Anyone interested in creating a CommunityEmailAlliance. Like dkim but with blocks on corporate email systems that allow spamming?
FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account
181–190 of 242 posts
Re: FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly, the "acted upon" part needs to be highlighted in tangible ways, otherwise people will be suspicious that nothing ever happens to our reports, leading to fewer reports being submitted. During the IC3 reporting process I was asked to submit the name of people behind the scam, if known. I knew one of them because the scammer asked for a wire transfer to a named account at a bank in Oregon. Probably a mule. Doe…
There are strict rules about not talking about open investigations because of so-called "Tipping-off" rules. It can carry some pretty serious penalties - jail time, fines. I agree it would be nice if the FBI itself made some announcements about these sorts of things, and they might do that in aggregate, but if you're a bank or fintech employee and you're in communication with the FBI you absolutely cannot say anythin…
> Even confirming that an investigation existed could be penalized.
I didn't know that. But that is another point that could be highlighted on the IC3 homepage or confirmation, along with aggregated data about enforcement actions resulting from submissions from ordinary victims.
Re: FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account
#183Somewhat related to spam coming from Google servers, maybe someone can shed some light on what could be the motivation behind this activity: In recent months I'm seeing instances where random personal mail accounts on a server I run would receive a barrage of mail in a short amount of time. Mail seems to be bounced via Google Groups - they are sent from Google's IPs and have headers like X-Google-Group-Id, List-*, et…
This is almost certainly subscription bombing / email bombing. The goal is to flood someone's inbox with hundreds of legitimate-looking automated emails so they miss a real one - typically a password reset confirmation, a purchase receipt, or a "new device login" alert. The actual attack is happening on some other service where the victim has an account. The fact that you don't see it on your server doesn't mean much, the target is the victim's primary inbox elsewhere.
Re: FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
This seems to be a laughable claim? I don't get anything but spam from Mailchimp.
I don't think your definition of spam matches the one that I understand it to mean. Spam is random email from someone you have not had contact with before firing messages to every address they can find anywhere on the web, the dark web, etc. Or if you ask not to be added to a mailing list and are added anyway. They often use fraudulent tricks to try to get the email through filters, such as fake from addresses. Spam…
> I don't think your definition of spam matches the one that I understand it to mean. Spam is random email from someone you have not had contact with before firing messages to every address they can find anywhere on the web, the dark web, etc. Or if you ask not to be added to a mailing list and are added anyway. They often use fraudulent tricks to try to get the email through filters, such as fake from addresses.
I would disagree with that definition, and wikipedia and multiple dictionaries appear to agree with me; it doesn't matter how many dark patterns the company uses or whether they (claim to) let you opt out after the fact, if the message is unwelcome, it's spam.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spam
> spam noun
> unsolicited usually commercial messages (such as emails, text messages, or Internet postings) sent to a large number of recipients or posted in a large number of places
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/spam
> unwanted email, usually advertisements
Re: FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
On YouTube I reported bot accounts for a couple days, the only reaction I got was that at some point it showed a popup that told me too many false reports would lead to a ban. Not sure what Google gets out of it, but there is no way they could be that bad at fighting bots unless they're not even trying. Even trivial tricks like copy-pasted texts keep working.
They're not trying. I've seen an advertiser remain active for months with literally tens of thousands of ads where clicking them directly downloads a malicious exe file that most antivirus scanners flag.
Worse, they're actively working to allow malicious activity. Meta made 10% of it's revenue, around $16B from known scams: https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-is-earning-fortu...
Re: FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
This seems to be a laughable claim? I don't get anything but spam from Mailchimp.
I don't think your definition of spam matches the one that I understand it to mean. Spam is random email from someone you have not had contact with before firing messages to every address they can find anywhere on the web, the dark web, etc. Or if you ask not to be added to a mailing list and are added anyway. They often use fraudulent tricks to try to get the email through filters, such as fake from addresses. Spam…
> Spam is random email from someone you have not had contact with before firing messages to every address they can find anywhere on the web, the dark web, etc.
> Or if you ask not to be added to a mailing list and are added anyway.*
> Spam is not email from legitimate companies with valid contact details that have an opt out that you forgot to click when you signed up with them.
There's a HUGE grey area between the random unsolicited emails for scams and legitimate business partners where I forgot to check the opt out. I get almost none of the first (spam filters are pretty good at keeping Nigerian princes from getting help to access their money), and also almost none of the last (because I'm hypervigilant about opting out of email and cookies and all that trash), so all the spam I get is from "asked not to be added but added anyways".
Most of those are coming from Mailchimp and similar services. I'm sure that if I could take the senders to court and disentangle their web of parent companies that had my email in the web form for 10 seconds before I opted out and they sold it to each of their 20 daughter companies and partner organizations, and then I received the first "legitimate marketing email" (LOL! LMFAO!) and unsubscribed from that (which will take effect in 20 business days) so now I'm only subscribed to 19 new mailing lists from that company and also the dozen other organizations they're a part of, until they pivot to a new marketing agency which - oopsie! - forgot about my opt-out request.
That's Mailchimp's business model and the way that the entire "legitimate marketing" economy works, but I still consider it spam.
Re: FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account
#187Google took over email when they reject legitimate emails sent by small email vendors and at the same time sending this much spam.
Re: FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh that's a good idea! I got locked out of my YouTube premium account and they kept charging me. Couldn't get in contact with anyone at YouTube because the YT premium support line is behind the YT login. So I had to change my credit card number. Somehow they still kept billing the card, so the credit card company said they'd have to close my account entirely to get Google to stop billing me for a service they wouldn'…
Switch to Mercury banking. https://mercury.com/ You can create as many virtual cards as you want. And surprisingly, I've rarely encountered a vendor that rejects them. I set one up for pretty much every recurring service charge, just because it's so easy to do. It costs a few hundred a year for personal banking, but if you register an LLC (which in MO costs ~$10) you can use your EIN to get a business account. Did it…
Are the virtual cards credit cards or hooked up to your account (i.e. debit cards)? there's a big difference. Also, they're not a bank so FDIC insurance and other bank aspects are different. Not what I'd personally use for my long-term savings-oriented finances, but fine for more operational things.
Re: FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
What stopped them from continuing with a new similar Gmail address?
You can't send high volume through new accounts. Usually when a gmail account is being used for real spamming, it's an established one that's been taken over and the spammers are just discharging the accumulated reputation of the account.
> Usually when a gmail account is being used for real spamming, it's an established one that's been taken over
My incident is unlikely to be a real account being taken over. The name format was "firstnamelastnameofficial@gmail.com" and I have a somewhat rare name ... probably well under 40 people worldwide with the exact spelling.
Re: FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account
#190I'm getting a lot, and I mean A LOT, spam recently from various ".bc.googleusercontent.com" domains. Not sure what can be done about that. But the uptick is very noticeable.