duplicate rental ad

[terri]

has this ever happened to anyone else?

here is my ad on craigslist, posted dec 6
http://toronto.craigslist.ca/tor/apa/501289013.html

here is an ad that i did not post , posted dec 7
http://toronto.craigslist.ca/tor/apa/501710535.html

they changed the posting title, I think they made it better actually, but everything else in the description is the same, it still even includes my name and number. what is new is a "contact information" link and when I click on that I get this website: http://www.getawaylife.com/index.php?locat...mp;market=local, my property and another property show up with advertising space and costs etc, when I click on contact I get: http://www.getawaylife.com/features3.php?i...;market=toronto, which is the features page, still includes my name and number, but this page also has an email contact, the email address is a craigslist address which matches the craiglist address on my real listing, so if any one were to respond to it, it goes right back to me.

There doesn`t seem to be anything fraudulent. I`ve emailed craigslist requesting that the copied post be removed, so if you are reading this and the link is no longer valid I`ve been successful, but it does seem weird that someone is using my rental ad to advertise for rental ads, or something, I`m not even sure what they are advertising.

has anyone else had a similar experience with a company copying their rental post?

Terri

[email protected]

 

[ChrisMewhort]

QUOTE (terri @ Dec 8 2007, 10:48 PM) has this ever happened to anyone else?

here is my ad on craigslist, posted dec 6
http://toronto.craigslist.ca/tor/apa/501289013.html

here is an ad that i did not post , posted dec 7
http://toronto.craigslist.ca/tor/apa/501710535.html

they changed the posting title, I think they made it better actually, but everything else in the description is the same, it still even includes my name and number. what is new is a "contact information" link and when I click on that I get this website: http://www.getawaylife.com/index.php?locat...mp;market=local, my property and another property show up with advertising space and costs etc, when I click on contact I get: http://www.getawaylife.com/features3.php?i...;market=toronto, which is the features page, still includes my name and number, but this page also has an email contact, the email address is a craigslist address which matches the craiglist address on my real listing, so if any one were to respond to it, it goes right back to me.

There doesn`t seem to be anything fraudulent. I`ve emailed craigslist requesting that the copied post be removed, so if you are reading this and the link is no longer valid I`ve been successful, but it does seem weird that someone is using my rental ad to advertise for rental ads, or something, I`m not even sure what they are advertising.

has anyone else had a similar experience with a company copying their rental post?

Terri

[email protected]

Yesss! Finally a question that I can help YOU guys with. I`m a web designer.

Most likely the people who reposted your ad were trying to get incoming links to their website (http://www.getawaylife.com/). This will help their Search Engine rankings, and all of those "Google Ads" you see surrounding your listing on that site will make them money if people click.

Basically they have started a website which relies on ads and are using existing posts to draw traffic (and hopefully money).

I wouldn`t be surprised that after looking around on craigslist you find more duplicates with those links.

Like I said, I have no idea but this type of thing is common in almost all online markets and I wouldn`t be surprised if that was that happened.