I’ve had Gmail for years, since it was still invite only even, and never had any problems with spam.
Except for the last month I’ve been getting so much spam, anyone else experiencing the same?
Did they switch their spam filter over to Gemini or something?
Btw I’m trying to degoogle and am mostly off Gmail, but have to use it for some stuff, since someone would definitely tell me.
I don’t think so. I’ve had the same gmail address since 2004 and I don’t notice it being particularly bad right now. It comes and goes in waves.
My spam mailbox always has lots of messages but I don’t see any spam emails in my regular inbox. If anything I get a regular message in my spam. With gmail.
Google’s whole business model is based on being a paid spam provider. You may not have noticed that all Google products to a greater or lesser extent allow you to buy spam destined for other people or be provided with spam by Google paid for by the above.
How did you miss that?
I guess they wound the filter down a little.
I’ve noticed an uptick as well. This isn’t the first time it’s happened over the years, though. Spam is a cat-and-mouse game. Every now and then spammers learn how to break through, and it takes some time for Google to adapt.
I’ve been surprised by the latest wave, because it’s so obviously spam. Mostly phishing attempts full of misspellings and even numbers in place of letters, like F1del1ty instead of Fidelity. Should be pretty easy to filter.
Is it political spam? They were sending all political emails to spam, but then politicians complained, so they changed that policy.
I believe the real issue was that repubs had spammier content and they called bias. As usual. So Google decided to let all political emails to go through so that they’d back off.
Persecution complex is high.
Gmail’s problem is that it relies on a spam filter in the first place. Check out https://port87.com/
(Full disclosure, I created and run Port87.)
Why would I use a service for this when most email providers already have the ability to add metadata to email addresses we hand out? I have my email set up like what’s on offer here with auto sort.
Basically because it’s automatic, so just giving out a new email address is all you need to do to set up a new label. Then you can do things like turning notifications for that label on and off or blocking the label altogether with a toggle. It also supports screening on labels that are just for real people to contact you. If you email me at hperrin-friends@port87.com, you’ll get an email right back asking you to prove you’re human before the email actually gets delivered to me. That way if that email gets disclosed publicly (like I just did) you don’t have to worry about spam.
But yeah, if you’ve got a system that works for you already, no worries. I’m trying to make Port87 an easy solution for people who aren’t happy with their current email provider.
I’ve achieved this by disabling all Gmail filters and categories (I removed promotions, social, updates, etc) and using a domain name with infinite forwarding addresses. E.g.
food@likethewind.onlineforwards tobeholdatokeneffort@gmail.comand is immediately labeled as Restaurants. Fake addresses btwYeah, it’s basically that but automatic, so people like my mom could set it up and use it. It also supports challenge-response screening on any label you want to be just for actual people.
I created and run Port87
So it’s exactly like plused email but without the plus? Wait until the procmail people hear of this.
emails
Nevermind. If you can’t spell a thing, I don’t believe you’re an expert in the thing.
It’s more than just subaddressing, but yes, it uses subaddressing with either a plus or a dash as the delimiter.
- https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/email
I didn’t say I was an expert in email, but I have written an email service, so I’m at least proficient.
I have noticed a few messages slipping through the past several weeks, whereas I used to get basically zero spam.
It’s not necessarily Gmail, I have a variety of these free email accounts and my Gmail rarely ever gets spam. But my Yahoo has been getting hit HARD lately.
This is not unusual for this time of year. At the beginning of each year, this happens.
My theory is that it’s because in the US, this is when citizens begin working on their taxes and are able to get tax refunds as early as January. This means that malicious actors have a wide variety of money potentially available from these people having money from tax refunds and they have a higher chance of getting more money at this time.
That’s my theory, anyway. It starts to die down after April, which is the deadline for US citizens to file taxes for the year.
