How to post a local ad without showing your email

Why the usual way fails

Most classified sites solve contact by asking you to open an account, which turns a one-off sale into a profile with your name, your rough location and a history of what you have sold. Sites that skip the account often just print whatever email you type, so it sits on the open page for anyone, including bots, to collect. Phone numbers are worse, because they are harder to change than an email address. And once your details are in an old listing, taking the ad down rarely takes them off every copy of the page.

How MingList helps

MingList puts a relay between you and the people who answer your ad. When you publish, it creates a relay address for that ad and shows it on the page; buyers write to it and the message lands in your real inbox. You reply from your own email client and your answer goes back through the relay, so the buyer never sees your address. Posting takes a one-click Google sign-in, which tells MingList where to forward replies, and there is no public profile page with your name on it.

Step by step

1. Click to post a free ad and sign in with Google. No password and no public profile are created.
2. Pick one of the ten categories, write the ad, add a photo and publish.
3. Wait for replies in your normal inbox. Buyers write to the relay address shown on the listing.
4. Answer from your own email client as usual. Your reply travels back through the relay.
5. When the item is gone, mark the ad as closed or delete it from My ads, and the relay stops.

Tips

• Keep personal details out of the ad text too. The relay hides your address, but it cannot hide a phone number or a full street address you type into the description.
• Take the ad down as soon as the item sells. Closing or deleting it shuts the relay, so you stop getting messages about something you no longer have.
• Meet in a public place and settle payment in person. MingList does not verify users and is never part of the money, so treat each reply as coming from a stranger until you have met them.
• Renew rather than repost if nothing has happened. Ads stay up for 30 days, and renewing from My ads also moves yours back to the top of the list.

Questions