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Reading all the comments makes me think I'm an outlier. I very aggressively unsubscribe from everything so I get very little mailing list spam. Maybe a few mes

Reading all the comments makes me think I'm an outlier. I very aggressively unsubscribe from everything so I get very little mailing list spam. Maybe a few messages a month. What I do get _constantly_ is spam email messages to my inbox from Gmail and Outlook domains. At least one a day for many years. Because it from Gmail, they have very little spam filtering done, yet if any other provider sent these messages then Google would block the entire domain. These particular spam messages get on my nerves, and these are the only ones making it through to me.

stevage 3y ago
Yep, I'm the opposite of you. I get almost zero true "spam" to my Gmail account. Maybe 1-2 messages a month. Whereas quite a few of these quasi-spam marketing emails from a company that I once had some interaction with. The worst is hotels - you stay at 10 hotels during the course of a trip, then you get added to 10 email lists for the rest of your life.
- kiwijamo 3y ago
  I have a Gmail account I opened in the early days of Gmail and stopped using on a regular basis when I got my own domain around mid-2000's. Whenever I occasionally check in, I always find heaps of spam. Many I've tried unsubscribing for and still get the mail--obviously Gmail's filter doesn't take into account senders I've flagged time and time again as spam.
- oynqr 3y ago
  You might not get much spam delivered to your Gmail inbox, but that doesn't stop Gmail from being the largest _source_ of actually delivered spam.
drdaeman 3y ago
> I very aggressively unsubscribe from everything Never unsubscribe from anything you haven't subscribed for (or at least where you haven't gave your email address to the sending party), because I believe any interaction with unsolicited emails provide spammers with a clear signal that their spam is not just delivered but also read and interacted with, so they get more agressive.
- georgyo 3y ago
  I've heard this advice before, but in my experience you can tell the difference between something malicious or not. But more importantly even if I provide some signal that my email is active it's not going to change that much. They can send more, but that just helps train filters. Lastly default Gmail settings loads remote images. Just opening the email is enough to create some signal. Having remote images turned off is enough to stop most engagement pings.
  - franga2000 3y ago
    AFAIK Gmail downloads and caches all images server-side the moment it receives the email, then replaces them with cached versions when viewing. The only thing this tells you is that the address exists, not that anyone opened your email, which you already know since the email wasn't rejected.
- kodapoda 3y ago
  Agreed. I block these addresses instead.
justinbaker84 3y ago
Usually when I get the spam you are describing sent to my gmail account it looks like some spammer managed to send obvious spam messages from a server on an authoritative domain like a university.
kiwijamo 3y ago
In the days I ran my own main server for my domain I was surprised to find that well over 50% of spam originated from Google (both emails with @gmail.com domains but also emails from other domains being processed via their servers). And I wasn't even a Gmail customer, so it looks like they don't really filter outgoing mail to other providers. It made my inbound filtering quite tricky as I couldn't block Google as quite lot of legitimate traffic comes from friends using Gmail so the other Spamassassin rules (e.g. content analysis) had to do much of the heaving lifting. A couple of years back I gave up and outsourced the MX for my domain to Fastmail. Interestingly they also struggle to filter Gmail messages (which isn't too surprising as they also use Spamassassin) but thankfully there are only a few a week that get past and I always make sure these are flagged as spam to train the filter. Over time they end up going into my Spam folder and eventually they just don't arrive at all due to my spam settings blocking high spam scores.
narag 3y ago
...yet if any other provider sent these messages then Google would block the entire domain. I doubt Google would do that to other big companies. Some accept user-provided email addresses at face value, without any confirmation, and then refuse to stop spamming you. Would Google block Paypal?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
citrin_ru 3y ago
It is my experience too - about 50% of spam I see on my personal email are dmarc passing messages from gmail and hotmail.
Alifatisk 3y ago
Well, If you see pattern in the spam mail then you can setup a rule that filters the spam. That’s what I have done on my outlook.

stevage 3y ago

Yep, I'm the opposite of you. I get almost zero true "spam" to my Gmail account. Maybe 1-2 messages a month. Whereas quite a few of these quasi-spam marketing emails from a company that I once had some interaction with. The worst is hotels - you stay at 10 hotels during the course of a trip, then you get added to 10 email lists for the rest of your life.

kiwijamo 3y ago
I have a Gmail account I opened in the early days of Gmail and stopped using on a regular basis when I got my own domain around mid-2000's. Whenever I occasionally check in, I always find heaps of spam. Many I've tried unsubscribing for and still get the mail--obviously Gmail's filter doesn't take into account senders I've flagged time and time again as spam.
oynqr 3y ago
You might not get much spam delivered to your Gmail inbox, but that doesn't stop Gmail from being the largest _source_ of actually delivered spam.

drdaeman 3y ago

> I very aggressively unsubscribe from everything Never unsubscribe from anything you haven't subscribed for (or at least where you haven't gave your email address to the sending party), because I believe any interaction with unsolicited emails provide spammers with a clear signal that their spam is not just delivered but also read and interacted with, so they get more agressive.

georgyo 3y ago
I've heard this advice before, but in my experience you can tell the difference between something malicious or not. But more importantly even if I provide some signal that my email is active it's not going to change that much. They can send more, but that just helps train filters. Lastly default Gmail settings loads remote images. Just opening the email is enough to create some signal. Having remote images turned off is enough to stop most engagement pings.
- franga2000 3y ago
  AFAIK Gmail downloads and caches all images server-side the moment it receives the email, then replaces them with cached versions when viewing. The only thing this tells you is that the address exists, not that anyone opened your email, which you already know since the email wasn't rejected.
kodapoda 3y ago
Agreed. I block these addresses instead.

justinbaker84 3y ago

Usually when I get the spam you are describing sent to my gmail account it looks like some spammer managed to send obvious spam messages from a server on an authoritative domain like a university.

kiwijamo 3y ago

In the days I ran my own main server for my domain I was surprised to find that well over 50% of spam originated from Google (both emails with @gmail.com domains but also emails from other domains being processed via their servers). And I wasn't even a Gmail customer, so it looks like they don't really filter outgoing mail to other providers. It made my inbound filtering quite tricky as I couldn't block Google as quite lot of legitimate traffic comes from friends using Gmail so the other Spamassassin rules (e.g. content analysis) had to do much of the heaving lifting. A couple of years back I gave up and outsourced the MX for my domain to Fastmail. Interestingly they also struggle to filter Gmail messages (which isn't too surprising as they also use Spamassassin) but thankfully there are only a few a week that get past and I always make sure these are flagged as spam to train the filter. Over time they end up going into my Spam folder and eventually they just don't arrive at all due to my spam settings blocking high spam scores.

narag 3y ago

...yet if any other provider sent these messages then Google would block the entire domain. I doubt Google would do that to other big companies. Some accept user-provided email addresses at face value, without any confirmation, and then refuse to stop spamming you. Would Google block Paypal?

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

citrin_ru 3y ago

It is my experience too - about 50% of spam I see on my personal email are dmarc passing messages from gmail and hotmail.

Alifatisk 3y ago

Well, If you see pattern in the spam mail then you can setup a rule that filters the spam. That’s what I have done on my outlook.