There are a lot of spammers and scammers working the W4M and Casual Encounters sections of Craigslist. I’ve been replying to ads in these sections for a couple of weeks now and I can confirm that it’s majorly shady. I want to share what I’ve found so you can avoid getting scammed.

Before I get into that, I should state now that I’ve had ZERO positive results working these ads so far; no dates, no NSA sex, no dirty hookups, nothing. I hear from my sources that legit women are harder and harder to find on CL than they were a couple of years ago, but it’s still possible to score. I’ll keep trying and report my results.

Watch out for Bullshit Ads

If you scan ANY Casual Encounters section, you’ll find tons of ads, and almost all of them lead to a spammer or a scammer. These are easy to spot and if you spend 10′ clicking through ads you’ll get used to identifying them. For the most part, the ads will be poorly written with shitty headlines. Here’s a good example:

I underlined two big giveaways. Who misspells the word lonely? Also, no Orlando resident would ever misspell Altamonte in their headline. It just doesn’t happen. Besides those red flags, the body text is laughably bad.

If you reply to these ads, which I did plenty of times using a bogus Hotmail account, your Junk mail folder will fill up rapidly with tons of pharma spam and paid porn sites. I highly recommend using a secondary Hotmail or Gmail account if you plan on experimenting.

Identifying Real People

You will occasionally come across real women posting in W4M and Casual Encounters. These are also easy to spot because they contain either a well written, substantial body text and/or a picture. I corresponded with one real chick who had an awesome, descriptive ad and another who I believe was real but I couldn’t ever get her to exchange pics. Guys, note here that the legit gals will receive 100+ replies to their ads within a couple of hours, so it’s a crazy competitive market. You might be better off spending your time on Loveawake or the local meat market.

To make matters worse, most of the legit ads are from BBW and HWP women…you can tell these because they post their pictures and state it right off the bat. So, if you’re expecting to meet that perfect 10 who is down for discreet, NSA sex, the odds are against you. That fantasy is incredibly hard to come by on CL these days.

Check out this crazy ad for a sex roommate from a BBW married mother…sounds real but who would want to mess with this?? Note the date and weather qualifier, which is actually legit.

Most Sinister: Bots

Here’s what I thought was ingenius and sinister. Some fake ads are well written enough that I was compelled to respond. I responded and then received a reply that was also well written and seemed in context. From there you get caught in an email exchange with someone/something that at first blush sounds legit, but actually leads you to a payment scam website. The tipping point will say something about going to her picture or verification site, where you have to make a payment to access more information about her, for her safety of course. Here’s an example (click to enlarge):

Guys, don’t fall for this trap! The site is completely bogus and is designed to illicit a payment from you. Here’s the actual site with a screenshot: http://cheating-wivez.com/profiles/melanie_79/

The most sinister part of the whole process is that it’s completely AUTOMATED on the scammers end, aka a Bot. You’ll send an email and a program will continuously send you replies of different variations, trying to get you to hit the site and make the payment. Expect 3-4 responses even if you’ve told the person to bugger off. Imagine how duped I felt after writing a long winded email about myself and it wasn’t even going to a real person.

Tread carefully and never pull out your credit card.

Final Thoughts

Craigslist is a rough game. I do think it’s possible to meet real people on CL and I’ve got a couple of strategies I’m going to try. It is fast, easy, and entertaining, but you have to be extra careful. So far I’ve found Match.com game to be infinitely easier.

What’s a shame is that 3-4 years ago CL Casual Encounters used to be a total party, with real ads from real people meeting for NSA sex and alternative relationships. You could basically get anything you wanted with just a little game. That marketplace has disappeared from CL after the scammers and spammers moved in. The party is now spread to other corners of the Internet and wherever it is, I’m going to find it.