By 
Today when ID theft is so widespread, it is very important to avoid giving away personal information away as much as possible. Unfortunately most people, having no choice, end up giving away their personal phone numbers when posting on services such as Craigslist. Today a new service, CraigsNumber, offers a safe solution. The free service will provide a temporary local number, which can be posted or given away to others. When the line is called, the caller will be transferred to your real number.
CraigsNumber currently provides numbers for San Francisco, Washington DC, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, and New York. The number you are provided with automatically expires, but can be set to work for as long as a week at a time. Craigslist already protects your email address by creating random forwarding email address. If you use services such as Craiglist to buy or sell, we strongly suggest using CraigsNumber to protect your privacy.
If you know of any other similar services, which help protect your privacy, let us know!
Links: CraigsNumber.com | CraigsList
Sahas,
I have not found alternatives that come close.
If you find any, let me know.
I love these guys over at Craigsnumber ..
As a gal, found a really cool use too (see my blog)
Ciao,
Anita
@anita
neat idea. i might actually give that a shot, but isn’t it a bit awkward to give someone a number with an extension? haha
but i guess it still works out!
Hi Janet,
My date didn’t flinch taking down the extension ..
Give it a whirl and tell me how it worked out :-)
Wish I had a video to record my date’s reaction when I said “This number will auto expire soon so call me before it does ;-)” Sure enough, I had a call the next morning…
Hello, I realize this post is sort of old, but sadly CraigsNumber.com seems to have been bought out by another company. Not to be overly promotional, but I thought this was a neat idea so I built my own version: http://ThisLineIsSecure.com. Since this is 2009, I can’t afford to give out free minutes like they did, but on the other hand you get a toll free number and you can choose your own extension. It’s pay as you go and the cheapest plan starts at 5 bucks. Please check it out and let me know what you think!