Feb 19
Is the Spam Dam about to crack?
Like many millions Internet users all over the world, I’ve been using Gmail as my primary e-mail address for quite some time now. I’ve gotten used to the simple interface and even managed to learn the keyboard shortcuts.
But the main thing that made me fell head over heels about Gmail was it’s spam filter. It simply worked, keeping thousands of viagra, penis enlargement and cialis e-mail spam at bay.
I made no effort to keep my Gmail address hidden, I used it all over the web, even in some shady websites, in trust of the mighty spam filter would keep my inbox clean of Nigerian pyramid schemes or fake university degrees.
From some time now, I’ve been getting some weird e-mails about some business propositions, mainly in the domain name market. I have a couple of domain names laying around that I will develop someday, but that doesn’t make me the type of guy to approach about some "buy hundred domain names for 99$" deal.
To be honest I didn’t even noticed, my faith remained strong that the good old spam filter was working around the clock for me, but the number of weird e-mails have been increasing. I was thinking that I’ve shouldn’t have registered at that free porn website while reading this post at Mashable about others noticing exactly the same behavior in Gmail. I was pretty confident that those e-mails were all my fault, I can feel my faith slowly fading away as more and more spam gets in.
Are the spammers getting smarter? Is this a sign that what used to be the most reliable e-mail service I’ve used, is having some internal issues? Is this only the beginning or is this just a small hiccup?
I’m worried, because I’ve gotten so used to Gmail that I’m afraid that I couldn’t revert back to good old [Insert your favorite desktop e-mail client here].
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I’ve been keeping a log with my spam email volume. Though mostly diverted, it equaled about 2.3/minute. I’ve got it down to the point where I chuck only about 2-3000 a month and most of those are filtered at my Trend Micro Anti-Spam. I went through great pains back in 2003 to pinpoint the goofballs and found that only about 6 locations giving me most of it. Six! I gave up on the whole thing since trying to retaliate is fairly pointless, and there is little anybody can do about it. If only I could figure out a way to get 5 cents for every junk email…
I’m guessing (& hoping) that some hackers have gotten hold of a bunch of fresh addresses to send spam from, using some kind of bot net virus or something, and that once enough people report these as spam then the emails will decrease and/or stop.
(I’ve been getting Gmail spam, that I never used to get, too.)
For some time now, I’ve been warning everybody that email is NOT a reliable comms medium, simply because they may get tagged as spam. Since most of the time I just delete all spam, they will get trashed too. And I’m happy with this arrangement.
Of all the accounts I have, the gmail one is by far the less spammed and I still keep my faith with it. As a centralized service, there are loads of spam that can be tagged for everyone, instead of keeping your well trained.
I’ve used yahoo mail for over 10 years and they used to be great at filtering out spam as well. But lately some has been creeping through. Tis very sad.
I have noticed that more is getting through the Gmail wall of mighty spam blocking as well. But the number is still incredibly low, and low enough that I have few worries about it. It also seems like this happened awhile back and was ‘fixed’ or enough reports came through to quash it.
You should try unsubscribing from the ones which provide links. It actually works, despite what some people may say. My spam mail has gone from 200 a day to about 100. They are legally obligated by law to give you that unsub link if they’re in the US.
Oh yeah,
You also run the risk of missing emails which aren’t spam but happen to land in your spam box. I always check my spam to make sure. So far I’ve found several RSS email deliveries, one personal email, and an email from a (legitimate) writing contest. If I hadn’t checked my spam I would have missed out on a chance at $5,000 dollars for my writing. If you don’t believe me, look at the link: http://www.myspace.com/harperteen There I am, Chungyen Chang. In two weeks I may be $5,000 dollars richer, all because I checked my spam box.
The moral of the story? Always check your spam.
I already tired on spam at my email and my blog. The spammer keep creating a good software to spam others and take advantage from that by selling service to spam.
You know, I actually think Hotmail had a good idea of putting all senders that are not in your address book into the spam folder. Yes, it is a pain to check the spam folder, but I don’t have to worry about spam in my inbox.
I also use have a yahoo mail account which is starting to show signs that their spam software needs to be updated.
I am also facing this type of problem with my GMAIL account … don’t understand what to do to overcome this problem?
Regards,
Aniruddha
Oh no! I love my GMail account for the spam filter. Please don’t let the scumbags in Google, I don’t even have a penis! Fight the Spam!
No sweat, just make sure you report spam whenever you find it. With this little bit of help from you, the gmail spam filter also gets smarter.
I used to get a ton of those weirdly worded emails, but I just reported everything I found. While I dont remember precisely when it stopped, I havent gotten another one for months now.