Ever since Gmail launched, I’ve been tempted to sign up for an account. I keep getting more and more invitations from both friends and subscribers but I already have so many email addresses as it is. I don’t really need another one.
A few months back though, I noticed that I was getting more and more spam emails through one of my email accounts. And then another.
All this while, I’ve been using SpamArrest for my main email address. A person would need to click on a link and pass a Captcha test before their emails are passed on to me. And for customer support, I’ve been using a web based helpdesk.
That worked pretty well until one day, a bunch of spammers realized how they can send me spam through my helpdesk. I was getting at least 10 spam messages a day. I managed to stop that too by blocking public access to my helpdesk.
But then, a few days later, my email started to pick up more spam as well. I’m not sure how it happened but the spam just kept getting more and more … A friend of mine suggested that I use Gmail because their spam protection is the best in their class. I was tempted but I can’t just drop all my email addresses and make a switch. That’s when I discovered that I don’t have to drop all my email addresses.
In fact, all I had to do was to set up my Gmail account to download messages from my other email addresses. Gmail will automatically run them through a spam filter and whatever is left are your legit emails. You can then also set up as many “send mail as” accounts within Gmail, so you can reply to the emails using whichever email address you like.
It’s been a month or so since I’ve set this up and it’s unbelievable. I don’t get anymore spam emails. Okay, okay. Maybe one or two have slipped pass the mighty Gmail spam buster. But hey, I’m not complaining 
WordPress Trackback Spam!!!
I have installed plugins that prevent comment spams, but this won't prevent trackback to be blocked. I've been spam by many
MFA websites that most probably is from the same network with trackback, but they are not linking me on their website. May I
know how do they do it and how do I stop it? Without disabling trackback?
Thanks, and I'm using WordPress.
I am a proud Gmail user. Never worrying about email size, incredibly fast reply (powered by AJAX, a technology often used by Google), Web Clips,
automatic forwarding, one button – click search, advanced filters, labels and not folders, message preview, automatic refresh, auto-save messages,as-good-as-yahoomail spam filters, not one executable to be sent or received, feeling of having a different technology? A definite recommendation for
anyone that reads more than one email per day.
Have you tried Gmail? If yes, what's your taste on it? Why do you love it/hate it?
This is an email complaint I sent to Gmail in June of 2006:
I got a Gmail account about a year ago and never used it, never gave the address to anyone. I decided to start using it again, went into my inbox today for the first time in a year or more and saw 60+ spam emails! Most of them were already in the Gmail Spam folder so I just deleted them all. But still! I find this shocking. I have two Yahoo email addresses – that I HAVE given out to numerous people and websites – and I hardly ever get spam at those addresses! I check those accounts maybe once a month and there will only be 1 or 2 spams in there at most. How could I possibly have more than 60 spam emails in my Gmail box when I've never given this address to anyone? If you figure that over a year, that's an average of maybe 6 spams every month. That's triple what I get at Yahoo with two accounts that are widely used. Are you blocking any spam at all? If so, you're letting WAY too much crap through.
***
I sent this email a minute later, that same day:
This is an addendum to a message sent just a minute ago. WOW – I just went in to my Gmail spam folder and saw your statement that 30-day old emails sitting in the spam folder are automatically deleted. So the 60 emails I saw in my spam folder this evening were just from ONE MONTH??? That's nearly 60 times as much spam as I get at my widely-used Yahoo addresses! I would like to start using Gmail more, but I have some serious doubts now.
***
My posting today (Jan 10, 2007):
I checked my Gmail account for the first time in 6 months and found about 10 spams in my inbox and 213 (!!!) in my spam folder. If the automatic monthly purging of the spam folder is still intact at Gmail, then this means those 200+ spams came in just this month!!
Three of the emails in my inbox were phishing schemes, exploiting PayPal – I know they are phishing because PayPal does not have my Gmail email address. Know how many messages were in my inbox sent by someone I know? ZERO, because to date, I have STILL never given out my Gmail address to anyone.
This is inexcusable. I get almost no spam at my Yahoo addresses. The only thing I get outside of personal emails at Yahoo are marketing emails from companies where I already make online purchases on a regular basis using those addresses. No emails from strange companies I’ve never purchased anything from. No porn, no Viagra emails. Yet plenty of these in Gmail!
So until Gmail does a better job of filtering spam, I will continue to use my Yahoo email addresses.
Some people seem to have the opposite experience from me. Some people say they get lots of spam at Yahoo and very little at Gmail. It’s very bizarre.
Hi LM,
That's weird and I happen to be one of those who have the opposite experience from you. I've been getting lots of spam at my Yahoo email and actually use Gmail to filter my Yahoo before I download it to my PC. Let us know if you resolve this.
I downloaded the Free trial of Cloudmark, yet I still receive SPAM – Why?
I downloaded the free trial of SPAM blocking, yet I still receive SPAM – WHY?
I dont know why people cant see what is going on here!!!!
this is too funny because I dont know why gmail didnt tink this would make people mad.
When I first got gmail I created 3 accounts. One I used…while the others I ddnt even touch after I created the account. I noticed I was getting a bunch of junk mails…and I know I didnt sign up for anything using those accounts. So just for fun I check those other email addys I created, but again..never touched. Both accounts had tons of Spam emails!!!!!
If you cant understand what I am sayig here…People…you are not doing anything wrong. It is gmail that is doing this!!!! Really!!!
Think I am joking??? try it yourself. create a new account and wait 2 weeks (not a couple days)….you will see. Gmail is just laughing at us all….laughing even harder when we hear all this news about how good the spam feature is.
Now I wouldnt complain, but the fact is that…we all know there are sometimes some email you want to keep gets sent to the junk mail/spam folder….and it is a pain to have to keep checking it every now and then.
Gmail would have been a outstanding service, but I guess it all goes back to the old saying "Dont expect anything for free"…or "you get what you pay for".
Shame on gmail!
Hi Bina,
I use a somewhat similar method to stop spam to my normal accounts.
What I did was change all my pop-mail accounts to forward (I own and control my own domains) to a Gmail account I setup. Then I setup a primary pop account, which I then made Gmail forward everything to this account after its sniffed through the spam. And now I only have one pop3 account to check (which that in itself has to go through my Windows based SpamEater Pro).
This reduced my spam from 100s daily to about 5 or 6.
I know this thread is pretty old, but I wanted to add a small bit of information to those who are curious about the spam they are receiving.
What spammers do is hit random names for each of the services. It's the reason why an account that is never used may received spam.
Consider this, if you've ever managed your own domain and you don't have the blackhole set up, check your catch-all e-mail address and you'll see tons of messages addressed to accounts you've never set up.
Spammers just send e-mail to random collections of words in the hopes that the e-mail address does exist. If it does, then it gets delivered.
All this considered, I believe Gmail does an incredible job filtering the spam. Sure, some slips through, but no system is perfect. Plus, it's free.
~ Teli
you are ALL wrong.
Gmail does have one of the greatest spam filters in existence, yet, it is proven that other forms of spam which slip through are not only obtained by giving out your email.
It is proven that simply your email “name” itself can lure in more spam. The study conducted show which letters are least likely to receive spam. I believe the letter “P” was one of the highest to be hit by spam.
It’s not gmail, it’s not companies, it’s the pure coincidence that a spammers is more likely to subconciously spam your email over uter_schnider@gmail.com…
Wonderful ! very good info. keep it up.
Pity Google won't stop a gmail account holder from spamming many Google Groups, even those this person has been reported to abuse@google.com many times over many weeks.
Maybe they are getting money from the person to spam?