FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account • Hacker News Board

Re: FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account

#191

Post by pixl97 » Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 4:46 PM UTC

canadapups wrote: post #177

LiamPowell wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They're definitely not trying - in any form. I run a marketplace for dogs (i.e. craigslist for puppies & dogs) and scammers are always trying to post fakes ads. They always use Gmail accounts. Every time I ban a gmail address, they scammers will just get a new one. Same scammer/person has created thousands of gmail accounts and Google doesn't care. I have reported this to Google. For the amount of info Google has on…

Until a scammer uses some of your information then you get banned from Google with no way to appeal.

Re: FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account

#192

Post by dueltmp_yufsy » Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 5:03 PM UTC

I wonder if they do not take this kind of thank that seriously so to encourage the paid tier for storage. I am teetering nearer my end to the free, mostly from all the emails over the years.

Re: FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account

#193

Post by benoau » Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 5:09 PM UTC

titzer wrote: post #163

ModernMech wrote: post #130

Earlier 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'…

You have to realize that once Google flips the bit on you and they think you are trying to scam them (or others via them) you are absolutely dead to them. They don't want to hear from you ever again. You're banned to hell. The fact that a billing system didn't get switched off isn't so surprising; the internal architecture of their systems is so complicated that it would take multiple human lifetimes to explain how i…

> The fact that a billing system didn't get switched off isn't so surprising; the internal architecture of their systems is so complicated that it would take multiple human lifetimes to explain how it all works.

There was a lawsuit about a decade ago where a company was owed about $500k in ad fraud refunds and Google kept saying they had paid it, it ended up being an incomplete part of their software that had inadvertently withheld $75 million!

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-emails-adtrader-lawsu...

Re: FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account

#194

Post by ldng » Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 5:13 PM UTC

titzer wrote: post #163

ModernMech wrote: post #130

Earlier 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'…

You have to realize that once Google flips the bit on you and they think you are trying to scam them (or others via them) you are absolutely dead to them. They don't want to hear from you ever again. You're banned to hell. The fact that a billing system didn't get switched off isn't so surprising; the internal architecture of their systems is so complicated that it would take multiple human lifetimes to explain how i…

More often than people would like to admit, Google IS the scammer...

Re: FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account

#195

Post by mcmcmc » Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 5:38 PM UTC

LiamPowell wrote: post #110

alpaca128 wrote: post #97

Earlier 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.

Why would they? Their ad dollars spend the same, and they have no incentive to police it when they are protected by section 230.

Edit: I’m not implying this is morally right or good for anyone but Google shareholders. This is just 21st Century American capitalism

Re: FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account

#196

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 5:40 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #165

mixologic wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DMARC isn't really that big of an issue to wrestle with, and I don't see how it gives anybody influence or power.

The thing is, it's a mess to set up if you are not doing it correctly - which is all too easy if you are not doing this day-to-day. Spammers however, they have an economic incentive to have experts set up SPF, DMARC and all the other crap to appear legitimate.

[deleted]

Re: FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account

#197

Post by mcmcmc » Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 5:47 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #165

mixologic wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DMARC isn't really that big of an issue to wrestle with, and I don't see how it gives anybody influence or power.

The thing is, it's a mess to set up if you are not doing it correctly - which is all too easy if you are not doing this day-to-day. Spammers however, they have an economic incentive to have experts set up SPF, DMARC and all the other crap to appear legitimate.

If you’re not capable of setting up DMARC correctly then it’s a safe assumption you aren’t capable of adequately securing your email server. Which is even easier to mess up with much higher consequences. Even if you are not intending to be a spammer, if your server gets pwned you will become an unwitting one.

Re: FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account

#198

Post by noAnswer » Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 5:53 PM UTC

ldng wrote: post #194

titzer wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to realize that once Google flips the bit on you and they think you are trying to scam them (or others via them) you are absolutely dead to them. They don't want to hear from you ever again. You're banned to hell. The fact that a billing system didn't get switched off isn't so surprising; the internal architecture of their systems is so complicated that it would take multiple human lifetimes to explain how i…

More often than people would like to admit, Google IS the scammer...

Sadly you are right. They are billing my Euro charges from a UK (non Euro) bank, which adds 2% money exchange fee on everything.

Re: FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account

#199

Post by cpncrunch » Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 5:59 PM UTC

rascul wrote: post #148

cpncrunch wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spam is defined as unsolicited bulk email. Marketing is only spam when it isn't previous customers, or people who have specifically opted in.

100% of marketing email I've received is spam. I didn't knowingly or willingly sign up for any of it. There's some delusion in the marketing world that just because someone places an order or creates an account they should be spammed.

Yes, I used to agree with that, but have since given in and accepted that most companies (except mine and a handful of others) will spam all customers who buy a product without asking them first.

It's a little irritating, although I reserve full enmity for the spammers who I've never interacted with ever.

Re: FSF trying to contact Google about spammer sending 10k+ mails from Gmail account

#200

Post by ssl-3 » Thu, Apr 16, 2026, 6:05 PM UTC

dwedge wrote: post #132

Arnt wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I run my own mail server, not blacklisted. Now I'm a bit of a special case, I know mail well. But when a moderately technical colleague wanted to do the same, I told her to use Mox, she set it up and Gmail doesn't block her either. So... would you please elaborate?

I find there are three peopls who comment about hosting email. A small group like us who set it up correctly and never have problems. A larger group who set it up but get the dns wrong and warn people not to. And a third bigger group who never tried but listen to the second group and always comment that you'll have 1% deliverability

It is different than it once was.

It was dead-nuts simple in the 1990s: Just learn enough about DNS to put in an MX record that points to an A record, get sendmail working, and have it begin delivering mail. The end. (Open relay? No spam filter? No virus scanning? No nothin'? Yeah, that kind of was the style at the time...)

It's got a lot more steps today, but it's still do-able. Operationally, keeping a mail server online and treated well just takes one or two people to spend a little bit of time occasionally to stay proactively ahead of new expectations and requirements instead of reacting to them after things change.

It also helps if Carla, from marketing, doesn't wake up one day and decide to spam the entire customer list without asking for guidance first. Maybe I should have put some automatic mitigation into place for that, but whatever: We chatted about that and it never happened again.

(Or at least, I find that to be true with smaller companies. Bigger ones obviously may require more elaborate systems to handle more volume and/or provide better uptime. But the requirements of keeping the reputation up are about the same regardless of scale, and that still only takes one or two people to pay attention to things sometimes. [And the only reason two might be required is in case one of them gets hit by a bus.])