Yard Sale Update, Craig's List and Spam

You're probably logical enough to figure out what this post is about by the title, but here are the details.

First of my yard sale did not go so well. However, like all experience it taught me some things, or one thing. Don't start your sale late in the morning. My daughter had soccer practice at 9, so I started the sale at 11a.m. I did post a sign on my garage that was large and clearly stated that we started at that time, and I don't think there was any confusion. It's just that garage sale mentality kicks in early and doesn't last that long. What I mean is that most people will get out early to get the best stuff. After a few hours of saleing they are exhausted. By 11 or so they are ready to go home, have some lunch and get on with their lives. I did sell a few items and had several people stop by saying things like, "Oh I wish I had seen your sale first...I just bought an X, but yours is nicer...Darn, I paid to much for this X at another sale." Whatever.

Originally I hoped that I could unload my stuff all at once and avoid Craigslist, but after the preparation and boring hours sitting in my front yard I turned back to Craig. I already had everything cleaned up and ready. So I took some pictures and did quick posting.

This morning I was excited to see that I had 8 replies to my items. But once I opened the first one my excitement died. (I'm sure you've guessed why) Here's what it said...

Goodmorning, Would you be interested in working online?
Bing™ brings you maps, menus, and reviews organized in one place. Try it now.
this message was remailed to you via: sale-pbav6-1395391794@craigslist.org

There were 4 emails with similar messages. The "Try it now." was hyperlinked. I did not click it and have removed the hyperlinks for this post.

Four other emails contained messages similar to this one below (again, hyperlinks removed):

I saw the inStep trailer - found here: http://boulder.craigslist.org/bab/1395388031.html jumped out at me. I, too had been doing the same thing since I lost my job. 3months ago, it was aweful, but I needed to sell my boy's games just to make our house payment and it was most definitely the lowest point in my life.
Saying it was demoralizing couldn't even describe it right,but I knew I had to make the house payment or we would be homeless (I was already several months behind).Thank goodness that will be the last time I'll have to hurt my babies like that.
One of my good buds showed me what he's doing to earn ethical income working on his home computer. I couldn't believe he would share this with me, but I'm so grateful that I have been sharing this with anyone who needs a financial break and who might be in the same situation.
Thank God it's easy or I would not have been able to complete it, in additionit is the most financially stable I have ever felt before. I promise you'll find this link worth the 30 seconds it takes to look it over. Oh, there is the link: http://g4.ms/moreforus
Take great care, and Bless You!

The four previous emails all advertised Bing and came from hotmail.com addresses. The second set of emails all included links to "articles" and came from gmail.com addresses. The hotmail emails had sender and subject lines in all capital letters. Both sets of emails used similar subject lines, i.e. "RE: Kelty Backpack" which is the same as the name of my posting. The articles are linked through a cloaking service that could be used for marketing, redirecting and/or click tracking--or perhaps spyware.

It doesn't matter whether these are malicious or not, they are an annoyance at the least and potential dangerous. Virus software is not enough to protect you--you've got to be proactive as well.