Odd as it sounds, reporting scammers isn’t a good idea.

The first reaction a lot of people have when they get scammed is to report the scammer’s profile to get it shut down.  It sounds like the sensible thing to do, but let’s take a moment to explain why it may be the worst thing you can do.  Sites like this put in a lot of work to get the scammer’s details out into the public domain.  That way, people will be able to search and find the proof that the person they’re talking to is a scammer.  Reporting a profile and having it removed means that any information on antiscam sites are now out of date.  It could even hamper a law enforcement investigation into the scammer.  But that’s not the worst of it.  If a scammer’s profile is deleted, they’re not going to suddenly say “Oh well, time to give up this scamming lark and go find something else to do”.   They simply make a new profile and carry on.  In fact, some scammers have several accounts ready made for this exact reason.  The only times it’s worth reporting something of a scammer’s is if they’ve paid for it or it adds genuine legitimacy to their scam.  We love reporting scammer made websites for example, but avoid getting their free email addresses or social media profiles closed as it’s not going to slow them down.  Better to get their details out to warn others.  It does much more damage to them than the inconvenience of having to take 2 minutes to create a new account, wouldn’t you agree?