HACKER Q&A
📣 dizzydes

Have Gmail spam filters got way worse?


I swear the last 6 months I’ve been getting way more spam.

I figured the phishermen had new techniques but today I even got a bcc all one.


  👤 ksaj Accepted Answer ✓
I don't get much more spam, but there is one obvious spam message that gets inboxed often, even though I've flagged it as Spam and Phishing damn near every time.

It is one of those fake UPS messages that there was a package left there unsigned and you have to pick it up. Only instead of UPS, their logo is IPS (for International Parcel Service), which as far as I know, doesn't actually exist.

I've been receiving that specific one with different fake tracking numbers every few days for well over a year now. You can bet the spammer/phisher is a paying Google advertiser... that is the only reason I can think of for its overall longevity.


👤 nness
I wonder of spammers are just mass-creating Gmail accounts, getting hit with their own spam and flagging it as "non-spam" to confuse the filters...

(If you are in a position to build spamming infrastructure, you are certainly capable of setting automating email accounts for the purpose of unflagging spam.)


👤 richardjam73
What you are probably observing is that your email address is getting more attention from spammers not that the SPAM filters are getting worse.

👤 bell-cot
Spam in which direction? I certainly seem to be getting more spam from Gmail in the past ~6 months or so.