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Ask HN: What's happening with Gmail spam filtering?

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Re: Ask HN: What's happening with Gmail spam filtering?

#41

Post by 0___0 »

SyneRyder wrote: post #36

The spam is quite likely coming via Google itself. Google's mail servers have been compromised for several weeks now. It's commonly being used for infected crypto spam (all those "new traderbot" emails with the attached infected PDF, for example). I'm not yet sure if these are just compromised GMail accounts, or if the mail servers themselves have been compromised. There seem to be some reports on AbuseIPDB of intrus…

weeks? more like months. Yep, can't report them via SpamCop. I always report them via https://support.google.com/mail/contact/abuse?hl=en Not sure why they can't fix their crap.

Re: Ask HN: What's happening with Gmail spam filtering?

#42

Post by Daviey »

I've recently had the opposite problem. I had an external host receive email for a domain and then forward to gmail. The message envelope is changed, and SRS records are updated to be from the forwarding domain and DKIM is valid.

However, over the last 2-weeks or so, Gmail has been hard rejecting the majority of the mail at SMTP time, which has caused a big pain!

I really wish I could say "trust all mail from this mail server, but please also do Spam checking".

Re: Ask HN: What's happening with Gmail spam filtering?

#43

Post by bluedino »

I get about 10 per day. They all seem to come from hacked O365/Gmail accounts. All 4 of my Gmail accounts are affected.

It's all the same crap that's obviously spam.

"Dear Friend, I hope this email finds you well. I need your assistance in a matter..."

"You've been chosen!"

"Home Depot/TruGreen/Dicks Sporting Goods/ADT-Security"

"Invoice enclosed"

"You've received a direct deposit..."

"Hot sex "

I would guess that Gmail is simply a legacy/commodity function at Google, so they have spam handled by lower-end employees or even contractors.

Re: Ask HN: What's happening with Gmail spam filtering?

#44

Post by tgraham »

bluedino wrote: post #43

I get about 10 per day. They all seem to come from hacked O365/Gmail accounts. All 4 of my Gmail accounts are affected. It's all the same crap that's obviously spam. "Dear Friend, I hope this email finds you well. I need your assistance in a matter..." "You've been chosen!" "Home Depot/TruGreen/Dicks Sporting Goods/ADT-Security" "Invoice enclosed" "You've received a direct deposit..." "Hot sex " I would guess that Gm…

The "Dicks Sporting Goods" email is insane - probably hourly at the moment, from what would appear obviously bogus email senders. What is the non-obvious answer as to why these get through?

Re: Ask HN: What's happening with Gmail spam filtering?

#45

Post by davidbarker »

bluedino wrote: post #43

I get about 10 per day. They all seem to come from hacked O365/Gmail accounts. All 4 of my Gmail accounts are affected. It's all the same crap that's obviously spam. "Dear Friend, I hope this email finds you well. I need your assistance in a matter..." "You've been chosen!" "Home Depot/TruGreen/Dicks Sporting Goods/ADT-Security" "Invoice enclosed" "You've received a direct deposit..." "Hot sex " I would guess that Gm…

Yes! I'm getting around 10 Dick's Sporting Goods emails per day. It's a relief to know it's not just me.

Re: Ask HN: What's happening with Gmail spam filtering?

#46

Post by mFixman »

enlyth wrote: post #10

To offer a singular data point, contrary to other posters here, I am not seeing this at all, and I pretty actively use my two Gmail addresses which have been active since 2005. My spam inbox regularly gets correctly categorized spam, and important emails still correctly land in my inbox.

As a middle point between the main post and your comment, I have been getting 1 or 2 spam emails every week for the last couple of months.

Gmail's spam filtering was perfect before, so something is going on on my account (although not as dramatic as OP's).

Re: Ask HN: What's happening with Gmail spam filtering?

#47

Post by SteveNuts »

davidbarker wrote: post #45
bluedino wrote: post #43

I get about 10 per day. They all seem to come from hacked O365/Gmail accounts. All 4 of my Gmail accounts are affected. It's all the same crap that's obviously spam. "Dear Friend, I hope this email finds you well. I need your assistance in a matter..." "You've been chosen!" "Home Depot/TruGreen/Dicks Sporting Goods/ADT-Security" "Invoice enclosed" "You've received a direct deposit..." "Hot sex " I would guess that Gm…

Yes! I'm getting around 10 Dick's Sporting Goods emails per day. It's a relief to know it's not just me.

I'm expecting my Yeti cooler any day now

Re: Ask HN: What's happening with Gmail spam filtering?

#48

Post by sodality2 »

tallanvor wrote: post #38
SyneRyder wrote: post #36

The spam is quite likely coming via Google itself. Google's mail servers have been compromised for several weeks now. It's commonly being used for infected crypto spam (all those "new traderbot" emails with the attached infected PDF, for example). I'm not yet sure if these are just compromised GMail accounts, or if the mail servers themselves have been compromised. There seem to be some reports on AbuseIPDB of intrus…

Unfortunately every major provider has this happen. Google and Microsoft especially since they have their productivity platforms that send mail through the same infrastructure as their free email services. They also have to deal with more problems through compromised education accounts - students aren't that great at protecting their school credentials, and some businesses aren't much better.

I don't think that it's common for a Google mail server to be brute forcing SMTP logins for other servers, and also sending high amounts of spam. It looks like the server has been compromised, or else why would Google be making SMTP login requests?

Re: Ask HN: What's happening with Gmail spam filtering?

#49

Post by SyneRyder »

0___0 wrote: post #41
SyneRyder wrote: post #36

The spam is quite likely coming via Google itself. Google's mail servers have been compromised for several weeks now. It's commonly being used for infected crypto spam (all those "new traderbot" emails with the attached infected PDF, for example). I'm not yet sure if these are just compromised GMail accounts, or if the mail servers themselves have been compromised. There seem to be some reports on AbuseIPDB of intrus…

weeks? more like months. Yep, can't report them via SpamCop. I always report them via https://support.google.com/mail/contact/abuse?hl=en Not sure why they can't fix their crap.

Thank you! I somehow never came across that URL before. It's worth a try, though I'm not very optimistic it will help!

I'd genuinely be interested to know from someone working at Google why Google can't / won't solve this, even for the narrow clearly-defined cases I see.

Re: Ask HN: What's happening with Gmail spam filtering?

#50

Post by nwellnhof »

SyneRyder wrote: post #36

The spam is quite likely coming via Google itself. Google's mail servers have been compromised for several weeks now. It's commonly being used for infected crypto spam (all those "new traderbot" emails with the attached infected PDF, for example). I'm not yet sure if these are just compromised GMail accounts, or if the mail servers themselves have been compromised. There seem to be some reports on AbuseIPDB of intrus…

Yes, I've noticed this crypto/traderbot spam campaign a few weeks ago, and it definitely comes from Gmail itself. It's nice to see that it also affects other Gmail users. Maybe Google will finally get their act together and stop all the Gmail spam. Right now, I get about 100 spam emails from Gmail each month, making it the biggest source of spam for me. If it wasn't that half of the world uses their services, I'd have blocked Google's mail servers a long time ago.
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