New Gmail Spam & Pop-ups

October 19, 2005 12:11 PM

I've experienced a lot of new spam and back-end pop-ups in the last 5 days or so in my G-mail account. Is anyone else experiencing the same? What can I do to get rid of it?
posted by NorthCoastCafe to computers & internet (13 comments total)

I'm getting a couple of new messages per day in my inbox that the filter isn't picking up. Step one is to report it as spam. Odds on Google will implement a change in their filter to pick them up before long if they notice a lot of people reporting more spam.
posted by nthdegx at 12:14 PM on October 19, 2005

I meant to say that, yes, these new spam comments have emerged in the last few days. About the same time as new comment-spam on a blogspot-hosted blog started turning up too, coincidentally.
posted by nthdegx at 12:26 PM on October 19, 2005

I have three spam emails in my deleted-after-30-days spam folder and have yet to get any in my inbox, but I only use my gmail account for corresponding with people I know and purchases from a few online merchants I trust. My spam-besieged college account serves for all other online transactions.
posted by Derive the Hamiltonian of... at 1:22 PM on October 19, 2005

The other day I started getting 3 times the spam (300 spam emails/day rather than 100.) Gmail account. Thought it was kinda strange.
posted by Count Ziggurat at 1:40 PM on October 19, 2005

Yep, it's picked up for me in the past couple weeks too, but only in one of my Gmail accounts; the other two are spam-free. Weird.
posted by smich at 1:44 PM on October 19, 2005

I've gotten more spam (all filtered correctly) in my G-Mail account recently than in the last few months. I'm guessing spammers are just trying thousands of gmail addresses, since I too don't use this account as a spam trap.
posted by muddgirl at 2:03 PM on October 19, 2005

smich -- is the address with the spam based on your real name (or at least something that could be), while the others are more abstract?

Spammers can target addresses this way, particularly with large webmail services, so it doesn't necessarily follow that we've been careless with address.

To clarify, I had been getting spam previously, but the filter was picking it up. I can't say how much I get because I basically ignore it. What's new is the arrival of a few messages into my inbox.
posted by nthdegx at 2:26 PM on October 19, 2005

smich -- is the address with the spam based on your real name (or at least something that could be), while the others are more abstract?

Yes. I hadn't thought about that because I use the others more frequently for subscribing to lists, etc., so I expected those to get hit with spam more easily. But your suggestion definitely makes sense.
posted by smich at 2:35 PM on October 19, 2005

Same story here--noticeably more spam making it through the filter and into my Gmail inbox. Usually stock spam. I click "report" every time. Hope the filter starts picking it up soon.
posted by statolith at 3:27 PM on October 19, 2005

After reading this thread, I went to look at my Gmail spam folder, where I had never ventured before. There, I found an email from a Russian I had sent a packet to by postal mail, letting me know it had arrived. So in my case, the spam filter was set to tight. Interesting serendipity.
posted by ackptui at 4:31 PM on October 19, 2005

too tight!
posted by ackptui at 4:31 PM on October 19, 2005

What are "back-end pop-ups"?
posted by jjg at 7:11 AM on October 20, 2005

Back end popups are, I think, those that appear only after you leave a page. If you open a link in a new window and then close it, the ad appears over the original page. The Scientific American site is an example.
posted by KRS at 11:33 AM on October 20, 2005