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YES! I posted about this two weeks ago, one person agreed but the post never got any traction: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28437472 https://news.ycombi

YES! I posted about this two weeks ago, one person agreed but the post never got any traction: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28437472 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28437472 I haven't heard anything about this when I asked colleagues / IRL friends... I wonder what is going on over at Google

kace91 5y ago
Well that's good to hear, I can't find any mention about this problem anywhere and I was starting to think that I was being specifically targeted. Except for the last one, all the calls to action seem to be crypto related, but I don't know if that's relevant to the origin of this attack. Perhaps it's just the most successful way of getting clicks nowadays (?). It's baffling that google are letting these ones slip. Even marking some as spam does nothing to prevent new ones from coming.
- natch 5y ago
  > It's baffling that google are letting these ones slip. Why would it be baffling? Google’s spam filters have always been extremely low quality, even mistaking email generated by Google itself as spam. They simply don’t have the pride of craftsmanship to improve it.
  - encoderer 5y ago
    You live in a different universe than I do. Fascinating. In my world, spam was a true problem that was killing email. Truly killing it. You would have to create a new address every 6 months to stay ahead of the spam and have a functioning inbox. Very different world. Gmail fixed that. And for me, there have been issues from time to time and in fact i am getting this very spam myself, but gmail permanently stopped the hordes for me in 2004. Now, don’t get me started on their insane categorization choices.
    - natch 5y ago
      >Gmail fixed that. Hardly. They didn't invent the tech. And they didn't perfect it. They haven't even tried. The evidence is in my Spam folder. I mean they mark messages they themselves originate as dangerous spam. "Dangerous" being their word, not mine. Screenshot from within the last hour: https://imgur.com/IjQUGaY https://imgur.com/IjQUGaY I was in that earlier world too. They papered the problem over, a little. But no, they didn't fix it.
      - bwy 5y ago
        Just curious if you would post a little more of the screenshot? I don't think there's enough in the image for me to tell if it's from a spam address or not.
        natch 5y ago
        It’s from Google. The return address is: Google Alerts - googlealerts-noreply (at) google.com
      - User23 5y ago
        I really want an inbox where i never see what anyone wrote if they don’t pay me the current price of a first class letter.
    - actuallyalys 5y ago
      Spam wasn't killing email for me, but Gmail was a noticeable step up for sure. I do wonder how much was innovation on their part and how much of it was simply executing the same filtering techniques really well. Now, my impression is that all of the well-regarded email providers do a good job of handling spam—it's no longer a differentiator. (Although it might start to be again if Google has genuinely let their guard down.) Fastmail does a good job in my experience.
- johnmaguire 5y ago
  I've also been getting the crypto spam in my inbox, usually as one of a ton of recipients. e.g: Title: Rc 2 Xq 1677 Riyw 532 Sender: Чеслав Сальников <zeqiyic@gmail.com> Body: 3688 867 8383 4 3 784 Attachment: Free Bitcoin - DELL .html
  - n4r9 5y ago
    Same with me, been happening for a couple of weeks now. Sometimes multiple times a day. Just yesterday I had the following: Title: V10 YU L2 RUO T778 ZRD Sender: Тельман Кудряшов sefovuz@gmail.com Body: 3484 2 0812 61 3 Attachment: Blockchain Prizes 3883 .htm
- apple4ever 5y ago
  You are not the only one. Its been BAD for me for at least two months.
- ambivalents 5y ago
  It is happening to me too, starting about a week ago.
kazinator 5y ago
> I wonder what is going on over at Google Probably a whole lot of dont-give-a-darn-about-e-mail, because it's not new and sexy, and likely doesn't drive revenue. Also, the people who suffer from gmail spam are often non-users of gmail. I.e. neither customers of Google, nor targets of its advertising, nor sources of personal information. Google doesn't care if <you@filleocus.com> is getting Gmail spam, because that's an outside entity whose existence does not benefit Google. Plus, Google knows that Gmail is so huge, that nobody can just block all of Gmail. Unlike some small-time mail domain, they do not feel any risk that, if they don't take action to combat spam, they will be blocked as a whole. If a small-time domain's machine gets listed in some DNS black-hole lists or other dynamic anti-spam databases, they have to care, or they don't get to send mail. It's a dire situation to which they have to respond. If a Google machine gets listed in these databases, Google doesn't have to care. Anyone actually blocking Gmail machines is essentially just cutting themselves off from a huge e-mail communication hub. It's almost as if that operator were blacklisting itself. Small fry: OK, that does it, I shall not receive Gmail! Google: Hahaha; say bye bye to more than half your contacts, then! In other words, Google knows that e-mail operators who are using blacklists have to pretty much whitelist Gmail servers, and so it doesn't care about blacklists.
rigrassm 5y ago
I too have been seeing this the last couple weeks, sorry to see I'm not the only one!
samstave 5y ago
I've posted/commented about it as well. Interestingly, they can change the font of the subject lines which no valid email I have ever received in gmail has a subject with a different font. That would be an interesting filter: if subject is !Font, then spam.
- rocho 5y ago
  I got a few of those myself. They use Unicode characters that look like ASCII letters and probably Google doesn't handle it well.

kace91 5y ago

Well that's good to hear, I can't find any mention about this problem anywhere and I was starting to think that I was being specifically targeted. Except for the last one, all the calls to action seem to be crypto related, but I don't know if that's relevant to the origin of this attack. Perhaps it's just the most successful way of getting clicks nowadays (?). It's baffling that google are letting these ones slip. Even marking some as spam does nothing to prevent new ones from coming.

natch 5y ago
> It's baffling that google are letting these ones slip. Why would it be baffling? Google’s spam filters have always been extremely low quality, even mistaking email generated by Google itself as spam. They simply don’t have the pride of craftsmanship to improve it.
- encoderer 5y ago
  You live in a different universe than I do. Fascinating. In my world, spam was a true problem that was killing email. Truly killing it. You would have to create a new address every 6 months to stay ahead of the spam and have a functioning inbox. Very different world. Gmail fixed that. And for me, there have been issues from time to time and in fact i am getting this very spam myself, but gmail permanently stopped the hordes for me in 2004. Now, don’t get me started on their insane categorization choices.
  - natch 5y ago
    >Gmail fixed that. Hardly. They didn't invent the tech. And they didn't perfect it. They haven't even tried. The evidence is in my Spam folder. I mean they mark messages they themselves originate as dangerous spam. "Dangerous" being their word, not mine. Screenshot from within the last hour: https://imgur.com/IjQUGaY https://imgur.com/IjQUGaY I was in that earlier world too. They papered the problem over, a little. But no, they didn't fix it.
    - bwy 5y ago
      Just curious if you would post a little more of the screenshot? I don't think there's enough in the image for me to tell if it's from a spam address or not.
      - natch 5y ago
        It’s from Google. The return address is: Google Alerts - googlealerts-noreply (at) google.com
    - User23 5y ago
      I really want an inbox where i never see what anyone wrote if they don’t pay me the current price of a first class letter.
  - actuallyalys 5y ago
    Spam wasn't killing email for me, but Gmail was a noticeable step up for sure. I do wonder how much was innovation on their part and how much of it was simply executing the same filtering techniques really well. Now, my impression is that all of the well-regarded email providers do a good job of handling spam—it's no longer a differentiator. (Although it might start to be again if Google has genuinely let their guard down.) Fastmail does a good job in my experience.
johnmaguire 5y ago
I've also been getting the crypto spam in my inbox, usually as one of a ton of recipients. e.g: Title: Rc 2 Xq 1677 Riyw 532 Sender: Чеслав Сальников <zeqiyic@gmail.com> Body: 3688 867 8383 4 3 784 Attachment: Free Bitcoin - DELL .html
- n4r9 5y ago
  Same with me, been happening for a couple of weeks now. Sometimes multiple times a day. Just yesterday I had the following: Title: V10 YU L2 RUO T778 ZRD Sender: Тельман Кудряшов sefovuz@gmail.com Body: 3484 2 0812 61 3 Attachment: Blockchain Prizes 3883 .htm
apple4ever 5y ago
You are not the only one. Its been BAD for me for at least two months.
ambivalents 5y ago
It is happening to me too, starting about a week ago.

kazinator 5y ago

> I wonder what is going on over at Google Probably a whole lot of dont-give-a-darn-about-e-mail, because it's not new and sexy, and likely doesn't drive revenue. Also, the people who suffer from gmail spam are often non-users of gmail. I.e. neither customers of Google, nor targets of its advertising, nor sources of personal information. Google doesn't care if <you@filleocus.com> is getting Gmail spam, because that's an outside entity whose existence does not benefit Google. Plus, Google knows that Gmail is so huge, that nobody can just block all of Gmail. Unlike some small-time mail domain, they do not feel any risk that, if they don't take action to combat spam, they will be blocked as a whole. If a small-time domain's machine gets listed in some DNS black-hole lists or other dynamic anti-spam databases, they have to care, or they don't get to send mail. It's a dire situation to which they have to respond. If a Google machine gets listed in these databases, Google doesn't have to care. Anyone actually blocking Gmail machines is essentially just cutting themselves off from a huge e-mail communication hub. It's almost as if that operator were blacklisting itself. Small fry: OK, that does it, I shall not receive Gmail! Google: Hahaha; say bye bye to more than half your contacts, then! In other words, Google knows that e-mail operators who are using blacklists have to pretty much whitelist Gmail servers, and so it doesn't care about blacklists.

rigrassm 5y ago

I too have been seeing this the last couple weeks, sorry to see I'm not the only one!

samstave 5y ago

I've posted/commented about it as well. Interestingly, they can change the font of the subject lines which no valid email I have ever received in gmail has a subject with a different font. That would be an interesting filter: if subject is !Font, then spam.

rocho 5y ago
I got a few of those myself. They use Unicode characters that look like ASCII letters and probably Google doesn't handle it well.