Ask HN: Is Gmail spam out of control for everyone else too?

[agency]

I’ve been seeing steadily more spam in my Gmail inbox for a long time now but the past couple weeks it has been on another level completely. At least 3 or 4 emails a day going to my inbox that follow the same pattern of gibberish subject line with a PDF attachment. I asked some coworkers and I don’t think it’s just me. Is there some subtlety to this situation or has Google just completely dropped the ball here? How are emails from strangers with PDF attachments not subject to a level of scrutiny that would catch this easily?

[winternett]

It's just a hunch, but I think almost every major change Google has made to the service for many years is in hopes of reducing active users. It's why I hung onto my hotmail account as well, even though MSFT is doing the same thing in slightly less agresive and dramatic ways.

Gmail storage being reduced with a subscription service suddenly being in place, when it's vitally linked to years of saved user data on phones is a clue, so is the fact that both Gmail and Hotmail don't clearly show originating emails fully on messages so that users can double check identities of email senders.

We're in an age of extortionware with absolutely no consumer voice nor congressional defense, and even though subscription fees seem low right now, they'll only increase as users complain, and there will be no choice but to submit to it all.

I don't really get spam, because I signed up for their advanced storage feature, God have mercy on me if I ever decide to switch to iPhone, because most phones no longer support SD cards.

I think my next move will be to downgrade to older hardware, and to avoid all of the great new tech that serves their interests more than me. I'm really worn out on the festering parasitic behavior of these companies, it's a trap.

[Goety]

I wholeheartedly agree and have experienced what you are presenting.

[moralestapia]

Mine is backwards, literally.

Almost all my legitimate email goes to spam, while hyper-obvious 2000s type of spam "Hello sir, I want to send you 20,000,000 dollars" is common on my inbox. I now have the habit to check my Spam folder first.

It has become so stupid that even emails from THEIR OWN DAMN SERVICES, like transactional messages from GCP, go to Spam.

[bamboozled]

You don’t k know this yet, but the Google AI has foreseen all of this and is trying to get you to click on the emails you need to click on, the ones it knows are good for you.

[stevage]

I virtually never see spam in Gmail, and this is no exception. Had my account since the start, my email is used in many places, easy to find, etc.

To me, Gmail's spam filtering is nothing short of magical. Weird that it isn't the same for everyone.

[haswell]

I got my address in the invite only days, and historically, what you describe was true for me. Almost magical.

But recently (~3 months?), I’ve been experiencing something very similar to what the OP described.

[warrenm]

Anyone else remember going to the GMail homepage and watching your available storage climb upwards like the national debt clock?

[butz]

Yes, same thing started happening here about two weeks ago. No idea if something has changed on Gmail side, like spam filter update, but reporting such messages as spam does nothing. I also fear that legit email messages containing important attachments from gmail.com domain might end up in spam after spam filter learns that "attachment = bad". Tried reporting few as phishing in hopes to get some attention, but that probably ain't doing anything at all.

[addingnumbers]

Yes, right this minute the most recent three messages in my Gmail inbox are extremely obvious spam with titles like "YourCVSrewards HavejustArrived" and one is full of white-on-white text, which I thought was an easy giveaway for their detection systems.

[thawaya3113]

Yes. Absolutely.

And the worst part is that the spam I’m getting are emails that are almost exactly the same. I have no idea how the GMail spam detector is unable to filter these out.

[1_player]

I certainly receive a lot of spam _from_ gmail accounts. 99% of the spam I see has a gmail.com address.

[4oo4]

In case this is partially my fault:

I started using Tutanota as my primary email provider a long time ago and just let Gmail fill up with garbage that I'm too lazy to delete (and also in hopes that all the garbage/spam messes with the email scanning that Google does, and wasting their storage space out of spite). There might be others like me that have similar Gmail inboxes, that may be due to making it so hard to bulk delete emails in the app.

So I'm sorry, maybe?

[rurban]

Nope. No changes to the worse for me. Happy for decades, compared to previous solutions

[MerelyMortal]

On average I get one or two spams per day that make it to my Gmail inbox, consisting of: those PDF spams, or emails with subject lines misspelled or spelled with numbers, or obvious spam for dating stuff.

On average once a month, a legitimate email will be in the spam folder.

For me, Gmail's spam filtering is somewhat helpful and thus decent, but I would not consider it good.

[MerelyMortal]

In case anyone is still reading this:

I just received an email from the sender name of "L0an C0nfirmati0n" with a subject of "**_ C0nfirm Y0ur Request: $9,525 L0an °®° ..."

There are images which by default are not displayed, Gmail thinks it's in French and is offering to translate the message.

The visible message says ".time is running out - get your $10k"

How the F is that not recognized as spam? Beats me…

[spxd]

Same for me, at least for one month. I remove all manually. Its time to drop Gmail and use something else.

[andrewmcwatters]

Yes. Something has changed internally allowing for some obvious spam to get past their filters.

[jfoster]

Google claim they're working on it: https://twitter.com/gmail/status/1491495105123045376

[MerelyMortal]

I think the Twitter reply is probably more accurate:

> Is there actually a particular issue behind these that Google is aware of & working on, or is this just a generic response?

[coaksford]

This has been happening to me for the last few months.

What gets me is that my email address is not even in the recipients list most of the time. Much of it was sent to my email userpart @aol.com and somehow I'm receiving it in gmail. It seems like if you send a valid gmail userpart with an AOL domain to a gmail server it's just not bothering to spam check.

The filter rule that's doing the best job of weeding out this spam is that the email doesn't have my email address in any recipient field, but does have an AOL version of it. I have no idea why gmail would be accepting these messages though.

[tluyben2]

Been using it since it was first announced (had an invite quickly) and have 100s of email addresses going there. The spam filtering is perfect: zero spam and zero false positives. I tried to move but two issues: too much email (other systems immediately choke when I try to transfer; I would have to start from scratch) and spam filters for the ones I try simply do not work: my box fills up with 1000s of spam emails per day and after training for a few weeks that does not get better.

[mimsee]

Yes! I get these messages as a notification to my phone.

The message body of the email seems to contain some messages normally sent to people that they really expect, like a github password reset, an email verification link, or a university email directed towards students [0][1].

[0]: https://pastebin.com/kfWTLMjz

[1]: https://pastebin.com/NmPK2dVY

Edit: found a second email

[eloisius]

I’m getting an increasing number of fishing emails _from_ gmail addresses. I got a fake Amazon order confirmation yesterday, and get fake Norton subscription receipts monthly.

[3rdparty]

Mine have no subject with a PDF attachment and seem to be getting through on a daily basis. Might help to get some more upvotes here: https://support.google.com/mail/thread/150229727/getting-a-n...

[bravetraveler]

I've noticed this as well, it's disappointing because for a while I was using gmail as a sort of 'first pass filter'

It's nowhere near as good as it once was

[dvxvd]

Yes, I noticed more spam last weeks. Also noticed in the last years, that all important emails goes to the spam folder. Compensated by advertisment emails which always goes to Inbox folder.. Everytime i need some confirmation or some gov email or something what is really important to me it is in Spam folder. What's the purpose of the spam folder?..