Craigslist

wtmtnhiker wrote:

I'm getting these anonymous email addresses with responses to my for sale ad.

Both the Craigslist lister(seller) and buyer are assigned anonymous Craigslist email addresses through email-relay. So not just the seller. This is supposedly to reduce Spam and Scam replies which are quite common when listing with Craigslist.

This system is also designed to make it easier to block spammers by clicking the flag link, which will block in theory an email recipient from sending further emails. However, its only partially effective at best.

First, all a spammer has to do is use a different email address, and will get through. Worse, it may be possible to extract your real email address from the email headers itself. Possibly allowing a savvy spammer to continue to email you directly.

In general, I would not reply to any email that simply states "Is it still available?" or "I want to buy it?" as these are likely from scammers. In fact, I've checked the sending IP address in the email headers from these types of replies, and many time discovered them to originate from overseas. Clearly, a scam.

A better approach may be to just require a phone no contact, or place a phone no in your ad yourself. You can get a free Google Voice phone no if you do not want to give out your own. It will forward all calls to your real phone. I do this will all my ads. You also tend to get real buyers more often this way.

BTW, I believe Craigslist will filter out email address and phone numbers placed in listing. They do this to protect your privacy. However, you can easily get around this by using a graphic image(jpeg, gif, or png) of your phone no instead.