Not for sure but I believe the reason for the scam is to get a new number for a business listing in CL. In order to have a business listing, CL texts a 4 or 5 digit number to your (required) cell phone as a verification process. If you do shady business practices CL will ban your account and the phone number associated with it. Then to setup a "new" account you must use a different number. I'm just guessing but it does seem logical.