I have written many, many times about purging extra items from our house on Craigslist (CL).  On CL you will find 98% of the people you deal with are good and honest, but there are occasionally one or two questionable people I have dealt with when trying to sell items.  If you’ll be selling lots of items on Craigslist, setting up a dedicated CL email and phone number help protect your privacy.  I have been using Google Mail (Gmail) and Google Voice for free to protect my personal email and phone number.  With Google Voice I can make and receive phone calls and text messages from my phone using my Google Voice phone number for free.

Setting Up Google Voice

If you can sign up for an email and install an app on your smartphone, then you can use Google Voice.  The idea of having two phone numbers coming into one phone can be a bit mind numbing, but I promise that the technology will do all the work for you. Let’s get started…

1. If you have a Gmail account skip to the next step.  If you don’t have a Gmail account you will need to sign up for one at mail.google.com.  If you are setting up your account to use with CL, or prefer some anonymity, consider using initials instead of your name.

2. Go to voice.google.com to setup Google Voice.  There will be a series of pop-up boxes to complete.  The first identifies that you will need to associate an existing US phone number with your Google Voice account.  Click agree and continue.  (Click the graphic on the right to see images of all the pop-up boxes.)

3. The next pop-up asks you to input your existing phone number and identify it as a home, work, or mobile number.

4. If you have never used Google Voice with your mobile phone skip to the next step. If you already had Google Voice associated with that number, like I did, you will see a pop-up prompting a call from Google and a verification code to switch your number to your new Google Voice number.  After verifying your phone, Google will prompt you to setup a greeting message.

5. The next window asks you to identify your desired Google Voice number by zip code or a desired keyword.  I chose zip code since I want a local number for doing CL sales.  Google will then show you a list of available numbers.  The nearest available number was in the next town over, which is just fine.

6. The final pop-up is a success screen that shows your new number.  When you click ‘Finish’ you will be taken to the Google Voice page which looks quite similar to the Gmail homepage.

7. Install the Google Voice app on your smartphone.  You will be asked to sign in with your Gmail account.  If this is your first time to use Google Voice you will be asked whether to use the mobile number of your phone or add a number.  Once you have made this selection you are good to go.

Using Google Voice

By default, Google Voice prompts inbound callers to state their name before connecting the call.  I leave this function in place since it will help to filter out any telemarketing calls that might come into your new Google Voice phone number.  A few CL buyers have mentioned this was a bit “odd” but it has never hindered anyone from completing a deal with me.  You can turn this function off under the settings ‘gear’ that you will find on the Google Voice homepage.

Using the Google Voice app on your smartphone is pretty straight forward.  You can test your new number by calling another phone.  You should see your Google Voice phone number (or unavailable) displayed for the caller ID.  Incoming calls arrive on your phone just like a normal phone call and display the number of the inbound caller.

You can test text messaging by sending yourself a text on your mobile.  In the Google Voice app hit the text button, input your number and your test message, and hit send.  Almost immediately you will receive your text message on your phone.  You can reply to test the functionality of incoming text messages for Google Voice.

With my Google Voice phone number I feel free to send a phone number for potential buyers to call or text.  I don’t have to worry about my personal cell phone number of 10+ years being compromised by spam or a deal gone bad.  Google Voice also offers easy number blocking if you do encounter a troublesome buyer.  Google offers this great free solution for protecting my privacy while trying to make a bit of money on Craigslist.  Using Google Voice saves the expense of having a second phone with a dedicated phone number from your service provider.

A Note of Warning

Just as Google Voice can be used to protect privacy while making sales on CL, it could also be used for less desirable activities.  Make sure to tell your spouse about your Google Voice number so they can be aware of it and know why you are using it. (If you’re like me you’ll do this by sending a creepy text to your spouse from your new number 🙂  It is conceivable for a spouse to use this number to hide various activities.  As a parent, I would also watch your child’s phone for the Google Voice app in case they are using the service to hide various activities and messages.  It should be noted that Google Voice texts do not support sending images or MMS.