Spam email is an inevitable hassle of online life. And while your email provider probably does a good job of filtering junk, you may be wondering how to report fraud by email if you get a particularly suspicious message.
Let’s look at how to report fraud by email to the right resources.
First, we’ll look at which government agencies you should report fraud to, based on where you live.
Where to report email fraud in the US
If you receive a fraudulent email and live in the United States, you can report it to both the FBI and the FTC.
For the FBI, visit the IC3 (Center for reporting crimes on the Internet). There, you can file a complaint. Click on the Frequently asked questions link to see some details about what a complaint involves. The page is intended for people who have been victims of online crime, but you can fill in the details even if you haven’t fallen in love with anything.
Next, you should also consider filing a complaint with the FTC. Select a category on the left side and follow the steps to put your report in the correct category.
Finally, you can also report fraud by email to your state’s consumer protection office. To visit USA.gov state consumer protection offices page to find your state information.
How to Report Email Fraud in Canada
Canadian residents should contact the Canadian Fraud Center Fraud Reporting Page. This will guide you even if you report what happened.
Please note that you will need to log in with an approved partner account (such as a bank) or create a new GCKey account.
How to report email fraud in the UK
If you live in the UK, the National Cyber Security Center asks you to send phishing emails to the Suspicious Email Reporting Service: report@phishing.gov.uk.
You also have the option to report it to Action Fraud using the online form.
Report email fraud in Australia
Those in Australia should contact the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Scamwatch form.
Email fraud report to the impersonated company
While it is a good idea to report fraud to email authorities, it is not the only step you can take. Agencies like the FBI are unlikely to respond to what you submit using their forms, and cannot help you get the money back if you turn it over to scammers.
If you receive a fraudulent email pretending to be from a certain company, you must report it to the actual company. You’ll find contact information for most companies on their website, and some have a dedicated email address to forward fraudulent messages.
For example, Amazon suspicious communication page You have instructions to report scam messages. Asks you to forward fraudulent emails to stop-spoofing@amazon.com. PayPal requests that you forward fake emails to spoof@paypal.com.
Hopefully, the company in question can have a team analyze the specific scam in an attempt to shut it down. If many people report it, they are more likely to start investigating.
Report email fraud to the email provider
The last step in reporting fraudulent emails is to report the email service. Companies like Google and Microsoft don’t want malicious users to take advantage of their services to scam people.
Most email services have an option to report phishing messages, as well as options to report accounts that violate the rules. Let’s look at some of the most popular ones.
How to report fraud in Gmail
In Gmail, you can click the three-point menu to the right of any message and choose Report attempts to steal secret information. This will remove the email from your inbox and report the danger to Google.
If the fraudulent email comes from a Gmail address, you can also use the Gmail abuse report form. This helps Google investigate people who use the service for illegal purposes.
How to report email fraud to Yahoo
Unfortunately, Yahoo Mail does not have simple reporting tools like Gmail. You can mark an email as spam in your Yahoo Mail account, but there is no option to report fraud or phishing.
Yahoo’s help pages direct you to Yahoo support to report security issues, but at the time of writing, this was not working properly. Your results with this may vary.
How to report email scams in Outlook
If you use Outlook on the web, open an email and select Trash> Phishing> Report so Microsoft knows about the problem.
Microsoft has a dedicated email address to report phishing. Create a new email message and drag the scam message to add it as an attachment. Then send the message to phish@office365.microsoft.com so the company can take a look.
Microsoft also has a special page for report tech support scams.
The reality of email fraud
If you receive a particularly nasty phishing email, it is advisable to report it using the channels above. Doing so will increase the likelihood that the authorities will take action against you.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to be optimistic about this. Due to the nature of email fraud, it is very difficult to shut down scammers who use this method. The email provider may cut someone’s access, but that will not prevent them from opening another account and continuing.
With just an email address to continue, government authorities probably won’t be able to close a scam operation. Email addresses are disposable, and scammers can use VPN and other methods to hide your location so you can’t track email
That is why gift cards are such a common method of payment for scams. Compared to sending money to someone, gift card codes are essentially impossible to trace. As a result, requesting payment using gift cards is one of the telltale signs of phone scams.
If you or someone you love falls victim to email fraud, you can use these methods to explain what happened and hopefully get help. But in most cases, that money is gone. That is why it is vital to keep up to date with current scams and know how to detect phishing by email.
The best defense against email fraud is a healthy precaution of everything you receive.
Report fraud by email when you can
We’ve seen where you can report email fraud to government agencies, businesses, and email service providers. It is important to inform more people about fraud, but it is also very difficult to shut down scam operations before they reappear.
If you also receive similar messages on your phone, find out how to report unwanted text messages
She is a freelance blogger, writer, and speaker, and writes for various entertainment magazines.