Grrrr..... shutting down yahoo accounts makes me so angry!!

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Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 10:43 am

Ahem. Couple of things here:

1. The longer a scammer's email address remains active, the more likely it is that said address will get listed in one or more of the excellent scammer databases publicly available (and googleable) on the net. Joe Wein alone lists thousands of scammer email addys and has a nice high Google ranking. Any victim (or family member/friend/etc) skeptical enough to take 2 minutes to Google the email address will find out that the whole thing is a scam and the scammer will lose said victim. When an account like this is killed, the scammer will take 5 minutes to open a new one and the new address will be "anonymous" until it is picked up and posted on the net. Likewise, it is very helpful to those working in victim support to be able to show victims clear examples of their scammer's email address and format plastered all over the web.

2. {Edit- beaten to this by Mr. Fishe} Unlike many baiters, nearly all real victims willingly supply their scammers with their phone numbers. Since scammers use cell phones, they will still have the phone number of any victim that they have called or who has called them. It is VERY possible for a scammer whose email account is shut to lose a baiter whilst happily moving on with their real victims.

3. Any scammer with half a brain (read: the successful ones) backs up his victim data unless he is a n00b. Shutting said n00b's email account will only teach him to make very sure he backs up his data. Even the stupid ones will learn to do this if they lose enough accounts.

This subject has been debated here many times, BTW. Generally speaking, the consensus is to not kill free mail addresses unless they belong to phone lads.

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:25 pm

I understand one of the main objectives is to waste the lads' time & keep him away from potential victims, a noble cause really.

But I don't think having some fun at the scammer's expense isn't a priority either. If baiters really wanted to fancy themselves as crime fighters, they would become cops & really put an end to the lads activities. Speaking of crime fighting, what if the lads email is being monitored, shutting down his account would interfere with an ongoing investigation.

It is really frustrating when you are right in the middle of a bait & the lad's email is shut down. And the 30 seconds of inconvenience it's going to take for the lad to open up a new account isn't really a comfort. It is comforting thinking of the lad having a mini meltdown trying to think of some excuse as to why the email address got shut down. I'm not faulting concerned citizens for reporting lads' emails, but it is highly pointless & really frustrating for baiters.

Jayhawk, again, I feel your pain man. I hope he contacts you again & like Jojo said, get alternate addys for him.

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 3:25 pm

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that while arrests are very rare, when they do occur, computers are confiscated, and the accounts are are examined and used as evidence. Shutting down accounts could destroy evidence.

Master Baiter Joined: 28 May 2007 Posts: 144

^Unless they're using Gmail (which they don't), which apparently still retains your messages even after you delete them.

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:21 pm

^^ Some lads do use gmail. I've had several. Deleting emails somehow seems different than getting the account totally shut down. Email providers don't keep records of email text sent to & from every user.

Master Baiter Joined: 28 May 2007 Posts: 144

^Apparently Gmail do keep records of your emails. Was some time ago, so I could be wrong.

Oh, and i just got a:

Quote:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

Happy days! Ah well...

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 10:13 pm

Must not have been a lad worth keeping.

Free email service providers don't keep records of email text. Because it's FREE. AOL will periodically run scans to check for inappropriate language looking for pedophiles, but that's about it. I think they also check chats in dating/teen chat rooms too for the same reason.

Master Baiter Joined: 28 May 2007 Posts: 144

No, Im just talking about Gmail in particular.

Granted, its not exactly what I said in ^that post, but its the same general idea. This is what they say:

Data retention

Quote:

Some news stories have suggested that Google intends to keep copies of users' email messages even after they've deleted them, or closed their accounts. This is simply not true. Google keeps multiple backup copies of users' emails so that we can recover messages and restore accounts in case of errors or system failure. Even if a message has been deleted or an account is no longer active, messages may remain on our backup systems for some period of time. This is standard practice in the email industry, which Gmail and other major webmail services follow in order to provide a reliable service for users. We will make reasonable efforts to remove deleted information from our systems as quickly as is practical.

And now we go off-topic, so I'll leave it be.

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 9:59 pm

Otterfan wrote:

rumbero wrote:

If you have a good bait going, ask the scammer to write your e-mail some place safe

And there's nothing safer than a tattoo!

ROFLMAO

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:04 pm

spotthepot wrote:

Mr Fishe wrote:

Real victims do not claim to be deaf

Oh dear ...what are you saying Mr Fishe ?????

The deaf (hearing impaired) can be, and are victimised .... try Google "deaf scam"

Tell me about it STP - one of my alter-ego's is deaf and hasn't missed a mark yet! Sometimes I think it helps because the mugu thinks the victim is more vulnerable. Wink

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