Craigslist

I returned home to Atlanta on the 9th of October to finish moving my belongings out of my townhouse since I was moving to Florida.  I posted a note on craigslist.org on that Friday before we drove into Atlanta.  Craigslist regardless of all the controversy is a great way to acquire items, sell, or just give away items you don’t won’t or that take up too much space in your home.

Within hours of my post on craigslist I had 5 to 8 valid responses from your normal college student to the single parent just starting over.  My girlfriend was amazed at how fast the responses were for my items, and I made her a true believer in the power of Craigslist.  Oh it’s always a good thing to tie your email to your Blackberry or internet ready phone that helped a lot since I no longer had Internet at my place and had to rely on the Blackberry to communicate with people.

All my items were donated to a woman who had the means to pickup the items first, I could not wait for those who were going to rent a truck and pick up the next day, because I only had about 24 hours.  I had to depend on the person who showed up first. With that said after my experience I was able to notice a couple of things that should help anyone who is new to Craigslist understand how to best protect yourself.  Craigslist has a resource about Scams here, along with personal safety tips here.

While we have heard bad things about Craigslist as of late, we also know that with any internet site you have to use a little common sense.  So here are my tips to help anyone.  Craigslist does help to mask your real email address, and that is helpful until you call someone or email them back directly, now they have your real email address and can SPAM you all day.  In other words answer back to those who respond through the craigslist system.

Selling on Craigslist:

• Be accurate and 100% truthful about your product (don’t skim the line, if it’s broke say it’s broke)
• When people respond look at the email address if it looks fake, it probably is so just don’t even respond to: jakmehaletof@yahoo.com fake emails do exists to just harvest your real email address (SPAM)
• If someone seems desperate, they probably are, don’t give them fuel just ignore them.
• Don’t accept Cashiers checks, or personal checks (CASH ONLY)
• Make sure to have someone at the exchange location (Ladies don’t give people your home address, a place your familiar with is best) (Guys don’t think your such a Macho guy, you might need backup if something goes wrong, or you come across a thief ring)

Buying on Craigslist:

• Make sure that if this is a big purchase item you take a friend with you (just a precaution)(robberies happen all the time when money changes hands, especially in this economy)
• Know the product your buying so you don’t get scammed into buying a knock off product
• Before responding to a ad, make a fake email account so if it turns out to be a spammer you don’t get caught in the net. In the past I have found myself waking up to 1000 SPAM messages in my inbox overnight.
• IF IT LOOKS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT PROBABLY IS (steer clear of those)
• Yes you can find items on Craigslist for FREE, some people are moving and don’t want to travel with those items, and others just no longer have the space

I’m sure I have left some things off this list but I just wanted to discuss my success with Craigslist and wanted to share it with my friends and family.

If you have another tip to add to this list please leave it in the comments

Thanks

Tagged as: craigslist, how to, safety, scam