Safe Meetups, Cash Only, No Shipping: How to Buy and Sell Safely on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace

Ask anyone who has sold a couch, a car, or an old iPhone online for advice, and you’ll hear some version of the same three rules. Meet in a safe public place. Take cash. Don’t ship anything.

People repeat those rules on r/craigslist every day, usually under a post that starts with “is this a scam?” They’re good rules. But most people only half follow them, because nobody explains why they work, what to do when an item won’t fit in a police station parking lot, or what “take cash” actually means when a buyer shows up with $1,800 in twenties.

We’ve spent more than five years writing and posting ads on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace for businesses, over 250,000 of them. We see the questions buyers ask, the messages sellers get, and the patterns behind the deals that go wrong. This guide is the long version of those three rules: how to screen people before you meet, how to pick a place, how to handle cash without getting burned, when a payment app is fine, and why shipping is where most marketplace fraud lives.

If you want the scam-by-scam breakdown (Google Voice codes, fake cashier’s checks, Zelle “upgrade” emails), we covered that in Is This a Craigslist Scam?. This article is about the deal itself, from the first message to the moment you drive away.

The short answer

If you only read one section, read this one.

1. Meet in person, in a public place you picked. A police station “safe exchange zone,” a bank lobby, or a busy store entrance with cameras. Daylight if you can.
2. Don’t hand over the item, or your money, until the deal is complete in front of you. The buyer inspects, you count, then you swap.
3. Cash is best for most deals. It’s final, it can’t be reversed a week later, and it doesn’t require sharing a phone number, a code, or a bank login.
4. If you use a payment app, confirm the money inside the app yourself. Never trust an email or a screenshot.
5. Don’t ship, and don’t pay for anything that will be shipped to you, unless you’re using the platform’s own checkout with its own protection.
6. If someone pushes against any of this, end the conversation. Real buyers and sellers don’t fight you on meeting in public.

Those six lines handle the large majority of problems people run into. The rest of this article explains each one and covers the situations where the simple version doesn’t fit.

Why these three rules work together

Each rule removes a different way to get cheated. They’re strongest as a set.

Meeting in person removes the fake item and the fake buyer. A scammer selling a phone that doesn’t exist can’t show up with it. A scammer “buying” your car from overseas can’t take a test drive. Most marketplace fraud depends on the two sides never being in the same place, so insisting on a face-to-face handoff filters out a huge share of it before anything else happens.

Cash removes the reversal. Card payments can be disputed. Checks can bounce weeks after your bank says the funds are available. Payment apps can be tied to stolen accounts, and the real owner can get the money pulled back. Cash in your hand is done. Nobody can claw it back from your wallet next Tuesday.

No shipping removes the gap. When an item ships, there’s a stretch of days where one side has given something up and the other hasn’t. Scams live in that gap. The seller ships and the payment turns out to be fake. The buyer pays and the package never comes, or comes with a brick inside. Local, in-person deals close that gap to about thirty seconds.

Craigslist’s own safety page says much the same thing. It tells users to deal locally with people they can meet in person and to be wary of anything involving shipping, wire transfers, cashier’s checks, or money orders. Craigslist doesn’t process payments and doesn’t offer buyer protection, so the meetup is your protection.

Facebook Marketplace is a little different because it offers shipping and checkout on some listings, and purchases made through that checkout can be covered by Facebook’s purchase protection policy. Deals you arrange in Messenger and pay for with an outside app, or in cash at a meetup, don’t get that coverage. For those, the same three rules apply.

Before you meet: screening the other person

The safest meetup is the one you skip because the other person showed their hand in the messages. Spend two minutes reading them carefully before you agree to anything.

What real buyers and sellers sound like

Real people ask about the thing. Is the dresser solid wood? Does the bike have any rust? Is the price firm? When can I see it? They mention their own schedule, they haggle a little, and they’re fine with whatever public place you suggest.

Scammers ask about everything except the thing. They want to know if you’ll take a check, if you have a Zelle business account, if you’ll hold it for their cousin, if you can move to text or email right away, if you can send a verification code “to prove you’re real.” They’re very agreeable about price, because they’re never planning to pay it.

A rough test: if you replaced your item with a completely different item, would their messages still make sense? “Is this still available? I’ll pay full price, my mover will pick it up, please send your email” works for a couch, a camera, or a car. That’s a template, not a buyer.

Check the profile

On Facebook Marketplace, tap the person’s name. You can usually see when they joined Facebook, whether they have Marketplace ratings, and roughly where they’re located. A profile created last month, with no photos, no friends visible, and no ratings isn’t proof of anything, but it’s a reason to be more careful. A profile from 2011 with a dog, a kid’s soccer game, and a dozen good seller ratings tells you something too.

Craigslist is anonymous by design, so there’s no profile to check. That makes the message test and a quick phone call more important.

Make a short phone call

For anything over a couple hundred dollars, ask for a quick call before you meet. You’re not interrogating anyone. You’re just confirming that a real person with a local-ish voice is on the other end and that the story holds together. Most real buyers don’t mind. Scammers working dozens of listings at once usually disappear.

Use a number that isn’t your main one if you’d rather not share it. Many sellers set up a free secondary number for marketplace deals. Just never accept a verification code on behalf of someone else, which is a separate problem we cover in the scam article.

Keep your home address to yourself until you need to share it

For small items, there’s no reason the other person ever needs to know where you live. Pick a public place and keep it there.

For big items that can’t move (more on those below), share the address late, ideally the day of the meetup, after you’ve talked by phone and you’re comfortable with the person. Some sellers share a nearby cross street first, then the exact address when the buyer says they’re ten minutes out.

Red flags in the messages

Stop and reconsider if you see any of these:

• They want to pay more than your asking price, or send extra “for shipping” or “for my mover.”
• They can’t meet in person because they’re traveling, deployed, offshore, or out of state.
• They want you to send or receive a verification code.
• They want to move straight to email or text and stop using the platform’s messaging.
• They send a link and ask you to log in or “confirm” a payment there.
• They push for speed: “I need it today, my wife’s birthday, I’ll pay now.”
• They’re selling something far below what it’s worth and want a deposit to hold it.
• They refuse every public meeting place you suggest.

One of these on its own might be innocent. Two together, and you should assume you’re being worked.

Where to meet

Where you meet matters more than almost any other choice in the deal. A good spot discourages bad behavior before it starts, gives you witnesses and cameras, and makes it easy to walk away.

Police station safe exchange zones

Many police departments now set aside a spot for internet sales. It might be a few marked parking spaces under a camera, or a corner of the lobby that’s open around the clock. They go by different names: safe exchange zone, internet purchase exchange location, safe trade station.

These are the best option for small and medium items. A scammer or a robber has no interest in showing up at a police station, and that alone filters people out. If someone refuses to meet at the police station, you’ve learned what you needed to know.

To find one, search your city name plus “safe exchange zone,” or call your local police department’s non-emergency line and ask. Officers usually won’t supervise the deal or verify anything for you, but the cameras and the setting do most of the work. (We’d love to give you a national list. There isn’t a reliable, complete one, so checking with your local department is the honest answer.)

Bank lobbies

A bank is a great spot when real money is involved. There are cameras everywhere, staff inside, and if the buyer needs to withdraw cash, they can do it right there while you watch. For a car or anything over about a thousand dollars, meeting at the buyer’s bank is often the smoothest way to do it. You see the cash come from the teller, and nobody has to carry a thick envelope across town.

If you’re the one accepting a cashier’s check (we’ll come back to why that’s risky), meeting at the issuing bank lets a teller confirm it on the spot.

Busy stores and coffee shops

A busy grocery store, a big-box store entrance, or a coffee shop works well for small items like phones, games, clothing, or kitchen gear. Pick a place with steady foot traffic and visible cameras, near the entrance rather than out at the edge of the lot.

Avoid empty parking lots, parks at dusk, gas stations late at night, and anywhere the other person suggests that’s off the main road. “Meet me behind the strip mall” is not a meeting place.

Time of day

Daylight is better. Mid-morning to late afternoon on a weekday or weekend gives you light, people around, and businesses open. If someone can only meet at 10:30 at night, that’s not automatically a scam (people work odd hours), but it’s a reason to choose a 24-hour police lobby rather than a parking lot.

Bring someone with you

The single best safety habit at a meetup is not going alone. A friend or family member doesn’t need to do anything. They just need to be there, and ideally stay in the car or a few steps back where they can see. It changes the math for anyone thinking about trouble.

If nobody can come, tell someone exactly where you’re going, who you’re meeting, the listing link, and when you expect to be back. Share your live location from your phone for the length of the meetup. Text them when you’re done.

When the item can’t go to a public place

The public meetup advice is easy for a phone. It doesn’t work for a sectional sofa, a washing machine, a piano, or a garage full of tools. Plenty of deals have to happen at a home. That’s fine, as long as you set it up carefully.

If you’re the seller

Move the item somewhere the buyer can reach without walking through your house. A garage with the door open, a driveway, a front porch. If it’s a heavy piece, move it ahead of time so the buyer is in and out quickly. The less of your home they see, the better.

Have someone else at home. Two people present changes a lot, and it gives you a second set of hands for loading. If that’s not possible, ask a neighbor to keep an eye out, or schedule the pickup when someone can be with you.

Put away anything you wouldn’t want photographed or remembered. Keys, mail with your name on it, expensive electronics visible from the garage, the code to your door.

Don’t let the buyer wander. If they need to use the bathroom or “look at the other stuff you have,” it’s fine to say no politely. This is a pickup, not an open house.

If you’re the buyer

The same idea in reverse. Ask the seller to have the item in the garage or at the door. Bring a friend, both for safety and because you’ll need help lifting. Let someone know the address before you go. If you get there and the setup feels wrong (the seller wants you to come into a back room, the address doesn’t match, there are several people waiting who weren’t mentioned), you can leave. You don’t owe anyone an explanation.

Cars and test drives

Vehicles are their own category because the item is valuable and it can literally drive away.

Before a test drive, look at the buyer’s driver’s license and take a photo of it. Ask to see proof of insurance. Go with them on the drive. Never hand over keys and wait on the curb. Keep the drive on public roads you know, and finish it back where you started.

For the paperwork and payment, meet at a bank. The buyer gets a cashier’s check or cash from the teller in front of you, you sign the title over, and both of you fill out a bill of sale. Check your state DMV’s site for the exact steps, because title transfer rules vary by state. Some states want a notarized signature, and banks often have a notary on staff.

If you’re the buyer, run the VIN through the National Insurance Crime Bureau’s free VINCheck tool to see if it’s been reported stolen or salvaged, and pay for a full history report from a provider you choose yourself. Never use a report website the seller sends you. That trick is common enough that it has its own section in our scam guide.

The meetup itself: a step-by-step

Here’s how a clean in-person deal goes, from arriving to leaving.

Before you leave home. Charge your phone. Share your location with someone. Bring exact or close-to-exact change if you’re buying, and keep it separate from your other money so you’re not opening a full wallet. If you’re selling, bring a small bag or envelope for the cash. If you’re selling electronics, have the device charged and reset (more on that below).

When you arrive. Text the other person where you are and what you’re wearing or driving. Wait inside the lobby or in your locked car. If they’re late and keep changing the plan (“can you come to my place instead?”), that’s a reason to call it.

The inspection. Let the buyer inspect the item properly. For electronics, that means powering it on, checking the screen, testing the buttons, and making sure it isn’t locked to someone else’s account. For furniture, it means looking underneath and at the joints. A seller who rushes the inspection is a seller with something to hide. A buyer who skips the inspection and just wants to grab it and go is also worth a second look.

The payment. If it’s cash, count it in front of the buyer, at your own pace. Don’t let anyone hurry you. If it’s a payment app, open the app yourself and confirm the money is in your balance, not pending and not in an email.

The handoff. Only after you’ve counted the cash or confirmed the payment in your own app, hand over the item. Not before. This is the moment most in-person scams target, by creating a distraction or a rush right as the money changes hands.

Leaving. Walk away with your money in a pocket, not in your hand. Let the other person leave first if you’d rather not have them see your car. Text your friend that you’re done.

The whole thing should take five to fifteen minutes. Anything that’s taking much longer is usually someone stalling, haggling hard at the last minute, or trying to change the deal.

Selling phones, laptops, and other electronics

Electronics are the most common items in marketplace robberies and the most common items in scams, because they’re valuable, small, and easy to resell. A few extra steps help a lot.

If you’re selling

Sign out of your accounts and factory reset the device before the meetup, or reset it in front of the buyer. On an iPhone, that means turning off Find My and signing out of your Apple ID so the phone isn’t stuck behind Activation Lock. On Android, remove your Google account before resetting.

Meet at the police station or inside a busy store, not in a parking lot. Electronics robberies at meetups usually happen in cars and quiet lots.

Don’t let the buyer walk off with the phone “to test it with my SIM card in my car.” Testing happens right there, in front of you.

If you’re buying

Check that the phone isn’t reported lost or stolen. The CTIA’s free Stolen Phone Checker (stolenphonechecker.org) lets you enter the IMEI number, which you can find by dialing *#06#. Compare that number with the one in the phone’s settings and, if available, the box.

Make sure the device isn’t locked to someone else’s account. Go to settings and look for the account name. If the seller says “I’ll remove it when I get home,” walk away. A phone stuck behind Activation Lock is worth very little.

Test the basics: screen, cameras, speakers, charging port, buttons, Wi-Fi, and a quick call if you have a SIM with you. Five minutes of testing saves a lot of regret.

Why cash still wins

Cash has a reputation for being old fashioned, and some buyers will roll their eyes when you ask for it. For local marketplace deals between strangers, it’s still the most reliable option, and the reasons are pretty plain.

It’s final. Once the cash is in your hand and the item is in theirs, the deal is over. There’s no dispute process, no chargeback, and no bank pulling the money back after the buyer’s stolen account gets flagged.

It doesn’t expose anything. You don’t share your phone number, your email, your bank, or your payment app handle. Nobody can use your details to start a scam on you or anyone else.

It’s immune to the most common tricks. Fake payment emails, overpayments, “pending” transfers, business account upgrades, and screenshot payments are all scams that only work with digital payments. Cash shuts every one of them down.

It’s easy to verify on the spot. Unlike a check, which you can’t fully trust for days or weeks, you can look at a bill and decide in a few seconds.

Cash has downsides too. You can get handed a counterfeit bill. You can get robbed if you’re careless about where you meet and how you handle it. And it’s awkward for large amounts. Those problems have fixes.

Handling cash without getting burned

Count it properly

Count the money in front of the buyer, at your own pace. Lay the bills out or count them one at a time. Don’t accept a folded roll with a twenty on the outside. If the buyer tries to rush you, or keeps talking to distract you while you count, slow down even more and start over if you need to.

If you’re the buyer, count your money before you arrive and put the agreed amount in a separate envelope or pocket. You don’t want to flash a full wallet in a parking lot.

Check for counterfeits

Small deals rarely involve fake bills, but larger bills deserve a quick look. The U.S. Currency Education Program (uscurrency.gov) lists the security features to check, and the main ones take seconds:

• Hold it up to the light. On $5 bills and up, you should see a faint portrait watermark in the blank space and a thin security thread running vertically through the paper.
• Tilt it. On $10, $20, $50, and $100 bills, the number in the lower right corner shifts color as you tilt it. The $100 also has a blue 3-D ribbon with images that move.
• Feel it. Real currency has slightly raised printing you can feel when you run a fingernail over the portrait.

Those counterfeit detection pens sold at office stores only check for starch in the paper. Counterfeiters can get around them by bleaching real low-value bills and reprinting them as higher ones, so a pen mark alone isn’t enough. The light and tilt checks are more reliable.

If you’re unsure about a bill, it’s reasonable to say so and ask for a different one. For large amounts, this is one more reason to meet at a bank, where you can deposit the cash right away and the teller will catch anything wrong.

Large amounts

For anything over about a thousand dollars, carrying cash across town and counting a thick stack in a parking lot isn’t ideal for either side. Better options:

• Meet at the buyer’s bank. They withdraw the cash from a teller while you’re there, so you know it’s real. You can even deposit it at the same branch if you share a bank.
• Meet at your bank. You deposit the cash the moment you get it, and the teller checks it.
• Use a cashier’s check, but verify it in person. More on this below.

Don’t advertise that you’re carrying cash

This applies to buyers more than sellers. Don’t mention in messages that you’ll “have the cash on you,” and don’t pull out a thick envelope before you’ve seen the item. Keep the money out of sight until the inspection is done.

When cash isn’t practical: payment apps, checks, and the rules for each

Cash is best, but it’s not the only workable option. Plenty of buyers don’t carry cash anymore, and a lot of honest deals happen over payment apps every day. You just need to know what each method protects, and what it doesn’t.

Zelle

Zelle moves money directly between bank accounts, usually within minutes. It’s fast, but Zelle itself recommends only sending money to people you know and trust, and payments for goods are generally not covered if something goes wrong. Once the money is sent, it’s very hard to get back.

For sellers, Zelle can be fine at an in-person meetup if you open your own banking app and see the payment in your account before you hand anything over. For buyers, it’s riskier, because you have no protection if the item turns out to be broken or fake. Never use Zelle to pay for anything you haven’t seen in person.

And never respond to an email that says your Zelle payment is “pending” until you upgrade to a business account. That’s not how Zelle works, and it’s one of the most common scams on both platforms.

Venmo, PayPal, and Cash App

These apps behave differently depending on how the payment is marked. Payments sent between friends generally have no purchase protection. Some apps offer purchase protection when a payment is marked as goods and services, though the rules, fees, and eligibility change from time to time, so check each app’s current terms.

The same rule applies no matter which app: confirm the payment by opening the app yourself. Not by tapping a link in an email. Not by looking at a screenshot the buyer shows you on their phone. Screenshots are trivial to fake, and fake emails that look exactly like payment confirmations are everywhere.

A related trick to know: someone sends you money “by mistake” and asks you to send it back. The original payment was made from a stolen account or a stolen card and gets reversed later, so you lose what you sent. If a stranger sends you money by accident, contact the app’s support. Don’t send it back yourself.

Cashier’s checks and money orders

Cashier’s checks feel safe because a bank issues them. The problem is that fake cashier’s checks are easy to make and hard to spot, and banks are required to make deposited funds available quickly, often within a day or two. It can take weeks for the bank to discover the check is fake. When it does, the money comes back out of your account, and anything you’ve already handed over or sent is gone.

That’s why Craigslist and most consumer protection agencies warn against accepting cashier’s checks from strangers. If you must accept one, the only safe way is to meet the buyer at the bank that issued the check and have a teller there confirm it, or watch the teller print it. Don’t call a phone number printed on the check itself to verify it. Scammers print their own numbers. Look up the bank’s number yourself.

Money orders have the same problem, and personal checks from strangers are worse. For most marketplace sellers, the simplest rule is to skip them entirely.

Never accept an overpayment

If a buyer offers to pay more than your price and asks you to send back the difference, or to pass it along to a mover, shipper, or “agent,” it’s a scam every time. The overpayment will be fake or will be reversed, and the money you send back is real. No legitimate buyer has ever needed you to refund part of their payment.

Why “no shipping” is the rule

Of the three rules, this is the one people bend the most, and the one that costs them the most when they do.

What goes wrong for sellers

Fake payment, real shipment. A buyer you’ve never met wants the item shipped. You get an email that looks exactly like a payment confirmation, telling you the money will be released once you send a tracking number. You ship, and there was never any payment. The email was fake.

The prepaid label. The buyer offers to send you a prepaid shipping label “to make it easy.” Sometimes this is a phishing link. Sometimes the label is attached to a fraudulent account. Sometimes it’s a way to get your address. Either way, you don’t need it.

The mover or agent pickup. A buyer who’s “out of town” offers to send a mover, a cousin, or a shipping agent to pick up the item after paying by check or app. The payment is fake or reversed, and the item is gone with someone you’ll never find.

The chargeback. A buyer pays you with a card through a service that allows disputes, receives the item, then files a claim saying it never arrived or wasn’t as described. Even when you have tracking, these disputes can go against sellers, especially for items shipped outside a platform’s own protected system.

What goes wrong for buyers

Pay first, get nothing. The listing is too good to be true, the seller is out of town, and they’ll ship once you pay. You pay, the seller vanishes, and the item never existed. This is the classic version, and it works because the price is low enough to make people hurry.

Fake escrow or shipping companies. The seller suggests a “secure” escrow service or a shipping company that will hold the payment until you receive the item. The website looks professional. It’s run by the scammer. Your money goes straight to them.

The deposit to hold it. The seller asks for a deposit to hold a car, a puppy, or an apartment until you can come see it. You send the deposit, and that’s the last you hear. (Rental deposits before a viewing are their own big problem, and we cover them in our scam guide.)

Are there times shipping is fine?

Yes, with one big condition. If you’re using the marketplace’s own built-in checkout and shipping (Facebook Marketplace offers this in some categories, and platforms like eBay are built around it), the platform holds the payment and handles disputes under its own rules. That’s a different situation from a Craigslist ad or a Marketplace listing where the other person wants you to ship after paying outside the platform.

The danger zone is shipping arranged privately with a stranger, paid through a method with no protection or with protection that only favors one side. Craigslist doesn’t offer shipping protection at all. If you’re tempted, ask yourself why this buyer or seller can’t simply meet you in person. There’s usually a reason, and it’s usually not a good one.

Phrases that should end the conversation

You’ll see endless variations, but these come up again and again. When you see one, you can stop replying.

• “I’m out of town for work, but my mover will pick it up.”
• “I’ll send a check for extra, just give the rest to the shipper.”
• “Before we meet, I need to verify you. I’m sending you a code.”
• “Your payment is pending. You need to upgrade to a business account to receive it.”
• “Can you give me your email? I don’t use this app much.”
• “I’ll pay through this escrow site, it protects both of us.”
• “Send a deposit and I’ll hold it for you until Saturday.”
• “Can you meet me at my place? It’s easier.” (when the item is small and portable)
• “I already sent the money, check your email.”
• “I can’t meet in person, but I’ll pay you double.”

None of these are things a regular local buyer says. The more of them stacked together, the more certain you can be.

If something goes wrong at the meetup

Most meetups are boring. Someone shows up, looks at a bike, hands over cash, and leaves. But it helps to decide in advance what you’ll do if one isn’t.

If it feels wrong before the deal, leave. If the person shows up with extra people, keeps trying to move you to a different location, or acts in a way that makes you uneasy, you can end it. Say something simple like “Sorry, this isn’t going to work today,” and walk back inside or get in your car and lock the doors. You don’t need to argue or explain.

If you’re threatened, give up the item. No phone, laptop, or sofa is worth getting hurt over. Hand it over, get somewhere safe, and call 911.

Report it afterward. If you were robbed or threatened, call the police and give them everything you have: the listing, the messages, the person’s profile, and a description. If it was a scam without violence, report it to the platform (flag the listing on Craigslist, or report the profile on Facebook), then file with the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. For online fraud, you can also report to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.

If money was involved, call your bank or app right away. The faster you report, the better your chance of stopping or recovering a payment. Be wary of anyone who contacts you afterward offering to recover your money for a fee. That’s a follow-up scam aimed at people who just lost money.

Safety checklist, all in one place

Save this for your next deal.

Before the meetup

• Read the messages. Do they ask about the item, or about everything else?
• Check the Facebook profile, or make a short phone call.
• Suggest a public place. Police station, bank, or busy store.
• Don’t share your home address unless you have to.
• Tell someone where you’re going. Share your location.

At the meetup

• Bring a friend if you can.
• Meet in daylight.
• Let the buyer inspect the item properly.
• Count cash at your own pace, or confirm payment inside your own app.
• Hand over the item only after the payment is complete.

Always

• No verification codes, ever.
• No overpayments.
• No shipping with strangers outside a platform’s own checkout.
• No deposits for things you haven’t seen.
• If you feel rushed, slow down.

For businesses: build safety into your listings

Everything above is written for individual buyers and sellers, but it matters just as much for businesses that sell on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. Buyers who are worried about scams are more careful about every listing they see, including yours. A furniture store, a used car lot, or an equipment dealer can lose real leads simply because the ad looks like it could be a scam, or doesn’t answer the safety questions buyers have in their heads.

The good news is that a few lines of copy and some consistency handle most of it.

Say where and how buyers can see the item. “Visit our showroom at [address], open Monday to Saturday, 10 to 6” tells a nervous buyer you have a real location and nothing to hide. For businesses without a storefront, “Local pickup at our warehouse in [neighborhood], or we deliver within 30 miles” works well.

State how you take payment, in plain words. “We accept cash, card, and Zelle in person. We never ask for payment before you see the item.” That second sentence does a lot of work. It answers the biggest fear buyers have, and it makes scammers who copy your listing much less convincing.

Use real photos. Photos of your actual inventory, your actual lot, your actual crew. Stock photos make real businesses look like fake ones.

Keep your name, phone number, and address consistent everywhere. Your ad, your website, and your Google Business Profile should match. Buyers do check, and mismatches look suspicious.

Skip the pressure language. “Act now,” “today only,” and “first come first served” sound exactly like scam ads. Real urgency, like a genuine sale end date, is fine. Fake urgency costs trust.

Reply like a person. A fast, specific reply that answers the buyer’s question tells them they’re dealing with a real business. A canned “still available, send email” reply sounds like a bot, because that’s what scam bots say.

This is a big part of how our team writes ads for clients. Every ad is written and posted by a person, with real business details, real photos, and the specific trust signals buyers look for on each platform. No bots and no copy-paste templates across hundreds of cities. It’s slower than automation, but the ads look like what they are: listings from a real local business that buyers can safely deal with.

Frequently asked questions

Bringing it together

Safe meetups, cash, and no shipping all come back to one idea: keep the whole deal in one place, at one time, with nothing left hanging. When the item, the money, and both people are in the same spot, almost every scam stops working. Fake payments can’t be confirmed. Fake items can’t be shown. Nobody can run off with your money while you wait for a package.

When you can’t follow the rules exactly (a sofa that won’t fit in a police lobby, a buyer who only uses Venmo, a car that needs a bank visit), the goal stays the same. Close the gap between the money and the item, and verify everything yourself, inside your own apps and in person.

And if someone keeps pushing you away from that, toward a check, a code, a shipping label, or a deposit, you’ve already got your answer.

If you run a business that sells on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, the same caution that protects buyers can cost you leads when your ads don’t look trustworthy. Best Ads Posting writes and posts every ad by hand, with the real details and trust signals buyers look for, so your listings get responses instead of suspicion. Facebook Marketplace posting runs $80 a week for 10 ads a day, and Craigslist posting is $5 per ad. We’ll do a free sample post first so you can see the quality before you commit. Request your free sample post.