Spam, Scams and Sucker Lists

[Photo of FBI Seal from wikipedia]

As you may know, we are a father and son family law and criminal defense law firm located in Augusta, Georgia.  I was also a federal prosecutor, here in Augusta, for over 20 years.  But that doesn't prevent us, at the Goolsby Law Firm, LLC, from receiving almost daily scam emails from con artists around the world claiming that they want to send us a lot of money!  Of course, the criminals are really just wanting to obtain their victims' bank account information!

How should we all react to such scams?  Frankly, even though I once prosecuted telemarketing fraud and other fraudulent schemes, I don't know!  But I do know that it is probably best to NEVER reply to any of these bogus email solicitations, because, once you do, you probably will be automatically adding your email address to what is called, in the con artists' "trade," a "sucker list." 

In other words, such con artists will often focus even more on folks who have ever replied or otherwise given any encouragement at all to their fraudulent entreaties.  They will also often sell, or trade, their "sucker lists" of potential victims with other con artists, which will make it even more likely that you will get even more spam/scam offers in the future!

So, maybe I DO know the best solution to the problem of how to deal with fraudulent emails.  In my opinion, while I would like to reply to such emails, "tell them off," and threaten to inform my friends at the F.B.I., I believe the best response, in most cases, is simply to press "delete!"

Haven't you received such fraudulent emails?  What do you think?