Subscribing to Abuse Complaints in Google Apps

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If your company runs email on Google Workspace (formerly Google Apps), you can subscribe an inbox to receive abuse and postmaster complaints for your domain automatically. This is a one-time setup inside Google's admin console - not something you do in Act-On - but it's worth knowing about because those complaint addresses are what other mail providers and security teams use to flag problems with your sending.

Who does this: Your Google Workspace admin (usually IT). Marketing benefits from the resulting visibility
Time needed: A few minutes inside Google Workspace admin
Why this matters: The abuse@ and postmaster@ addresses on your domain are where mailbox providers, security researchers, and recipients send complaints about suspicious or unwanted mail. If nobody is watching those inboxes, you miss early warning signs that your brand is being spoofed or that a campaign has gone wrong.
In plain English: Every domain on the internet is expected to have working abuse@ and postmaster@ inboxes. In Google Workspace, those are reserved - Google accepts the mail automatically - but by default nobody reads it. Subscribing routes it to someone who will.

How Google handles abuse and postmaster mail

Google Workspace automatically accepts and monitors all messages sent to abuse@yourcompany.com and postmaster@yourcompany.com. These addresses are reserved and not available for general user assignment, but you can subscribe a user or group to receive copies of whatever arrives at them.

Set up the subscription

Google publishes the exact admin console steps, which change as their UI evolves. Follow their current instructions here: Subscribe to abuse and postmaster complaints (Google Workspace help).

The usual pattern is to route abuse@ and postmaster@ to a distribution group monitored by your IT, security, or deliverability team so complaints don't sit in a dead inbox.

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