I was walking on the nearby college campus today, and saw a nearby stop that I hadn’t noticed before and headed that way. Once I got to it, I could see 2 more that I hadn’t seen before. I ended up (in Pokemon Go) reporting them all 3 as permanently removed, but it’s pretty clear that none of the 3 were legitimate POIs.
It’s a pretty new neighborhood, so I’m reasonably sure these weren’t actually removed. One is a playground that in reality is undeveloped prairie. The second is a little free library that was submitted where a community mailbox sits. And the third is a decorated utility box that… isn’t decorated. The POI pictures were clearly taken in another neighborhood - there are plenty of clues in the pictures to be sure that they weren’t taken here.
Should I have done something else? Reporting them as removed seemed like the only option.
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You could use the “Reporting Abuse” form linked at the top of the forums.
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You’re doing great so far! As @NvlblNm said you can use the reporting abuse link at the top of the page too. What you’ve described likely needs looking into.
Whether you wait for an email response or use the reporting function, what will likely help with Niantic’s investigation is to take a few photos of the “stops” to show what is actually there. I recommend Geotagged photos, or you can use a free phone app such as GPS Map Camera to snap some photos with the location coordinates right there on the photo. If you go with the email response route, you may receive a response that says the report(s) are rejected. Don’t worry, that happens sometimes! If it does, you can make an appeal post here on the forum and include the Geotagged photos as proof. My experience is it takes a Niantic representative a few days to a week to go over the information/photos and come to a conclusion. If they determine something abusive has happened, they’ll handle it. If you need any help with following up or anything, folks here will be happy to give advice! 
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Thank you to both of you!
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