[danudey]

I feel as though it would be a lot easier and cheaper to open up a new gmail account than to create a new Apple account, add a gift card, sign up for iCloud+, and then create private relay e-mails to use for signing up.

Is there something about gmail that makes it less suitable for the fraudulent use cases than iCloud+ private relay e-mails? I presume you're thinking of the 'create many anonymous e-mails' feature in that regard, which makes some degree of sense. I wonder if iCloud+ throttles e-mail creation.