So what's the scam this time?

I thought I was up to date with most CL scams, but this one is a new one to me (or I'm overly paranoid).

I usually tell buyers in my ad that I prefer to be contacted by text or email, or to leave a voicemail as I'm often not able to just pick up the phone during the day.

Last night I got a text message with the usual "is this still available" request, asking me to email the person back directly (ie, not via the CL mail relay). Of course I can quickly set up a throwaway email somewhere but for some reason, this bothered me as I could think of multiple ways how this could be abused.

Am I just paranoid or is this a new scam that I'm not aware of yet?

Ignore them. It’s a scam. Can’t you tell?I get texts asking me to call the person back if the item is for sale. I either ignore or tell them to call me. They never respond. It’s a bot.

Collecting emails for future spamming.

In reply to smokindav :

It smells like a scam, but I'm curious as to what the angle is.

Of course I would be absolutely not surprised if I got a response with "pictures" of a potential trade that contain a cryptominer or some other malware. But I think I'm suspecting that they're more sophisticated than they really are...

Hmm. There's an interesting business model right there .

(I'm kidding).

Vacuum up working phone numbers to run through the spoofer for other scams, with the hope of also tying them to good email addresses for possible identity theft.

My money would be on adding your number to a local spoof pool though. I've got screenshots from someone that called me freaking out one day because my number had called him like 8 times, meanwhile I hadn't dialed out in over a week. 

Emails sent through Craigslist have a "report scam" link. Presumably getting one reported there too often prevents you from using that email address with Craigslist. Texting and asking for an email outside Craigslist helps them avoid the banhammer.

In reply to BoxheadCougarTim :

Send $ 11.95 to us here at “totallynotascam.com” and find out how it works.

Same as any other scam, just a different way of contacting you.