Scammers are harvesting phone numbers from ads placed on Craigslist.
If you place an ad on Craigslist you're better off NOT posting your phone number
in your ads, and just have people reply by email.
I recently placed an ad on Craigslist to sell my bicycle, and I included my phone number.
The first person who replied to my ad did so by phone text... I thought the person was serious
about buying, based on his questions about my item.
I should have suspected the person was a scammer, because the area code he called from
was 423.
After a brief exchange of my location address, the person claimed he was scammed out of
money from a previous Craigslist ad experience; and so he requested me to verify who I was
by text messaging him back with a code.
I complied because I didn't want him to think I was someone looking to rip him off with my sale.
Then I told him what time during the day he could come to pick up my item.....
...Hours later at That specified time of the day my phone started ringing off the hook
with people inquiring about a "house for rent". The calls continued all day and through the
late night hours!
I fell for this scam, it is new to me. The method seemed so believable at first.
As a result, my voice-mail inbox was filled with over a dozen messages inquiring
about "house for sale" or "house for rent" ads.
Scammers are harvesting phone numbers from Craigslist ads.
They also pose as "employers" placing fake job ads on Craigslist, collecting phone
numbers and personal info from job seekers.
I wish there were some way for our basic phones and pre-paid service to block such scams.
Telemarketer calls and even Verizon's own generated Ad text messages are also impossible to block.
My solution to the problems I described above was to change my phone number to
a new number. I still had to go back and delete all the junk text and voice-mail messages
that followed me from my previous number.
as a final resort, I am planning to switch completely to another phone service.
Because Verizon aint worth it.
