If you read my last article, you’ll remember the topic of discussion was the website Craigslist being used as a resource for part time jobs and side gigs. Something I briefly mentioned in that article was the fact that some of the ads you’ll come across are scams. What we’ll be covering in this article is how to avoid these scams and focus on the ultimate goal of finding legit ads that’ll make you extra money.

When it comes to spotting which ads are possibly scams, it’s important to know what tendencies are commonly used. For example, a common scam attempt I’ve come across in my day involves the would be scammer posting an ad that’s typically rather eye catching headlines (“Earn $500 Weekly”) with undescriptive information. Often times, there’s not even a single hint of what the job duties require. A particular version of this scam I’ve seen quite often, actually tries to lure people in with an advertisement that says you’ll make (an outlandish) $500 a week just for getting decals on your car that promote well known companies such as Coca Cola, Monster Energy, etc.

First of all, why the heck would well established companies such as the ones mentioned would use Craigslist as a platform for advertising this or pretty much any kind of service is beyond me. Let’s remember, this is a local classifieds site, therefore a national brand using it in this particular way just doesn’t seem to make sense. Now to continue on with the method of this scheme, what happens next after getting in contact with someone responsible for posting the ad, you’ll receive an email with further instructions. Following through with these instructions as the person responding to the ad is exactly how the scammers succeed. Keep in mind of course, this method doesn’t just apply to the car decal scam, it can be done in various scam attempts. Anyhow, in these emails, the would be scammer typically informs you that they’ll be sending a check in the mail, the check will include not only pay for however long you initially decide to have the decals on your car, but also extra money for (as they explain within the email) the company that will be installing the decals on your car.

Now that last part is very important. Ideally, the first thing you should be asking yourself after reading that is; “Why on earth would I have to be the one that gives the (supposive) company their money, why couldn’t the middle man be cut out and the money be sent directly from the company giving me the check in the first place?” It’s certainly mind boggling in my opinion, but that's not what the deal is (big surprise). Instead, the check you would receive after agreeing to follow through with the process is fake. This means when you go to your bank to take out your portion of money and wire the remaining to the “company” (scammers). Now here's where the climax of the scam takes place, the check you received as I just mentioned is fake and the transaction will then bounce and you'll be in a whole heap of trouble with your bank as you are now responsible for however much money that was involved in the faulty transaction, which could be thousands of dollars.

Alright, so now with that example taken into consideration, here are some more frequent elements associated with scams that you should be on the lookout for when ever coming across an ad on Craigslist:

Emails

Many times scam ridden emails will contain rather long ramblings with noticeably awful grammar.

Phone numbers

If an ad contains a phone number for contact, pay attention to the area code, google what area it’s associated with. Now I’m not saying you should hit the metaphorical scam alert button every time there’s a phone number that doesn’t have the same area code as you, but if you're living in say Syracuse and there’s an ad for a job with a number that’s area code that’s associated with the Boston area, it’s time to be a little skeptical.

Undescriptive ads

This one's pretty simple, if a job ad gives you no information other than what many would consider to be awesome benefits such as “No Training Required” or the aforementioned “$500 a week” don’t even waste your time.

Keeping in mind, once again, something such as “$500 a week”; if an ad seems too good to be true, it be a wise bet to say it's a scam.

To learn more about dancing your way around Craigslist scams, check out this article on one my favorite personal finance websites; moneycrashers.com which takes a look at a number of different types of Craigslist scams.