How to Flag Postings on Craigslist – Small Business – Chron.com
If you see an inappropriate post on Craigslist, the popular classified advertising site used by individuals and businesses, you can flag it for removal. Do so whether it’s affecting you personally or interfering with your business. A Craigslist flag marks Craigslist advertising as inappropriate, and if enough people flag the ad, it will be automatically removed. You can also contact Craigslist about inappropriate content – or recommend posts for Best of Craigslist, a kind of Craigslist Hall of Fame. Understanding a Craigslist Flag Craigslist is a widely used classified advertising service with local websites in dozens of cities across the United States and the world. Users post ads for everything from job openings to yard sales to rooms for rent, many of them posted for free. While the site has plenty of legitimate and helpful content, it can also attract scammers and people offering illegal services, as well as products and services that just aren’t allowed on the site. For instance, Craigslist advertising isn’t allowed to market guns, burglary tools, people’s personal information or the opportunity to participate in affiliate marketing programs, even if they’re legal. If you see a banned or illegal post on Craigslist, you can flag it. To do so, click the link in the post that has the word “prohibited. ” Craigslist doesn’t promote exactly how many people in what situations need to flag a post for it to be removed, but doing so will help get the inappropriate post off the site. If you’re not sure whether a post is permitted or not, check the Craigslist Terms of Use page and the prohibited items list. Other Options for Banned Content Clicking the flag button isn’t your only option for inappropriate content on Craigslist. You can also contact the company if you see someone spamming, or over-posting, on Craigslist; if you see someone posting fraudulent material; or if someone is harassing you. Fill out a form linked from the Craigslist frequently asked questions page to report such activity. Craigslist also suggests that you can report scams or illegal activity to the authorities where you are, including to the U. S. Federal Trade Commission or your local police. The company advises being wary of giving financial information or wiring money to anyone you contact through its service and not to accept potentially fake cashiers checks or money orders. You should also be cautious of renting an apartment sight-unseen on Craigslist, in case it’s a scam, and avoid any reference to a Craigslist voicemail service, which the company doesn’t actually provide. Also, whether you’re buying, selling, renting or hiring on Craigslist, you should take steps to stay safe, including not being alone with previously unknown buyers or sellers. Copyright and Intellectual Property If a Craigslist post is infringing on your copyright, you can report it to Craigslist under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by email or postal mail. Include details of the post and infringement, and a statement under penalty of perjury that it’s violating your rights. Users who repeatedly violate copyright can be banned from the site. Mistakenly Flagged Posts If you post an ad on Craigslist and you believe it was inappropriately flagged, there is a forum you can post on for advice and guidance from Craigslist staff and other users. Depending on the situation, you may receive guidance on how the post violated the rules so you can avoid such problems in the future or get help having it reinstated. Best of Craigslist In addition to flagging a Craigslist post as inappropriate, you can flag it for the Best of Craigslist hall of fame. To do so, simply click the “best of” link near the bottom of a Craigslist post. These can include posts that are funny, heartwarming or otherwise memorable. The company advises you to note that voting for a post for the “Best of Craigslist” collection doesn’t offset flags against it or otherwise protect it from removal, and notes that posts that get repeatedly nominated for “Best of Craigslist” for no particular reason can be removed. The “Best of Craigslist” posts are also subject to review by site staff.
Top 5 Rules to Keep Your Craigslist Ad from Getting Ghosted or Flagged
Allen Cook
Sr. Vice President of Sales at
Published Nov 4, 2014
(What we learned from 321, 021 Craigslist ads)
If your properties regularly advertise their vacancies on Craigslist, they have likely experienced having their postings ghosted or flagged. Having a post ghosted or flagged means that either a user of the site has clicked the ‘prohibited’ flag at the top of your post or that the Craigslist bots have removed your post due to exceeding a threshold in one of their algorithms. These activities are in place as an attempt to rein in the scammers and spammers on Craigslist, but oftentimes legitimate businesses get caught in the web.
Here are a few simple rules to follow when posting to avoid user flagging and/or algorithmic ghosting, presented in order of severity:
1) Don’t post in more than one city from the same email/account
Why? Because Craigslist promotes local connections and a common practice of spammers is posting in multiple cities from a single central location.
What to do. If your email account in Craigslist is and you post in Atlanta, then you should only ever post in Atlanta. Avoid posting in any other city with that same email account. If you must post in another city, use a different email account like
2) Don’t post identical content
Why? Having ads with identical content on Craigslist can get those ads ghosted or flagged because Craigslist forbids posting the same thing more than once.
What to do. Vary your ad content with each post. Alter the titles, the order of the images uploaded, and the body copy every time you post an ad.
3) Don’t post back-to-back ads
Why? A craigslist search results page that contains many ads with similar content and the same contact information looks “spammy. ” Technically, Craigslist even forbids having two ads in the same category, even if you are legitimately selling two different things.
What to do. Allow some time to pass between ad postings. Exactly how much time depends on the individual market. Each market has varying volumes of ad postings. With very active markets, you need only wait a half hour to an hour between postings, other less active markets, you will need to limit your postings to one or two per day. The idea is to let other ads come onto the site as a buffer between your ads.
4) Don’t use “spammy” words
Why? Craigslist is on the lookout for words and phrases routinely used by scammers and spammers. Once again, legitimate businesses can get caught in this search.
What to do. Avoid using words and phrases that tend to be used by spammers such as “free” or “credit card” or “weight loss. ” Avoid using ALL-CAPS in your titles. Also, avoid filling your ad with keywords unless those keywords are included in legitimate sentences and phrases. Finally, ensure that your ads have obvious telephone contact information. People in the Craigslist forums regularly admit that they flag ads simply because they can’t find the contact information.
5) Don’t look too commercial
Why? The Craigslist user community frequents the site because of the “free marketplace” feel of it. Corporations posting using traditional branding messaging do not do as well in this environment.
What to do. Avoid HTML tagging, like bolding and underlining. Avoid posting an excess of photos. Vary the content so the ads do not look too “templated. ”
While the rules of the game are constantly being re-written, if you follow these 5 rules you are much less likely to have your posts ghosted or flagged. Here at Rooof, we have developed a posting tool that incorporates all of the 5 rules in a single browser extension that creates Craigslist ads automatically by pulling data and images directly from your website. There is no need to rely on your already busy on-site leasing staff to create effective Craigslist ads. Let our software do all the work for you. For more information, please email me at
How do I know if my Craigslist ad was flagged? – GetHuman
Craigslist makes it super easy to post items and sell stuff but you need to be careful how you present your post to keep it from getting flagged. Here’s everything that you need to you suddenly stop seeing replies of a certain posting, it may be because someone flagged it. While it may be impossible to know the exact person who flagged an ad for removal, you can know if your ad is flagged. This makes it possible to review it and create a new ad that is compliant with the terms and conditions of Craigslist. If your ad does not violate any of the site’s terms and condition, it cannot be flagged.
About Craigslist Flagging
Craigslist depends on its users to moderate their content. When viewing an ad, you will always see an option to flag it at the top right. You may flag an ad if it appears in the wrong category, if it contains prohibited content, and if it is posted to frequently. The Terms of Use ensure that Craigslist users do not post offensive or inappropriate content. Anyone can flag your posts just like you can flag anyone’s posts. Your posts may be flagged if they contain content that is harassing, defamatory, invasive of privacy, or pornographic, or misleading.
How to Know Your Ad Has Been Flagged
Craigslist sends you an email notification if your ad has been flagged. After the notification, you will realize that you can no longer receive replies about the posting. It is then up to you to identify the reason why it has been flagged.
Even though Craigslist does not allow you to speak to whoever flagged your post, it allows you to review your post. The site is always fair. If your post is compliant with their Terms of Use, attempts to flag it won’t be successful. Craigslist understands that your competitors may maliciously try to flag your post.
Follow these steps repost an ad that has been flagged.
1. Click on the button ‘My Account. ‘
2. Enter your Craigslist account credentials. If you do not use an account, check your email for the message you received from Craigslist when you published the ad
3. Go through the ads that you published in the past 180 days.
4. Click on the name that is shown next to the text ‘Flagged. ‘ If you are checking it through your email, click on the link in the email and you will be directed to a page showing the current status of your ad.
5. Re-read the Terms of Use of Craigslist’s and review your ad. Re-word the content to ensure that it does not violate the Terms of Use.
6. Repost your ad.
Tips to Avoid Flagging on Craigslist
The primary goal of Craigslist is to host advertisements for the local community. There is a different domain for every city. It, therefore, requires you to post only local ads. If more than 5% of your visitors are flagging your posts, you are doing something wrong. If more than 10% flag your post, it is definitely going to be flagged. The following tips may help you to avoid being flagged.
Ensure that your IP address matches the area you want to post
Avoid posting offensive, racist, or discriminatory content
Always post your ads in the right category
Do not post an ad too often from the same IP
Look out for competitors who may be flagging your posts
Do not use special characters on your ad title
If you need help with your Craigslist posts, you should contact the customer support team for help. The best way to contact Craigslist is by phone. You will be contacted to an agent who will help you establish why your account is being flagged. Otherwise, these steps should help you know whether your Craigslist has been from Real PeopleWe partner with a US-based company with live tech support experts available 24/7. Take advantage of a $1 one-week trial membership and chat with an expert With A Help ExpertWhy Did GetHuman Write “How do I know if my Craigslist ad was flagged? “? After thousands of Craigslist customers came to GetHuman in search of an answer to this problem (and many others), we decided it was time to publish instructions. So we put together How do I know if my Craigslist ad was flagged? to try to help. It takes time to get through these steps according to other users, including time spent working through each step and contacting Craigslist if necessary. Best of luck and please let us know if you successfully resolve your issue with guidance from this does GetHuman Write How-to Guides for Craigslist Problems? GetHuman has been working for over 10 years on sourcing information about big organizations like Craigslist in order to help customers resolve customer service issues faster. We started with contact information and fastest ways to reach a human at big companies. Particularly ones with slow or complicated IVR or phone menu systems. Or companies that have self-serve help forums instead of a customer service department. From there, we realized that consumers still needed more detailed help solving the most common problems, so we expanded to this set of guides, which grows every day. And if you spot any issues with our How do I know if my Craigslist ad was flagged? guide, please let us know by sending us feedback. We want to be as helpful as possible. If you appreciated this guide, please share it with your favorite people. Our free information and tools is powered by you, the customer. The more people that use it, the better it gets.
Frequently Asked Questions about craigslist flag
What happens when you get flagged on Craigslist?
Having a post ghosted or flagged means that either a user of the site has clicked the ‘prohibited’ flag at the top of your post or that the Craigslist bots have removed your post due to exceeding a threshold in one of their algorithms.Nov 4, 2014
How do you find out who is flagging me on Craigslist?
How to Know Your Ad Has Been FlaggedClick on the button ‘My Account. ‘Enter your Craigslist account credentials. … Go through the ads that you published in the past 180 days.Click on the name that is shown next to the text ‘Flagged. … Re-read the Terms of Use of Craigslist’s and review your ad. … Repost your ad.
Why would a Craigslist ad be flagged?
Ads are often flagged because they fail to meet Craigslist’s Terms of Service and other guidelines. … Ads offering prohibited items, such as weapons, alcohol, tobacco, drugs or hazardous materials are also flagged. Additionally, Craigslist requires that you post in the correct category.