Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Gmail spam filtering suddenly marking everything as spam?

news.ycombinator.com

41–50 of 131 posts

Re: Ask HN: Gmail spam filtering suddenly marking everything as spam?

#41

I don't understand why spam detection is so complicated. I can tell with high accuracy if an email is spam just by the subject line. I'd think even basic ML could do this very reliably you don't need a bleeding-edge LLM to do this. Phishing is tricker because it can be very deceptive especially if you're being targeted specifically. But also usually pretty obvious.

They can tweak the subject to something not obviously spammy.

Re: Ask HN: Gmail spam filtering suddenly marking everything as spam?

#42
post #41

I don't understand why spam detection is so complicated. I can tell with high accuracy if an email is spam just by the subject line. I'd think even basic ML could do this very reliably you don't need a bleeding-edge LLM to do this. Phishing is tricker because it can be very deceptive especially if you're being targeted specifically. But also usually pretty obvious.

They can tweak the subject to something not obviously spammy.

Obviousness in spam is a feature, they don't have to waste effort on people who know better.

Re: Ask HN: Gmail spam filtering suddenly marking everything as spam?

#43
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Step zero. Never disclose your email address to anyone. This is very easy and straightforward. I operate 6 Gmail accounts, and three are "alts" where I've basically never given the address out to anyone at all, and they receive zero spam, zero UCE, zero marketing emails. Of course, on my "main" I've disclosed the address to many entities and I use it for sign-in and shipping and many things. And yes, I do receive spa…

I recently had a "role" Google account terminated because I was (paraphrasing) "violating Google policies" by having multiple accounts. I didn't know they were sticklers about that. (I don't much care because the account was just used for interacting with somebody else's Google-hosted junk but, if I had been using it for something serious, I have probably been frustrated.)

There is no way, no possible way that Google prohibits the use of multiple accounts. They do not. They cannot. I just asked Gemini and I checked the actual TOS. It does not, in any way, prohibit these uses.

In fact, this is plainly evident by the way they give you tools to operate them in a systematic way. You can add multiple accounts to a single Android "user". You can add them to a single Google Chromebook account under one signed-in account. You can add multiple accounts separately to the same Chromebook.

You can add multiple accounts with the same names, the same birthdates, and the same Driver License. I've validated at least two YouTube channels by showing exactly the same ID.

Google did not terminate your account for the reason you state. You are not telling us all the background information.

Google may indeed terminate multiple accounts for the same person because of TOS violations. They will definitely link and associate your accounts, so making an "alt account" for misbehavior is not safe. If my "alt account" is compromised or violates TOS, then I can expect they will discipline all 6 equally, because they're all linked.

But operating multiple accounts is very explicitly supported by Google, and by Microsoft as well, I will say. I don't know about Apple. Facebook definitely prohibited this in the past, although you can maintain multiple "profiles" and "pages" that have unique settings and personalities.

Re: Ask HN: Gmail spam filtering suddenly marking everything as spam?

#46
post #26

Noticed it immediately. I get a lot more spam messages per day than I thought that I did.

Same here. Until recently I would get maybe 1-2 spams a month, and I just got 30 in the span of a few days.

They’re the very obvious, very obnoxious kind of spam, and Gmail still correctly sends them to the junk bin, so I wonder if they were shadowbanned before and Google simply decided to make the process more explicit (which I don’t hate on principle).

Either that or my address was scrapped from somewhere by a spam bot and the timing is coincidental.

Re: Ask HN: Gmail spam filtering suddenly marking everything as spam?

#47
post #12

Yes, my Gmail inbox is full of regular senders being flagged as "possibly unsafe" and I need to click a button "Looks Safe" to accept them. They are not being spamboxed, but they are definitely flagged. Even official communications from the USPS! The reason given is that "Gmail hasn't scanned this message", so I suppose the scanners are unavailable/disabled for the time being. They should also be tagged as "Important…

They are not being marked as "Suspicious" but they are showing an infobox that explains they could not be scanned at all.

You could click "Seems Safe" on these messages, but they are not scanned by Google, and they are simply adding a disclaimer that they currently can't vouch for the safety of a message that they couldn't scan. It seems to me that this is a prudent and helpful course of action.

Re: Ask HN: Gmail spam filtering suddenly marking everything as spam?

#50

I don't understand why spam detection is so complicated. I can tell with high accuracy if an email is spam just by the subject line. I'd think even basic ML could do this very reliably you don't need a bleeding-edge LLM to do this. Phishing is tricker because it can be very deceptive especially if you're being targeted specifically. But also usually pretty obvious.

ORLY?

* Are you available? * Paul, can we have a zoom meeting with you on Monday? * Assistance for donation * Greetings!!! * some ideas for you * Refund request * Somethings not working * Manuel Montoya for roof work contractor * proposals for print * Invite Connection

Half of the above are actual spam, half are not. Tell me which is which ...

Post reply on HN