Google Response to Fraud Report

"...and took appropriate action".

Which could mean anything or nothing, of course. Convenient for them that they have created their own "policy" not to say!

I assume all, or most, companies have a policy not to say what action they’re taking in this circumstance.
I’m sure Google does appreciate your reports Larry.

I think you are on a lost cause reporting it to google. These "advertisers" create a new e-mail account for each day, the next time it is a new address. Blocking them is closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, tomorrow a new stable door will be opened

Thank you, Larry. Even if reporting these counterfeiters to google is a bit like playing whack-a-mole, still you are DOING something about this fraud and maybe someday the moles will tire a bit. Thank you.

Susan - a decent company would have a policy to always report illegal actions to the proper authorities. Google and its like have decided to choose for themselves what to report and what to cover up and deal with by a secret internal "policy".

a decent company would have a policy to always report illegal actions to the proper authorities.

That is assuming the "proper authorities" can be determined. If I open an e-mail account, there is no record of where I live, so who are the "proper authorities"?

These counterfeiters are probably operating out of somewhere where there is no enforcement, or even no laws against what they are doing: Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Transnistria, . . .

Chris - that it's difficult to find enforceable laws in one country isn't an excuse for Google, etc. to ignore the law everywhere, despite what they seem to think. Look at how Google has just tried to illegally shut down discussions on unionization in Switzerland.

Yes, it may be whack-a-mole, but I would like to believe that Gmail takes this seriously enough (after all, surely they don't want to be viewed as supporting these actions) that when these come in, especially, when they can see that the poster has this gmail for the fraud plastered all over the internet (seriously, do a Google search on any of these email addresses when these appear, it's not just on ricksteves.com. If nothing else these folk have to keep going through the trouble of getting a new email address and placing all their SPAM adds again. To paraphrase Mark Twain about teaching a pig to sing, at least irritating the pig is worth something.

Nick, you and i have a different opinion of Google. I’ll leave it at that.

Thanks, Larry, agree with you 100%. Yes, it's frustrating, but we gotta do what we can do, even if that's limited. It's certainly true that internet companies need to do more. Google absolutely has plenty of resources. I'm sure they put some effort into this fight; I wish they (and the others that enable these scams) put more into them. One can always hope (and vote).

If anyone is foolish enough to believe that a proper business is going to use a gmail account as their business account without routing it through a simple domain name then consider it a lesson learnt.

Also, if you're responding to adverts that clearly offer unlawful/illegal services then you deserve all you get.

A common sense approach is all that is required, no need to bombard Google with reports of dubious Gmail accounts as such accounts are often deleted as rapidly as they're created by the fraudsters themselves.

If anyone is foolish enough to believe that a proper business is going
to use a gmail account as their business account without routing it
through a simple domain name then consider it a lesson learnt.

Um... LOTs of small businesses use email services like Gmail, Yahoo, ATT for their legitimate business. That spammers use them too is irrelevant.

Um... LOTs of small businesses use email services like Gmail, Yahoo, ATT for their legitimate business. That spammers use them too is irrelevant.

What's the "Um" for? I know some small businesses use Gmail etc for their e-mail address but it simply looks amateurish and unprofessional. If you can't even grasp the basics of how to present a professional front for your business then I'm going to question your business accumen.

It's not irrelevant that spammers use those e-mail addresses because they do and if they're purporting to be from a major company then the .gmail etc address is a huge giveaway.