Craigslist harassment - YouLookFab Forum

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Craigslist harassment

biscuitsmom

Veteran

Has anyone else experienced this after posting on Craigslist? I listed a 100 yr old oak table for sale in the collectibles by owner section for a friend w/out a computer. Any inquires were supposed to be sent to a anonymous email address provided by CL. Somehow a person got hold of my private email address and has been sending me porn-related messages daily, sometimes multiple times a day, all from different 'names' and hotmail email addresses, wanting to get together with me! Asking/telling me to call and hook up with them We are in the same area. Also telling me to go to different websites (but they all say basically the same thing, almost word for word, so I dont believe it is random spam) I have never replied to any of them, nor clicked on any links. They mention my email addy in the writing, which upsets me. I have contacted CL and they were no help at all All of the emails have come from 'hotmail' addresses. I have written to my email server, but havent gotten a reply. This has been going on for several weeks and Im so upset, Im almost in tears every time I get online I really love my email 'name' so I hate to be forced by some pervert to change it. Have you ever had this or something similar happen, or have any advice? I would really appreciate it....I dont want to mention any of this to DH, cuz I know he would be really upset.

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20 replies

Latest reply was from biscuitsmom

Raisin

Veteran

Just curious, how do you know you're being spammed by someone from CL? Couldn't your email have been found a thousand other ways? Like sites selling them or just someone sending to randomly generated emails? Pretty much anytime you use your email online someone out there has it. If that's the case maybe you can get a spam filter/blocker?

biscuitsmom

Veteran

He has the '100 yr old oak table' in all the email headings and cl is the only place it is advertised for sale I know its very likely to get on a spammers email list, but this is definitely because of the cl ad. I have tried to set up filters,but hasnt helped because they come from so many different addresses. I need my email servers to help me set up widespread restrictions, I thnk. Im very computer illiterate....hope they get back to me soon.

texstyle

(website)

Veteran

Can you create a filter to remove anything with certain words to the trash so at least you don't hve to see them? If you don't have friends with hotmail accounts you might be able to blacklist all hotmail accounts from your e-mail.

biscuitsmom

Veteran

I'd like to just block all hotmail email, thats where they all have been coming from. I am SO stupid w/computers...I tried to set up a filter for it, but mustve done something wrong, cuz I got 3 more this morning I think my email server will help me do it, when they have time....I just needed to whine and see if this happened to anyone else

Mochi

Veteran

Aww, that's terrible, biscuit. So sorry. When you set up the ad, were you careful in the settings to make sure your email info was anonymous? I'm thinking maybe you weren't aware you had to do this? Then again, it's the default choice...so this is weird. CL will never take accountability. I wish I had a proactive solution for you.

Mochi

Veteran

Hi again, biscuit. I was out before, on an iphone and didn't carefully read your message where you state that you did sign up to have the replies filtered to an anonymous address, so sorry about that.

Here is some advice (not that helpful) from CL:

http://www.craigslist.org/about/help/abuse

But it says to go straight to the provider (in your case, hotmail) and report it directly to them. I did a search there and came up with this:

http://windows.microsoft.com/e.....junk-email

Specifically, here is where you can find out where to report abuse:

"To report abuse received from a non-Hotmail account [obviously in your case, it IS a hotmail account, but maybe it still applies?], contact abuse@xxxxxx.xxx , where xxxxxx.xxx is the part of the sender's email address after the "@" symbol. For example, if the abusive email came from someone@mymailmessages.com, report it to abuse@mymailmessages.com. You can also go to http://abuse.net to identify the correct abuse reporting address."

I hope you find some solution in all this. Try not to be too emotional about this. I know it's a violation, but I'm guessing that it is probably not even a human being but some humongous spamming program that is firing these emails off to a huge number of email addresses and yours got caught in the net. I think you may be able to block them, but it could take more than one or two, or even more, tries before you completely cut them off. Come back here if you need any more help. Actually there are women on here who are much more tech-savvy than me who could probably help you. Good luck.

rachylou

Veteran

Hi biscuitsmom!

I would not feel especially targeted because of porn spam alone - even spam addressed directly to you and with your craigslist ad title in the subject line.

Email addresses are relatively easy for spammers to generate, find, and unmask. Email addresses are also relatively easy for spammers *to* mask (meaning that, unfortunately, the spammer may not be *originating* from Hotmail - it's not as straightforward as that). Also, the vast majority of spam is porn and features marketing messages like "hook up with me tonite."

If there's any commonality to the sender's email addresses, you could possibly devise a filter block based on that commonality. Alternatively, you could put a filter block on all emails with the subject "100 yr old oak table."

If the table is still unsold and the ad still up, you can take the ad down and re-post it... obviously with a title other than "100 yr old oak table." Just as another little measure.

And of course, report the offending sender's email addresses.

One last thing... if you think you are acquainted with the person sending the emails, that's a different matter.

Raisin

Veteran

I think I may have a way you can get rid of him.

Ok, here in Canada we use Kijiji (well some places have CL) but if it works the same, this should work. When you set up a listing it automatically sends any responses to the email of the account holder - you. That's why the heading is in each email. They do not have your email address at this point, but if you respond, then they will have it. Hopefully you haven't responded to him. If you delete your listing then he will no longer be able to reply to you!

Now I know your friend wants it listed, but maybe you can get her to make a CL account from your computer with her email address, and then do the listing for her under her account, and she will have to deal with any spam, not you.

rae

(website)

Veteran

Already great advice here, but I wanted to say I hope it has stopped! Some people... oy.

Isabel

Veteran

Hi BM, You also need to call the police and report it. I think that the FTC also tracks this sort of thing.

Good luck and please update us.

biscuitsmom

Veteran

Hi all! Sorry it took so long to get back to this... had computer trouble Thank you all so much for writing! Really great advice Mochi,Im afraid these arent the 'random' replies- he suggested meeting at some of the local dive bars and gave me specific times/addresses, etc- ewww! I had probably 20-25 emails,over a period of 3 weeks, ranging from pseudo-innocent (wanna meet at Embers on 53rd&Central for coffee and maybe more? 'you sound sooo intriguing) to really explicit porn messages and raunchy dive bar addresses and times he would be there I finally got in touch with Comcast and the lady helped me set up a block for all hotmail addresses and had no problem whis /piled-up email since I got back online! Rachylou, I did delete the ad from CL about 2 weeks ago, but the email continued every.single.day. UGH! The only thing (besides the 2 styles of writing (pseudo-innocent and downright pornograghic) was they were all from 'hotmail' addresses, so I had a Comcast rep help me block all hotmail email I had another trouble with a FB 'friend' sending me viruses and posing as someone else, (long story) but that stopped when I dumped my email address....thanks though! Raisin, the emails continued even after I changed the $ amount of the table and finally deleted the ad I need to handle all email, as he doesnt have a computer, tablet, etc.... I ended up giving him some eBay assistants phone #'s to relist his items with. I am 'done.' Thanks for the info, though! Rae, Isabel, thanks for the support, too! I thought about contacting the police if it didnt stop, but so far (knock wood) the blocking has worked! I appreciate all of you SO much!

rachylou

Veteran

Knock wood!

Do you think you exchanged emails with this guy? Like he replied to the ad and then you replied back, and then he started sending the harassing emails? Save his emails. They can be traced.

biscuitsmom

Veteran

Thanks, Rachylou! I didnt reply to any, unfortunately it started immediately. Im just grateful it stopped I shouldve kept them, but deleted them because it upset me so much, but wouldve been smarter to save, for sure!

rachylou

Veteran

C'est la vie

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Ugh. I hope that it's resolved with the steps you took. I know how stressful these things can be. When my website got hacked last year, I felt violated and couldn't rest for days until I'd gotten a friend to help me figure out the security breach and fix the problems (don't get me started on how unhelpful Wordpress is). It was just a random hacker, from overseas, but it still feels icky. Having messages come from someone who knows local-to-you places must seem quite creepy. I'm sure they're just casting a wide net though, sending out dozens of spammy emails, trying to get some sad person to respond to them. It may even be bored kids, sad to say.

biscuitsmom

Veteran

Im so sorry you went thru that! UGH. Yeah, the personal references creeped me out, for sure....dont know if they're still being sent, but at least I dont see them anymore!

Isabel

Veteran

BM I am so glad. I think that like Janet alluded, this is so hard because our homes used to be our safe havens. When someone goes thru the computer into our homes, it almost feels as if they are climbing thru a window.

T-Rex

Veteran

Ick. I'm sorry you are having to deal with this.

You may want to create a separate, free, throwaway email account just for posting to places like CL. That way, if your email address is used and abused in the future, it will be separate from your other email addy that you use for friends and trusted sites (such as this one). I know this doesn't help you with your current problem, though.

Mochi

Veteran

T-Rex's advice is sound. For me, that's the whole reason hotmail exists!

biscuitsmom

Veteran

Thanks, I would do that if I decide to post on CL again, although the experience left a very bad impression w/me.