What's the Downside to Not Marking a Message as Spam?

[artgalstudio]

I received a message that seems like it's probably legit. It's from a non-member who could have got my Etsy contact from a referral. Etsy has marked it as potential spam, leaving me the option to answer or mark it as spam. Just wondering what's the worst that can happen if I reply and it turns out not to be legit?

[NanaLetha]

What is a "non-member"?

[GieseDeseiGns]

Do you mean a Guest?

[artgalstudio]

NanaLetha -  I mean that the message I received does not appear to be sent from an Etsy Seller or Buyer.

[artgalstudio]

GieseDeseiGns - They don't appear to be a guest either. The icon just appears as a greyed out head profile, like a guest icon, but it doesn't say guest.

[JMOldeVintage · Accepted solution]

@artgalstudio  - A person can check out as a guest, but if they want to send you an Etsy message, basically they need to sign up.

If by "non-member" you mean that you can somehow see that Etsy has deactivated the account the message was sent from, this would be a good indication that the message is Spam.

If for some reason you can & do decide to reply to the message within the 24 hour window, just remember to never click on any links they send. Even ones that look like they are from your shop. The scammers are getting better at creating fake shop/Etsy pages. 
You can always mark as "spam" if any further messages they send confirm they really are spam. 

[artgalstudio]

Good advice. Thank you!

[GieseDeseiGns]

I must have wrote the guest thingy without coffee as they couldn't message being a guest duh.