Is This a Craigslist Scam? How to Tell Before You Lose Money

Spend ten minutes on r/craigslist and you’ll notice something. The most common post flair isn’t “selling tips” or “found a deal.” It’s some version of “Is this a scam?” Someone pastes a text message, a screenshot of an email, or a strange request from a buyer, and asks strangers to tell them whether they’re about to get burned.

Most of the time, the answer is yes. And most of the time, the person asking already had a bad feeling about it. That instinct is worth listening to, but instinct alone isn’t enough. Scammers change their wording every few months. What stays the same is how the scam actually works: the mechanism underneath the message. Once you understand the mechanism, the wording stops mattering.

We’ve been posting ads on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace for businesses for more than five years. In that time we’ve seen every variation of the replies that land in a seller’s inbox after an ad goes live. Some are real buyers. A lot of them aren’t. This guide walks through the scams people ask about most often, explains how each one works so you can recognize new versions of it, and covers what to do if you’ve already been caught.

If you only have a minute, read the next section. If you’re trying to decide about a specific message right now, jump to the section that matches it.

The short answer: five signs that mean walk away

You don’t need to analyze every detail of a suspicious message. If any one of these five things is happening, stop. You don’t need a second red flag to confirm it.

1. They want you to read them a verification code. Any code that arrives by text, from Google, your bank, a payment app, or anyone else, belongs to you. A real buyer never needs it. This is almost always the Google Voice scam, covered below.
2. They overpaid and want you to send back the difference. No honest buyer sends you more than the asking price. A check or payment for too much money, followed by a request to refund the extra, is a fake payment scam every single time.
3. Your payment is “on hold” until you upgrade or pay a fee. Payment apps like Zelle don’t hold money hostage until you buy a business account. If an email says otherwise, the email is fake.
4. They want money before you’ve seen a rental in person. A deposit, an application fee, or “first month’s rent to hold it” before you’ve walked through the unit and met someone who can prove they control it is how rental scams make their money.
5. They insist on one specific website you’ve never heard of. A vehicle history report from a site they chose, an escrow service they recommend, a shipping company they “always use.” When the buyer picks the website, the buyer usually owns the website.

Every one of these has the same basic shape. The other person wants something from you (a code, money, a fee, personal information) before the deal actually happens in person. Real transactions on Craigslist don’t work that way. You meet, you look at the thing, you pay or get paid, and you leave.

Why scams are everywhere right now

It isn’t your imagination. Fraud is up, and it has been climbing for years.

In March 2026 testimony to the Joint Economic Committee, the Federal Trade Commission reported that consumers filed about 3 million fraud reports in 2025, with reported losses of $15.9 billion. That’s up from roughly 2.6 million reports and more than $12 billion in losses the year before. Imposter scams have been the most reported category every year since 2020. Text messages were the most common way scammers first made contact, and social media scams produced the largest total losses.

Those numbers only count what people reported. Many people never report at all, either because they’re embarrassed or because they don’t think anything will come of it. The real totals are higher.

Online classifieds sit right in the middle of this. Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace both connect strangers who have every reason to trust each other quickly: one person wants to sell, the other wants to buy, and both want the deal done. Scammers exploit exactly that. They don’t need to hack anything. They just need you to feel rushed, polite, or worried about losing a good deal.

There’s one rule that covers a surprising number of these scams: the moment someone tries to move you off the platform and into a different channel, slow down. A buyer who immediately asks for your phone number “because I don’t check this app much,” or who wants to switch to email, text, or WhatsApp, may be completely legitimate. But they may also be moving you somewhere the platform’s own scam filters and reporting tools can’t reach. It’s not proof by itself. It’s a reason to pay closer attention to what comes next.

The verification code scam (Google Voice)

This is the most common scam aimed at Craigslist sellers, and it’s the one people ask about most often. It usually looks harmless.

How it works

You post an ad. Someone replies, often by text, and says they’re interested. Then they say something like this:

“Before we meet I need to make sure you’re a real person. There are a lot of scammers on here. I’m going to send you a code, just read it back to me.”

A few seconds later, you get a text with a six-digit code. If you look closely, it’s from Google. You send the code back because the buyer seemed nice and the request seemed reasonable.

What actually happened is that the scammer was setting up a Google Voice number using your real phone number as the verification. The code Google sent you was proof that you own your phone number. By reading it back to them, you handed them a working phone number tied to your identity. They can now use that Google Voice number to scam other people, and the trail leads back to you.

The clever part, and it really is clever, is that the scammer uses your fear of scams as the cover story. An FTC official, Will Maxson, assistant director of the agency’s Division of Marketing Practices, made exactly this point in an interview about the scam: the request is framed as protection against fraud, which makes it feel responsible to comply.

Why it matters more than people think

Some people shrug this off. “So what? They got a phone number. They didn’t get my money.”

The problem is what that number gets used for afterward. Fake rental listings, fake sales, harassment, and fraud against other people can all be run through a Google Voice number that’s tied to your real phone. In some cases, Google may also suspend the Google account linked to the number if it’s used for abuse, and that can include your email, photos, and everything else in the account.

There’s also a second version where the code isn’t from Google at all. It’s from your bank, your email provider, or a payment app, and the scammer is trying to log into your actual account. The request looks identical. That’s why the rule has to be absolute: never share a verification code with anyone, for any reason.

What to do if you already gave the code

You can reclaim your number. Go to voice.google.com, sign in or create a Google account, and try to add your phone number as a linked number. Google will tell you the number is already in use by another account and give you an option to reclaim it. Follow the prompts, verify with a new code (which you’ll keep to yourself this time), and the number will be released from the scammer’s account.

If the code was from a bank or payment app instead, call that company directly using the number on their official website or the back of your card. Change your password, turn on two-factor authentication if it isn’t already on, and check for transactions you don’t recognize.

Overpayment and fake cashier's checks

This one is older than the internet. It works because of how banks handle checks, and most people don’t know about that gap until it costs them.

How it works

A buyer agrees to your price, often without negotiating at all, which is itself a little unusual. They say they’re out of town, or they’re buying the item for a relative, or a mover will come pick it up. They’ll send a cashier’s check or a certified check.

The check arrives, and it’s for more than the asking price. Sometimes a lot more. The buyer apologizes: their assistant made a mistake, or the extra is meant to cover the mover’s fee. Could you deposit it and send the difference back by wire, gift card, or payment app?

You deposit the check. Your bank shows the money in your account a day or two later. It looks like it cleared. You send back the difference.

A week or two later, the bank tells you the check was fake. The money is pulled back out of your account. Whatever you sent the “buyer” is gone, and you’re responsible for it. In some cases you’ve also handed over the item.

The part that catches people

“But the money showed up in my account” is the most painful sentence in these threads. Here’s why it happens.

Federal rules require banks to make deposited funds available to you quickly, usually within a couple of business days. But “available” doesn’t mean the check is good. It can take weeks for a fake check to bounce back through the banking system. The FTC is blunt about this: funds showing in your account does not mean the check is real. And fake checks are good enough that bank tellers can’t always tell either.

So the bank isn’t lying to you when it says the funds are available. It’s just that availability and verification are two different things, and the scam lives in the gap between them.

The rule

Don’t accept any payment for more than your asking price. Not “be careful with it.” Don’t accept it. If someone sends extra, there is no version of that story where you come out ahead. If you’re selling something valuable and the buyer wants to pay by cashier’s check, meet them at their bank, watch the teller issue the check, or simply ask for cash.

Fake payment app emails and the "account upgrade" trick

Payment apps made local sales easier, and they also created a new playbook for scammers.

How it works

A buyer agrees to pay with Zelle, Venmo, Cash App, or PayPal. They say they’ve sent the money. Then you get an email that looks like it’s from the payment company. It says the payment is “pending” or “on hold” because your account isn’t a business account, or because the amount exceeded your limit. To release the funds, you need to upgrade your account, which costs a fee. Conveniently, the buyer offers to send extra money to cover the upgrade, as long as you send that amount back to them.

None of this is real. Zelle, in particular, doesn’t have a business upgrade you buy to release a pending marketplace payment, and the company has said it doesn’t send emails about marketplace transactions like this. When people look closely at these emails, they’re often sent from a free email address like Gmail rather than from the payment company’s own domain.

What a real payment looks like

When someone actually sends you money through a payment app, it shows up in the app. Not in an email. Not in a text. In the app, in your transaction history, in the balance you can transfer to your bank.

So the habit that protects you is simple: never confirm a payment from an email or text. Open the app yourself and look. If the money isn’t there, it wasn’t sent. It doesn’t matter how official the email looks.

A related trap: payment "mistakes"

A variation goes the other way. Someone sends you money by accident (or says they did), and asks you to send it back. Sometimes the original payment is reversed later because it came from a stolen account or card, and you’ve now paid twice. If a stranger sends you money by mistake, contact the payment app directly and let them handle the reversal. Don’t send money back yourself.

Rental scams: copied listings and deposits before viewing

Rental scams are one of the most expensive scam types on classifieds sites, and they hit people who are often already stressed. Finding a place to live is hard. Finding one that’s affordable is harder. Scammers know that.

The numbers

The FTC has received roughly 65,000 reports of rental scams since 2020, with reported losses of about $65 million. In the 12 months ending June 2025, about half of the reported rental scams that started on a specific platform began with a fake listing on Facebook. People between 18 and 29 were roughly three times more likely to report losing money to a rental scam than older adults.

How it works

A scammer copies a real listing, often a home that’s actually for sale or for rent on a legitimate site. They take the photos and description, post it on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace for noticeably less than similar places, and wait.

When you reply, the “landlord” can’t show you the unit. They’re out of the country for work, or on a mission trip, or caring for a sick relative. But they’ll hold it for you if you send a deposit, an application fee, or the first month’s rent. Sometimes they mail a “key” after you pay. Sometimes they ask for your Social Security number and bank details for a “background check.” Then they stop answering.

Roommate scams are a cousin of this. Someone posts a room, or replies to your post looking for a room, and the conversation moves quickly toward deposits and overpayment checks before anyone has met.

Rules for renters

These rules aren’t suggestions. They’re the line between a real rental and a fake one.

• Don’t pay anything before you’ve seen the place in person. Not the deposit, not the application fee, not a “holding fee.” If you can’t see it, you can’t rent it.
• Confirm the person controls the property. Look up the address on your county’s property records site and see who owns it. If it’s a management company, call their office using the number on their own website, not the one in the ad.
• Search the photos. A reverse image search often turns up the same photos on a real estate site under a different listing, sometimes in a different city.
• Be suspicious of a price that’s much lower than the area. A good deal exists. A great deal from someone who can’t meet you usually doesn’t.
• Never wire money or pay with gift cards for rent. Legitimate landlords and property managers take checks, online portals, or other traceable payments.

What honest landlords can do

If you list rentals, this part is for you. Scammers copying your listings hurt your reputation, and the tenants who get scammed sometimes blame the real owner. A few habits make your listings harder to copy and easier to trust.

Put a clear line in every listing: “We never ask for money before a showing.” Real renters will notice it. Scammers who copy your listing word for word will either have to delete it or leave a promise they can’t keep.

Use the same business name, phone number, and contact details everywhere you post. If someone calls the number in a copied listing and gets you, you’ll find out quickly.

Watermark your photos with your company name. It doesn’t stop copying entirely, but it makes a copied listing look off.

Search your own addresses every so often on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. If you find a copy, report it right away.

We wrote more about how rental businesses can post consistently without looking like spam in our guide to manual posting vs automation for rentals.

The vehicle history report scam

This one targets people selling cars, and it’s sneaky because vehicle history reports are a normal part of buying a used car.

How it works

A buyer contacts you about the car you listed. They seem interested and ask good questions. Then they ask for a vehicle history report, which is reasonable. But they want it from one specific website. They send you the link. You go there, pay around $20, and get a report. Or don’t. Either way, you never hear from the buyer again.

The buyer was never a buyer. They’re getting a cut of every payment made on that website, or the site is simply collecting card numbers. The FTC warned about this exact pattern years ago, and it still shows up in sellers’ inboxes all the time.

How to handle it

If a buyer wants a history report, offer to share one you already have, or tell them they’re welcome to run one themselves. If you want to know which providers are legitimate, the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System lists approved data providers at vehiclehistory.gov.

The general rule from earlier applies here too: when the buyer chooses the website, be very careful about paying for anything on it.

Other scam patterns worth recognizing

The scams above are the ones people ask about most. Here are other patterns that come up regularly. Again, the wording changes. The shape doesn’t.

Fake escrow and shipping services

A buyer or seller suggests using an escrow service to “protect both of us.” The escrow site looks professional. It has a logo, a support chat, maybe even testimonials. It’s fake. You pay into it, and the money goes directly to the scammer. Craigslist itself doesn’t offer escrow or payment protection, and anything claiming to be “Craigslist escrow” or a “Craigslist payment guarantee” isn’t real.

Shipping is related. Craigslist is designed for local, in-person deals. When a buyer or seller insists on shipping because they’re out of town, deployed, or traveling, the deal has moved outside how the platform is meant to work. That’s where most of the protection disappears.

Pets

Puppy and kitten scams are some of the most emotionally painful. A seller posts photos of an animal, often for a popular breed at a low price. You pay a deposit, then a shipping fee, then an insurance fee, then a special crate fee. The animal never existed. If you can’t meet the animal and the seller in person, don’t send money.

Tickets

Concert and game tickets are easy to fake and hard to verify. A seller sends screenshots of tickets, takes payment through a non-refundable method, and either never sends the tickets or sends ones that have already been used or resold to several people. Buy tickets through the venue’s official resale platform when possible. If you’re buying from a person, meet and have them transfer the tickets through the official app while you’re standing there.

Jobs and "equipment checks"

Job scams on classifieds sites often look like real opportunities: remote work, mystery shopping, personal assistant roles. After a quick “interview” over text or chat, you’re hired. Then the company sends you a check to buy equipment or supplies from a vendor they choose. You deposit the check, send money to the vendor, and the check bounces later. It’s the overpayment scam wearing a job costume. Real employers don’t ask new hires to deposit checks and forward money.

Phishing links

Some messages don’t ask for anything except a click. “Is this still available? Here’s a picture of what I’m looking for,” followed by a link. Or “Your ad has been flagged, verify your account here.” The link goes to a fake login page that captures your password. Don’t click links from people you’re dealing with on classifieds sites. If a message claims to be from Craigslist or Facebook, go to the site directly and check your account there.

Red flags at a glance

How to buy and sell safely on Craigslist

Most Craigslist transactions are fine. People sell couches, buy bikes, rent apartments, and hire help every day without incident. The habits below keep you on the right side of that.

We wrote a full guide to the deal itself, covering where to meet, how to handle cash and payment apps, home pickups for large items, and why shipping is where most scams happen: Safe Meetups, Cash Only, No Shipping.

Deal locally and in person

Craigslist’s own safety guidance comes down to one idea: deal locally with people you can meet face to face. That single habit removes the large majority of scams, because most of them depend on distance. The scammer can’t be there, so they need you to send money, ship something, or trust a story.

Meet in a safe place

Many police departments have designated safe exchange zones in their parking lots or lobbies, often under video surveillance. A busy public place during daylight works too. For larger items you can’t move easily, have someone else at home with you, and don’t let a stranger wander through the house.

Prefer cash for in-person deals

Cash is simple, immediate, and final. For bigger amounts, meet at the buyer’s bank and watch the withdrawal or check being issued. If you accept a payment app, wait until the money shows in the app itself, not in an email, before you hand anything over.

Verify everything inside your own apps

This is worth repeating because it stops so many scams. Payment confirmation happens in your payment app. Account warnings happen on the actual website, after you type the address yourself. Bank problems get handled by calling the number on your card. Never confirm anything through a link or phone number someone else gave you.

Keep your codes and your money to yourself

Never share a verification code. Never send money back to a buyer. Those two rules on their own would prevent a large share of the losses people post about.

Don't ship

Craigslist is local. If a deal requires shipping, it’s outside what the platform is built for, and you’re taking on all the risk. Unless you know the other person well, decline.

Slow down

Almost every scam leans on urgency. “Someone else wants it.” “I need an answer in an hour.” “My mover is on the way.” A real buyer will wait while you check something. A scammer will push. If you feel rushed, that feeling is information.

What to do if you've already been scammed

First, you’re not alone and you’re not stupid. These scams are designed by people who do this full time, and they work on careful, smart people every day. The faster you act, the better your chances of recovering something.

Act based on how you paid

What you can do depends on the payment method.

• Credit or debit card: Call your card issuer right away and report the charge as fraud. Ask them to reverse it. Card payments have the strongest protections.
• Payment app (Zelle, Venmo, Cash App, PayPal): Report it in the app and contact the company’s support. If the app is linked to a bank account or card, call the bank too.
• Bank transfer or fake check: Call your bank immediately. Tell them the check was fraudulent or the transfer was made because of a scam, and ask what they can do.
• Wire transfer: Contact the wire company right away and ask them to reverse it. For MoneyGram, call 1-800-666-3947. For Western Union, call 1-800-325-6000. If you wired from your bank, call your bank.
• Gift cards: Contact the company that issued the card as soon as possible. Tell them it was used in a scam and ask whether they can freeze the funds. Keep the card and your receipt.
• Money order: Contact the company that issued it (the post office, MoneyGram, Western Union, or a store) and ask whether they can stop payment.
• Cryptocurrency: Contact the exchange or app you used. Crypto payments usually can’t be reversed, but it’s worth reporting quickly.

Report it

Reporting helps even when it doesn’t get your money back, because law enforcement uses these reports to find patterns and build cases.

• File a report at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
• If the scam happened online, you can also file with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.
• Flag the listing on Craigslist so it gets taken down before it reaches someone else.
• If you gave out personal information like your Social Security number, go to IdentityTheft.gov for a recovery plan.
• If a fake check came through the mail, you can also report it to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Your state attorney general’s office takes reports too.

Watch out for recovery scams

After you’ve been scammed, you may get contacted by someone offering to recover your money for a fee. They might claim to be a lawyer, a government agency, or a “fund recovery” company. This is a second scam aimed at people who were just scammed. Government agencies don’t charge fees to get your money back, and you shouldn’t pay anyone upfront who promises they can.

For businesses: how to keep your real listings from looking like scams

There’s another side to this that doesn’t get talked about much. When buyers are this worried about scams, legitimate businesses pay a price too. Buyers skip listings that feel slightly off. Platforms flag ads that share patterns with known scams. A real business can end up looking fake simply because of how its ads are written.

This is something we deal with every day, because posting real ads for real businesses is what we do. Here’s what makes a difference.

Use real photos

Stock photos are one of the fastest ways to look like a scam. Buyers have seen the same polished image on five different listings and they know what it means. Take real photos of your actual products, your actual work, your actual team or storefront. They don’t have to be perfect. They have to be real.

Price honestly

If your price is far below everyone else’s, buyers will assume something’s wrong, because that’s exactly what scam listings do. If you’re running a genuine promotion, say why. “Clearance on last year’s models” or “first-time customer discount” gives people a reason to believe it.

Show who you are

Include your business name, a local phone number, and a way to verify you exist: a website, a Google Business Profile, a physical address if you have one. Scammers hide. Real businesses make themselves easy to check.

Say what you won't do

This is the same idea as the line we suggested for landlords. A sentence like “We never ask for payment before you see the item” or “We only accept payment in person” tells cautious buyers you know what they’re worried about. It also makes your ad harder for a scammer to copy and use.

Keep details consistent

Use the same name, number, and contact details in every ad, on your website, and everywhere else you appear online. When a buyer looks you up and everything matches, trust goes up. When the phone number in the ad doesn’t match the one on your website, trust goes down fast.

Skip the pressure language

“Act now!” “Only 2 left!” “Today only!” These phrases show up constantly in scam listings, and both buyers and platform filters have learned to distrust them. Clear, calm descriptions perform better.

Write each ad individually

Posting the same text over and over across cities and categories is a pattern platforms watch for, and it’s also what a lot of scam operations do. Ads written for the specific city and category tend to stay live longer and read as more trustworthy. We explain the platform side of this in why Craigslist ads get flagged.

Reply quickly and like a person

When a real buyer reaches out, answer promptly, use their name, and answer the question they actually asked. Scammers send scripts. People notice the difference.

This is a big part of why we post manually. Every ad we create for a client is written and posted by a person on our team, with real details about the business, following each platform’s rules. No bots, no recycled templates across hundreds of cities, no accounts bought in bulk. It’s slower than automation, but it produces ads that look like what they are: listings from a real local business.

Frequently asked questions

Bringing it together

Almost every scam on Craigslist comes back to the same idea: someone wants something from you before the deal happens in person. A code, an overpayment refund, an upgrade fee, a deposit for a home you haven’t seen, a report from a website they picked. Once you see that pattern, the specific story doesn’t matter. You can recognize the new version of a scam the first time you see it.

Keep deals local. Meet in person. Verify payments in your own apps. Never share codes and never send money back. And when you feel rushed, slow down, because the rush is usually the point.

If you run a business that sells on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, the same scam worries that protect buyers can also cost you leads when your real ads look suspicious. That’s the problem Best Ads Posting solves. Our team writes and posts every ad by hand, with real business details and no bots, so your listings look trustworthy and stay live. You only pay for ads that go live, and we’ll do a free sample post first so you can see the quality before you commit. Request your free sample post and see the difference.