Gmail abuse email address

I'm not sure where to put this so I'll put it here and Jillian can let me know if I'm not in the right place. I had a spam email from our Craigslist ad with a "gmail" address. I turned them into Craigslist and they sent us an email telling us to report anything like that to [email protected]. So, of course, we did. We got another email stating that they were going to investigate it. this is the 4th gmail address we've gotten. The other ones asked if we had "money problems" and gave us an article from some newspaper on how to "fix" them. It's irritating because the only reason we have our bedroom set up for sale is because my husband's legs are too long for a footboard bed, not because we need money. It's a shame that those of us simply trying to buy/sell have to put up with these idiots.

Moved thread from News and announcements - Ralph

Hi Mandevilla

I can move this to an appropriate forum once I figure out myself which one to put it in, dont feel bad, I am not so sure myself yet

The common line by many places such as Ebay, Craigslist or even gmail is to tell you to report fraudulent use of email addresses to the email providor who may delete that account.

The common belief here is that this practice simply has no ill effect on scammers and it may actually in some ways help them.

You will notice in our forums that we post many details of scammers in the hope that a potential victim can find it before being scammed, if a scammers email address is closed he can simply create a new one in a coupel of minutes and continue on his merry way scamming, the problem now is that if there has been any reports made on sites like ours about the email address it will now be irrelevant as the new address will not be posted.

It is far better to let the scammers keep using the email address that we have information for rather then having them use one that we dont.

Please provide any information you can on these scammers, if they are in regards to craigslist then the Auctions and online selling will be the most appropriate

I will move this thread there for you now but Jillian may have a better idea of where to put it so she may move it again .

If you do have any questions, please feel free to ask

And it's possible that a scambaiter is in contact with the scammer. When you're successfully wasting a lad's time, taking fake checks off him, etc, it's frustrating when his email address is suddenly shut done.

I feel the need to clarify this. Please do not close down the free email addresses of scammers, it is not an effective way to fight against them. This means email services such as gmail, hotmail, and yahoo. It is better to report the information here to warn other potential victims. If you report the email address to the service supplier and get the account closed, the scammers will just make up a new name. This makes it harder for us to keep track of them.

For any readers of the forum, as has already been said, please do not report scammers' email addresses to their providers. It hinders our work in tracking them and doesn't do them any harm, they just open up new addresses in minutes.

I've moved this thread to 'Welcome to ScamWarners' as this is a general inquiry.

Learn about us, introduce yourself or make general inquiries.

Many scammers will have a number of email addresses already created.
Clair's post viewtopic.php?f=34&t=3172 illustrates the problem. One scammer or scammer group has at least 16 email addresses. Losing one won't trouble them in the slightest.

Jillian -

I want to thank you for the site and let you know it saved me from a check scam attempt. The scammer originally indicated interest in a motorcycle we had for sale [gmail], sent a check via UPS, and then diverted it at the last minute. Simultaneously the scammer [using a different gmail address of course] sent another [better] offer for the bike. At that point I did not realize it was a scam and asked this second person to go ahead and send the check which I received today.

It arrived via UPS overnight, from a company in Illinois, with a check drawn on a bank in Orange County, NY, and signed by a person with whom I've never communicated. It was almost too obviously fraudulent! Also the gmails were very poorly written, in somewhat broken English.

Anyway, what should I do with the check and how could it be used in any potential investigation? Thanks so much for your help.

Regards,

Mary Sue

Hi Marysue and welcome.

I have also received your private message and have answered your questions there. For the benefit of any readers, I have recommended that you report the crime to the FBI's internet crimes division, here: http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx and to turn the check over to your local police (who may or may not be interested). You can also contact the issuing bank to notify them in case the check is forged on a stolen account.

Thanks for taking the time to register and let us know that ScamWarners helped you. I'm so happy to hear it.

I wonder whether it might be possible to devise a wording to be put on Craiglist adverts that might deter scammers. Something like

NOTE
If payment is offered by cheque, any request to make payments out of those funds to any other party will be refused. If such a request is made to make such a payment by Western Union, then your payment to me will only be accepted by the same method.

Any cheque received will be verified by telephone conversation with the issuer and their bank.

Then it's a matter of spreading the word. I'm sure that with a little push it would spread quickly (and make lots of scammers unhappy ).

If people used this wording, even if it didn't deter scammers from trying it on, it would educate other sellers about what to look out for and act as an 'aide memoire' about what a scammer is likely to try.

You could even call it The Scamwarners recommended warning.

I know scammers would adapt, but shutting down one outlet for their fake cheques, even if just for a while, would be useful. Stopping one scam is good. Putting a block on a whole scam category for a while would be even better.