Receive Craigslist verification SMS online

Browsing and replying

No account or phone needed

Posting

Some categories and areas require a phone check

Code delivery

Text message or an automated voice call

Contact in ads

An anonymous email relay by default; showing a number is optional

Accounts

Optional for many posts, useful for managing several ads

Payments

None — Craigslist does not handle money between users

Craigslist only asks when you post

Craigslist is unusual among the apps on this site: most visitors never create anything. Reading listings, searching and replying to an ad work without an account and without a phone number. The phone check appears on the posting side, and only for some categories and some areas — typically the ones spammers and scammers favour, such as services, housing and certain job and sales sections.

When the check applies, Craigslist sends a code to the number you give and you enter it before the post goes live. Some categories also expect a fee. The number is used to limit how many posts one person can put up and to make it harder to flood a city with fake ads.

People most often use one of our numbers for Craigslist to:

• Passing the phone check to post in a category that requires one
• Keeping a personal number out of a public classified ad
• Posting a one-off sale, rental or service without exposing your main line
• Protecting your real number from the code-request scam

Many apps expect the number you keep. We help with the cases above; we do not help anyone reach an account that is not theirs — see our acceptable use policy.

Choose the text message, not the call

Craigslist can deliver the code as a text message or as an automated voice call. A rented verification number receives text messages only; it cannot pick up a call. When the posting flow offers a choice, take the text option, and if a call is the only option shown, that particular posting check is not one a rented number can complete.

Keep your number out of the ad itself

A Craigslist ad can show contact details publicly, but by default replies go through an anonymous email relay that hides both sides' addresses. Publishing a phone number in the ad puts it in front of everyone who reads it, including the scrapers that harvest numbers from classified sites for spam and scam calls.

The relay is enough for first contact. If you later need to call a buyer to arrange a pickup, that is a decision you make about one person, not about everyone who opened the listing.

The code scam that made Craigslist famous

The scam goes like this. You post an ad with a phone number, or share one in a reply. Someone answers, sounds interested, and then says they need to be sure you are a real person: "I'm sending you a code, just tell me what it says." A code arrives. It did not come from the buyer — it came from an internet calling service that the scammer is setting up using your number, because the service sends its verification code to the number being registered.

If you read the code back, the scammer now has a phone number linked to your real line, which they use for other scams under your identity; sometimes the code is instead for one of your own accounts. There is no version of this request that is legitimate. No buyer or seller on Craigslist ever needs a code from you.

Why a rented number helps here specifically

On most apps a rented number is about keeping a personal line private from the app. On Craigslist it also shields that line from the people who read the ads. Using a rented number for the posting check keeps your real number off a platform whose ads are widely scraped, and if you slip and a scammer triggers a code, the code lands on a number you do not rely on.

It does not replace judgment: the right response to "send me the code" is still to stop replying.

Craigslist never handles your money

Craigslist does not process payments between buyers and sellers, does not offer purchase protection, and does not send "payment confirmations". Emails claiming a payment is being held by Craigslist, or asking for a fee to release it, are fake. Local cash deals in public places, with the item checked before paying, remain the safest way to trade.

Housing ads: never pay a deposit for a place you have not seen

The housing section attracts one of Craigslist's oldest scams. A flat is listed well below the local price, the "landlord" is abroad or unavailable to show it, and a deposit or first month's rent is requested by transfer, gift card or payment app before any viewing, sometimes with a request to "verify" yourself with a code first.

Real landlords show properties, and a lease is signed before money moves. Search the listing photos to see whether they appear elsewhere under another address, meet in person at the property, and treat any request for a code, a wire transfer or gift cards as the end of the conversation.

Job and gig ads that ask for codes or payments first

Fake job posts use the same tools: an interview held entirely by text, an offer that arrives within hours, then a request to buy equipment with your own money, to deposit a cheque and send part of it back, or to share a verification code to "set up your work account". Legitimate employers do not ask new hires to front money or read out codes.

Installing Craigslist and verifying the number

When the code does not arrive

In order of how often each one is the real cause:

1. The code was sent as a voice call
   Go back and choose the text-message option. A rented number cannot receive calls.
2. No code arrived by text
   Check the number and country code, wait a few minutes, and request once more. If it still fails, try a number from a different range.
3. The number was refused for this post
   Craigslist limits how many posts one number verifies and refuses some number types. Try a fresh number.
4. A reply asked you to send back a code
   Stop replying. It is the Google Voice scam; the code would link a phone number to your line for the scammer.
5. An email says Craigslist is holding a payment for you
   It is fake. Craigslist does not process payments.
6. The post needs a fee as well as a phone
   Some categories and areas charge a posting fee in addition to the phone check. That is normal and separate from the code.

Working out which case you are in

1. Are you only browsing or replying? Yes No phone is needed at all. No Posting may require a phone check in your category.
2. Does the check offer a text message? Yes Pick text and enter the code. No A rented number cannot answer the call; use a phone you hold.
3. Do you want your number shown in the ad? Yes Think twice; ads are scraped for spam. The relay is usually enough. No Keep "show phone number" off.
4. Has anyone asked for a code? Yes It is a scam — stop replying. No Carry on.
5. Is someone asking you to pay or collect money through Craigslist? Yes It is fake; Craigslist handles no payments. No Trade in person, in a public place.

Before you request another code

• Browse and reply without giving any number
• Use the email relay instead of showing a number in the ad
• Choose text over voice for the posting code
• Enter the code straight away
• Never read a code back to a buyer or seller
• Ignore any "payment held by Craigslist" message
• Meet in public and inspect before paying

Which kind of number to use

Checked 2026-09-28 by the FreeSmsOtp team. Prices, stock and delivery figures on this page are live and come from our own orders — how we measure.

Countries with Craigslist numbers now

Refreshed every hour. How we measure delivery.

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