This is a yes/no question that should not take one who knows about
gmail much time to answer, hense the $5 price.  Sorry for the long
description...

I have an art gallery that specializes in art for investment with an
accompanying website (offthehookfineart.com).  For the last six months
or so I've been getting about two offers a month to buy something on
the site and, as it turns out, the offers are scams.  As many of you
probably know, the Nigerian, or otherwise, on the other end of the
scam offers to send a cashier's check.  He/she then sends a check for
2x the amnt.  He/she then asks for the overage back when the item is
sent.  You wait for the check to clear and because it's below $10,000,
or some such amount, the bank clears it after a week or so.  You pay
the man his/her money, send the item and a month later the check comes
back as a fraudulent payment.
(I'm not sure if this is exactly how it happens as I've not spent much
time researching it.)  I'm focused on the first step:  His/Her offer
and email address.  I first recognized the scam when I received an
offer and recognized an anomoly or few compared to those of regular
art buyers.  I went through with a deal 90% and did not cash the check
but called the FBI who refered me to the Secret Service.

When I get an offer like this, it is always from a free account. 
Today, my offer was from a gmail account and my question is:  Is there
a way to track gmail accounts 'up one level'?  Meaning: gmail accounts
require an invitation from a friend still right?  Can I see who
invited someone or how long the gmail account has been in use?  Are
there tracking services in place to track ill intentioned gmail users?

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Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 21 Mar 2006 13:01 PST

offthehookfineart...

You can report spam coming to you from a gmail account on the
following page. Since using a gmail account to send spam or 
to engage in criminal activity is against the Terms of Service,
I'm sure the gmail team will appreciate the opportunity to look
into it for you, though I doubt they will disclose any personal
information about who the account is registered to, unless the
situation requires this:
https://services.google.com/inquiry/gmail_security2

The main page for reporting abuse of a gmail account is here:
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/request.py?security=1&ctx=security

sublime1-ga

My understanding is that GMail is not the only email service that
provides anonymity.

But, supposing you could trace the name behind an email, surely it's
possible that this, too, could be fraudulent.

You can also sign up for Gmail with the use of a (any) cell phone:
https://www.google.com/accounts/SmsMailSignup1