Forum Moderators: buckworks

Message Too Old, No Replies

Scam and Fraudulent Emails

How do you report scam and fraudulent emails?

         

Eazygoin

11:58 am on Jan 21, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Running an ecommerce website, we receive a considerable amount of scam and fraudulent emails attempting to defraud people of their products.

Other than reporting the email user to the service provider, writing to the fraudulent user telling them that we are aware of their attempt to defraud, and also having a security section on the website warning people of scams, is there any way to control these annoying email senders?

As the vast majority of these scam emails come from countries such as Nigeria, the cross border legislation is very difficult to pursue, so as to convict these people of fraud.

curlykarl

12:13 pm on Jan 21, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Just delete them, they are not worth worrying about.

Eazygoin

12:22 pm on Jan 21, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



curlykarl>>

If only it were that simple. The problem is that the emails get sent directly to our sellers, and we don't see them until we get a complaint from one of our sellers.

LostOne

10:58 pm on Jan 21, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



"and also having a security section on the website warning people of scams"

Maybe they're doing searches and finding that information on your site. Personally I wouldn't mention anything negative on a website if you're trying to sell something. In my opinion, just the mention of scam will result in people leaving your site quickly. It's a negative impression regardless of how you present it. People don't want any hint of a potentailly bad experience. There's probably more in depth information somewhere on this subject.

HRoth

4:22 pm on Jan 22, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I used to report spam to spamcop, track down the webhosts of people attempting fraud, etc., but now I just delete things like that. It's a waste of time to report it anywhere. Nothing is ever done to stop it, and frankly, some of those involved in the anti-spam movement are kooks and suffering from terminal self-righteousness. I think if your sellers are getting these things, you should advise them to just delete them and not waste their time any further on them.

peewhy

4:50 pm on Jan 22, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Yep I agree, its all about economic use of your time and mental energy.

Educate people at your end and move on. You'll never stop spam emails, they'll torment you forever.

Eazygoin

6:19 pm on Jan 22, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I appreciate the feedback thus far :-)

I was rather hoping someone would come up with a magic solution, but it seems that the ignore them, and educate people about them, is the only solution.

peewhy

7:49 pm on Jan 22, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



We can't have our cake and eat it.

If we had an all encompassing powerful internet police department with real teeth, every eTom, eDick and eHarry would be reporting their competitors because they had higher SERPS and everybody that received an email before they'd had their caffein would be reporting the senders ... and the real spam police would spend so much time dealing with disgruntled super-grasses that the real spammers would be left alone.

That's life in Cyber-Space.

shri

11:07 pm on Jan 22, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Does the email get sent through a form on your system? If that is the case, here's a suggestion, include a footer on every mail sent through your system, which points to a section on your site on fraud detection.

90% of the fraud can be detected from the fact that the emails sound the same.