How could my GMAIL account be deactivated?

[Danzig]

MY GMAIL ACCOUNT DEACTIVATED due to possible FRAUDULENT ACTION by SCAMMERS

Here is my story/problem


LEVEL 0
I've been reading on the 419 scam issue for some months and finally decided to become a private anti-scam activist myself in order to study their actions & reactions and waste their time (419eater.com was the biggest influence).

LEVEL 1
I've created a gmail account (in early april 2006), posted the address in various guestbooks and waited for the first scam messages to come. And they did. A dying princess scam, some lost Central African fortunes and also some extremely inflated funds in the National Bank of Nigeria. I've responded to all of them and decided to make the scamers write long e-mails answering to my neverending list of questions. I sent about 10 - 15 e-mails and received about the same number of anwsers. None of the scambaits went too far and I did not let any of them anyway get to the point of asking money or pretending to send money.


LEVEL 2
I get yesterday a warning e-mail from "<removed for anti-spider purposes>" warning that one of the last scammers contacting me was a... scammer (that scammer only got an email from me with a stupid like message demanding innocently more information). The person who sent this e-mail had probably a trojan on the scamers computer or simply knew his password and read my messages. Or other means to follow the scamers activity and help potential victims (like me).

The e-mail from "sally" had all the necessary info on 419 (links to fraudwatchers, 419 entry in Wikipedia and all the necessary explanations). I replied to sally thanking for the information and asking some things and "she" replied back, so I could see the "<removed for anti-spider purposes>" email was a valid one. I ask you forum users to confirm me also that "she" is someone from this forum or this page.


LEVEL 3
Today I tried to check my gmail account and I get a Gmail message that my account has been deactivated and therefore I can't log on.



QUESTION
What did happen, considering I only used this account in order to correspond with the scammers?

- I never sent mail to anyone else but the scamers.
- All mails were just pieces of text pretending to come from a stupid European asking various questions.
- I doubt any of the scamers got irritated with me. I did not offend them explicitely and I've only exchanged few emails with each over 3 weeks.
- The last scam (that was announced by sally also) came however from someone pretending to be in London (forgot to check its ip) and his answer looked rather aggressive (or hurried) to my moronic questions.



Possible causes of account deactivation:

A) GMAIL error (some gmail filters and antispam engines must've considered my account as a scamming one and erased it)

B) FRAUDULENT and ABUSIVE denouncement or other TRICKS done by the scammers in order to get my account erased. For whatever reasons which I can't understand now. They were the only ones knowing this e-mail address

C) Something related to the message from <removed for anti-spider purposes>


I please ask to you send me your opinions,
Thank you

[Daneel]

Some people have complained in the past that gmail shuts down baiter accounts quite easily. Occasionally a scammer can be clever enough to complain to an email provider that a baiter is the fraudster, and get his account shut down. This happens.

This really is a baiting issue and 419eater.com for example is a better venue to discuss it. Though maybe thescambaiter.com is more suited to your tastes. My advice is:
1. Get used to it if you want to be a baiter.
2. Complain to gmail and ask them to give back your account.
3. Get a fastmail.fm account instead and send a nice goodbye letter to the gmail staff from it.

We would never try to get a provider to shut down an email account belonging to a baiter or potential victim, and I can't see how a warning email sent to you would get your account shut down. However, if you do receive such an email, please simply inform the person you are a baiter, so he/she doesn't have to worry and send any further warnings.

Regarding as to where we receive information, the answer to that is in our FAQ:
http://www.fraudwatchers.org/forums/faq.php?faq=fw_faq_main#faq_how_2
I'm sure you can understand that we'd would like to keep those sources so that we can keep warning real victims, and noone is ever going to tell you where we received the information in your case, sorry.

[FW Admin]

I can confirm that Sally is a member of our support group, and she is entitled to use our email address. She is also, I would say, very active in victim support and to date, as far as I am aware, no accounts have been closed or other detrimental actions taken as a result of the information she has submitted to potential targets of scams.

I trust this puts your mind at rest in this regard :)

[Nyla]

My guess would be some slightly overaggressive filtering on Gmail's side. Some other providers are also overly aggressive to the point of closing down baiter accounts by accident when baiters reply and include the original scammer message.

Some scammers have gotten the idea that all Gmail account holders must be baiters (or as they say, "jokers") due to the mail provider's popularity among baiters. It's possible a scammer having a rather cranky day reported you for spite. They often do the same to one another, apparently. If your baiting account has Google hits, it's possible a scammer figured out you were a baiter after looking it up. A funny guestbook entry or a mention of your baiting email on a forum might have been enough to convince them.

It would be rather counterproductive for a legitimate warner to do anything to have a possible victim's account shut down. If you had been a real victim, we would certainly want you to continue to be able to access the account and the information/warning you received.

And it is considered good baiter etiquette in most baiting communities to simply reply that you are a baiter and are in no danger, should you receive a warning of some kind from the various warning communities, or even a fellow baiter who lucked out and received your contact information from a careless scammer. It keeps warners from worrying and possibly even going so far as to pass your information along to what appears to be your local law enforcement, in an effort to get them to have a talk with you when you prove "unresponsive".