Flagging a post on craigslist is simple.
Open the ad you want to flag. Click on “Prohibited” on the upperleft side as you can see in the screenshot.
But craigslist do not remove ad by just sending one flag.
Guess what?
Keep flagging it again and again? NO!
How many flags does it take to remove apost?
There is no clear answer to this question. But as ageneral rule of thumb is, the more people flagging the post fromunique IP addresses, the higher the chances are that the ad will beremoved. So you have to keep flagging until it gets removedfrom the site.
We studied and tested craigslist algorithm in term of flaggingand removal of ads and wrote a detailed article on how craigslistflagging works.
Let’s get straight to the point.
There are few options you can use to successfully removeun-solicited/spammy ads from Craigslist.
1) Doing it yourself with the help of proxies.
2) Using your Friends and Family
Lets deep dive into each option one by one.
1) Doing it Yourself
If you are living in a small populated area and there are fewerpeople posting on craigslist, you can flag an ad 2,3 times to getit removed.
Open the ad click on Prohibited. Open the link on another deviceif you have like phone or laptop and flag the ad. If you are in thelow populated area, it might go with just a few flags. But theseareas are quite a few, by in large, you need multiple flags to getad removed.
However, there are few tactics that can help to flag these adsyourself and take a solo flight!
Tactic #1
You laptop/computer has one unique IP address. Despite how manyflags you sent to a single ad, it is counted as just one flagbecause they are coming from single IP address.
To avoid this, you can use proxies. It is like having pool ofdifferent IP addresses that you can access from your device.
Step-1 > Buy proxies frommazgalici. They usually cost just 1$ per proxy.Make sure you get proxies for your country.
Step-2 > Download this FireFoxPlugin or Chrome Plugin soyou can use these proxies.
Step-3 > Open craigslist ad, flag it andchange your proxy. Repeat the same process until it getsremoved! You can change your proxy with a simple click usingthe above mentioned browser plugins. It’s easy.
Key Takeaway:- it is quite rare to get an adrenewed by sending just one flag. ( Unless you go through proxyroute) Majority of ads need multiple flags so look for otheroptions.
Tactic #2
There are a bunch of different Facebook groups that people useto share spammy ads to flag. You just need to post the link andother members will be able to flag that for you.
2) Using your Friends and Family
You can use your friends and family circle to flag spam ads oncraigslist.
If you can get a dozen people ready to flag ads from unique IPaddress, you can quite successfully remove a medium type ofads.
Create WhatsApp, Email or Text Messaging group andwhenever you find the ad, send it to your friends and family andask them to flag. if your circle manage to send few flagsright after the ad gets posted, you can get it removed.
Pro Tip: You can hire someone to help you with this.
Prons and Cons:- This method is quiteunreliable because everyone might not be free to flag ads so youhave to send a lot of emails back and forth to get a single adremoved which sometimes doesn’t worth the effort.
But if you want to flag just a couple of ads occasionally, thismethod might work really well
Conclusion
Flagging other posts on craigslist is quite easy. You just needto be consistent and use proper tools and resources to besuccessful. Do not use any automated software to flag ads since itis against Craigslist Term of Use. And make sure you only flag adsthat fit on criteria which is marked as prohibited by craigslistmoderation team.
