individual respnse from someone there! You'll get an auto-receipt type email sometimes.
Like I said, it just started happening recently after years of posting on there. This is a new issue, to me anyway and I have written to CL before and they did write back within 24 hours.
I think it happens to just about everybody who uses craigslist (one word, BTW).
Use an anonymous, separate email address, not your primary one. Delete spam as it comes in; takes a few seconds, no big deal.
I'm sure the CL help desk gets millions of emails and abuse/spam forwards a day - I don't think it's realistic to expect an individual respnse from someone there! You'll get an auto-receipt type email sometimes.
Yep throwaway email accounts is the way to go for posting on places like that.
If you have a gmail account you can setup a filter. When you type your email address on a website use "yourgmailaccount+nameofwebsite@gmail.com" as the email address, ie. jarp+citydata@gmail.com and then setup a filter in gmail so everything going to the +citydata address goes into a separate folder. Works well enough until the bots start parsing the + suffix which they may already do.
Any time you place an ad, you provide an email address. Even though it's not published, anyone who clicks on the email link on your ad can send you an email. It's not hard to program a 'bot to send spam to every ad on craigslist. Why this is just happening now is hard to say.
Yep throwaway email accounts is the way to go for posting on places like that.
If you have a gmail account you can setup a filter. When you type your email address on a website use "yourgmailaccount+nameofwebsite@gmail.com" as the email address, ie. jarp+citydata@gmail.com and then setup a filter in gmail so everything going to the +citydata address goes into a separate folder. Works well enough until the bots start parsing the + suffix which they may already do.
I already use a "throw away" address. Like I said, I don't have my email address on the site. They are just responding to the ad, I can't control that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Naptowner
Any time you place an ad, you provide an email address. Even though it's not published, anyone who clicks on the email link on your ad can send you an email. It's not hard to program a 'bot to send spam to every ad on craigslist. Why this is just happening now is hard to say.
Exactly. Why, I don't know either but I'm on asking this to see if it recently happened to anyone else and what they are doing about it.
Thanks for the reponses and I know so far everyone is trying to help. I'm really hoping someone that is having the same experience will post and tell me what they did to stop it. I know how Craigs List works but there is a new issue I'm trying to resolve.
Oh - I definitely agree, the spamming has become much, much worse lately. I haven't a clue how to stop it, though. I just delete it.
Well, one thing, maybe. I don't use CL much, and am very good about removing defunct ads once I am done. Like if the item sold, or whatever. A few months ago, I forgot to remove an ad after I'd sold a rug. I had no spam when the ad was fresh and on the first page, sold the rug in a day, then about a week later got a bunch of spammy emails (porn invites, mostly ) in response.
So maybe being prompt about removing older ads, if that's even applicable to the type of stuff you post?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rapture
I already use a "throw away" address. Like I said, I don't have my email address on the site. They are just responding to the ad, I can't control that.
Exactly. Why, I don't know either but I'm on asking this to see if it recently happened to anyone else and what they are doing about it.
Thanks for the reponses and I know so far everyone is trying to help. I'm really hoping someone that is having the same experience will post and tell me what they did to stop it. I know how Craigs List works but there is a new issue I'm trying to resolve.
I don't know what you would do to stop it short setting up your own email server and buying something like a barracuda spam firewall. I guess craigslist doesn't use a captcha?
The bot makers must have broken the image captcha sytem. All image captcha's eventually get broken then all hell breaks loose until a new one is used.
As far as I know craigslist doesn't publish the email address so using a throw away isn't going to do anything. Automated filtering programs server side or those on a local computer score an email based on different things and use block lists. Since the email you receive is from graigslist it's not going to have many of the common problems found with many spam emails and is not going to be on any block list so it will probably get through the filter in a lot of cases.
What you could do is ask the people to change the subject line to something different in your posting. Then use your email clients own filters to weed out the good ones based on the subject line.
The bot makers must have broken the image captcha sytem. All image captcha's eventually get broken then all hell breaks loose until a new one is used.
As far as I know craigslist doesn't publish the email address so using a throw away isn't going to do anything. Automated filtering programs server side or those on a local computer score an email based on different things and use block lists. Since the email you receive is from graigslist it's not going to have many of the common problems found with many spam emails and is not going to be on any block list so it will probably get through the filter in a lot of cases.
What you could do is ask the people to change the subject line to something different in your posting. Then use your email clients own filters to weed out the good ones based on the subject line.
Good points and a good idea to try. I don't know if people would do it but it's worth a try. Thank you.
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) in response.
