Have you ever gotten fake email messages and want to respond to them, to let the scammers or cybercriminals who have sent them, know that you are not an idiot and will not fall for their trickery? If your answer is yes, then you should know that by doing so, you are only telling the scammers/cybercriminals that your email address is active, which will make them continue to send you more spam, fraudulent and malicious email messages.
Scammers/cybercriminals send out spam, phishing and malicious email messages to email addresses that they have collected via phishing scams, stolen using fake surveys and websites, or captured using spyware apps or software that steal personal information. But, there is no way to verify that the stolen email addresses are valid, unless an email message is sent to them, and the recipients respond to the same email message. This is why it is important that recipients of fake, fraudulent or malicious email messages should never respond to them. They should always delete them, and should never follow the instructions in them.
Again, please do not respond to messages sent by scammers or cybercriminals, because doing so will only make you a target for them.