# Why are spammers/scamers so hard to track down? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 2, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-spammers-scamers-so-hard-to-track-down/282755 "2005-01-02T23:49:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![El\_Zagna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@El\_Zagna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Zagna)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-spammers-scamers-so-hard-to-track-down/282755/1 "2005-01-02T23:49:05Z")
Every day I probably get 4 or 5 emails asking me to verify my PayPal, Ebay, or CitiBank account (and I don’t even have a CitiBank account.) Obviously someone is trying to sucker me into giving out sensitive information for less-than-honorable reasons. Now, I’m distinguishing these guys form the regular spammers trying to sell me something. At least they have gone to the trouble of pretending to be a legitimate business. These other guys are just obviously crooks. Why can’t these folks get arrested or at least stopped? Surely there is some kind of paper trail - even if it’s an electronic paper trail - that leads back to a real person somewhere. I know that when some of these especially malicious viruses have been released, they’ve managed to track down the source in a matter of days. How do these scammers keep at it? ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-spammers-scamers-so-hard-to-track-down/282755/2 "2005-01-03T05:13:24Z")
They may well be working through nations where enforcement is lax, for a start. It’s all very well for you to know that a guy in the Ukraine is spamming you but what you going to do about it, really? ---
**Author:** ![Blown\_Injected](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@Blown\_Injected](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blown_Injected)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-spammers-scamers-so-hard-to-track-down/282755/3 "2005-01-03T10:48:58Z")
I have wondered the same. Especially if the funds are processed by a US bank. I have been on-line for about seven years and have only been hit once. Just a week or two ago I got a “Hallmark” e card / greeting or something. When I went to get my card I was at a site that was not exactly [hallamrk.com](http://hallamrk.com), but looked exactly like it except it asked for my AOL name and AOL password. I actually went back to the mail to look for the password when I realized what they were actually asking!!! Kinda weird how they have not found me - except for the buy meds, loose weight, and a bigger harder thingie mail. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-spammers-scamers-so-hard-to-track-down/282755/4 "2005-01-03T11:00:31Z")
> [@Blown & Injected](#): > > I have wondered the same. Especially if the funds are processed by a US bank. I’m guessing it’s because a large percentage of the people smart enough to not be gulled are jaded enough with the whole affair to simply delete or filter the messages. Ergo, nobody actually files a legal complaint against the assholes, so they can continue unmolested for the most part. > [@](#): > > I actually went back to the mail to look for the password when I realized what they were actually asking!!! Good for you. I don’t guess you got any law enforcement involved, though. (I’m not even sure who you’d contact, as a matter of fact.) > [@](#): > > bigger harder thingie mail. Thingy-Doo, for when it doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Blown\_Injected](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@Blown\_Injected](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blown_Injected)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-spammers-scamers-so-hard-to-track-down/282755/5 "2005-01-03T11:59:42Z")
No law, but I did contact AOL and Hallmark. It seems that it has been going on for some time now. Kinda brings us back to the OP - why is it still going on. \>\>Thingy-Doo, for when it doesn’t.\<\< **LMAO** ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-spammers-scamers-so-hard-to-track-down/282755/6 "2005-01-03T12:42:28Z")
What’s really strange about the situation is that so many companies seem to not care about it. I get scams all the time that are ostensibly for companies I’ve never even done business with. From time to time I’ll go to the legitimate corporate site and look for a way to report the scam email, but nine times out of ten there’s no way to report it. As often as not, if you’re not a customer, there’s no way to email the company at all, let alone a way to report scams. I think we’ll make progress against these guys when companies and the FBI realize it is a serious problem and everyone works together to start solving it. Until then, it’s a CYA (Cover Your Ass) world! ---
**Author:** ![El\_Zagna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@El\_Zagna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Zagna)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-spammers-scamers-so-hard-to-track-down/282755/7 "2005-01-03T15:06:33Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > I’m guessing it’s because a large percentage of the people smart enough to not be gulled are jaded enough with the whole affair to simply delete or filter the messages. Ergo, nobody actually files a legal complaint against the assholes, so they can continue unmolested for the most part. But obviously someone is getting ripped off somewhere, otherwise they wouldn’t keep doing it. ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-spammers-scamers-so-hard-to-track-down/282755/8 "2005-01-03T15:11:12Z")
Gmail has a feature to report Phishing. Does anyone know if they do anything with the reports, or just ignore them? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-spammers-scamers-so-hard-to-track-down/282755/9 "2005-01-04T04:59:16Z")
**bnorton** , I’ve thought about that, and I’ve come to the conclusion that at least some spammers are spamming because they think it should work, not because it’s ever worked _for them_. That is, they expect a return on their investment and they flood their pipe with spam sent to a list they bought from another spammer. (The spammers that actually sell lists are probably some of the only ones who can consistently turn a profit.) This can go on for nigh-indefinitely, simply because emails are so cheap to send. Eventually, they either get TOSsed off their ISP (that is, removed for a Terms Of Service violation) or they decide that nothing’s gonna happen and they quit on their own. By that time, of course, hundreds of others have sprung up to more than replace them. In short, I don’t think spammers are immune to being scammed themselves, by the people who sell email lists.