Protect your inbox from junk mail responses to Craigslist ads.
Harvesting software targets email addresses posted on the internet particularly classified sites such as Craigslist. Third parties purchase the compiled list for mailing spam messages, ranging form unsolicited promotional emails to illegal scams. Craigslist protects users from spam in several ways, from providing anonymous posting options to waging war against perpetual spammers and harvesting programs in court. While founder Craig Newmark and CEO Jeff Buckmaster take spam and phishing seriously, to effectively stop spam emails the individual user must insulate their inbox and Craigslist postings against threats and report offending messages. Follow Federal Trade commission guidelines and take advantage of Craigslist protection features.
Instructions
Prevention
1. Anonymize your email address. Fill in the "Reply To" field with a contact address. Underneath the field, click on the radio button in front of "anonymize." Ad readers reply to a randomly generated email address that forwards messages to your inbox. Spam may still appear, but the sender never possesses your actual address so long as you don't respond.
2. Mask your address. For example, list a contact address of Joedoe at yourdomain dot com. Readers easily interpret the code but software cannot. After a five-week 2005 study, the Federal Trade Commission concluded, "unmasked e-mail addresses had received more than 6,400 pieces of spam, while the masked e-mail addresses had received only one piece of spam."
3. Delete old postings immediately after the promoted event occurs or the advertised item sells to eliminate future spam. Log in to your Craigslist account. If you do not have one refer to the ad's confirmation email for deletion instructions.
4. Report repeat offenders to Craigslist staff.
Forward suspicious or persistent email to Spam@craigslist.org. Craigslist staff may intervene or alert other users to the threat.
Tags: addresses received, contact address, Craigslist staff, email address, e-mail addresses, e-mail addresses received, Federal Trade
