Sudden flood of spam

PoloNut · 23 Dec 2023

Morning all.
I have a query re gmail.
My address is as follows Name/dot/name@gmail.com
The flood of spam massages are sent to namename@gmail.com - so despite the inaccuracy, these messages are getting through.
If you have any comments/help, this would be most appreciated.
I dont want to change my address if at all possible.
Normally any sensibility changes result in an undeliverable result when actually sending messages out - I thought the same applied to incoming mail.
C
Thanks in advance for your help
22H ( OS Build 19045.3803)

dalchina · 23 Dec 2023

1. gmail has a SPAM box. However there seem to be few options to control how mail is designated as SPAM.

If the sender is consistent- but often they are not, and keep changing
How do I stop spam emails in Gmail?
Block email from unwanted senders

On your computer, go to Gmail.
Open the message.
In the top right, click More .
Click Block [sender].
Block someone's emails - Computer - Gmail Help

2. You can report SPAM
Report spam in Gmail - Computer - Gmail Help

There are more options if you search e.g.

3. As I choose to use an email client (program on my PC) I can associate a spam filter with that which gives me more control.

4. Some platforms offer more options - e.g. I had a flood of 'financial' rubbish mail from a wide range of addresses, US based, to a zoho.com email address.

There I could block and reject (return) the mail, mark it as spam, and also contact support and point to the mail getting thru their spam filter.

Gmail may not be so friendly.

kelper · 23 Dec 2023

Perhaps the sender has cc'd you? If they are in your inbox, do mark them as spam. Gmail my figure out if all these spams come from the same server and block it automatically.

mngerhold · 23 Dec 2023

PoloNut said:

My address is as follows Name/dot/name@gmail.com
The flood of spam massages are sent to namename@gmail.com - so despite the inaccuracy, these messages are getting through.

Gmail ignores periods & + signs in addresses - see Official Gmail Blog: 2 hidden ways to get more from your Gmail address
If the emails are not being marked as spam by Gmail, ie going to the spam folder, then you can mark them and Gmail should remember. No spam ever seems to make it to me past Gmail's filters.

Helmut · 23 Dec 2023

Select the Spam Emails then click on the Toolbar above > Spam.
This will mark those messages as spam and train the Gmail spam filters. May take time but it does work.

That Toolbar only appears when selecting Emails.

Spam often comes from faked randomised Email addresses so blocking won't generally work.

The dot in your name is not significant with Gmail.

kelper · 23 Dec 2023

Gmail does not ignore all + signs! You can make a throwaway address by adding +xxxx in front of the gmail.com part of your email address. It will go straight to your normal gmail address. Later you can block or filter it if you don't need it anymore. SO, instead of abc@gmail.com, you would use abc+something@gmail.com.

MisterEd · 23 Dec 2023

You also need to check every email you get by holding the cursor over sender to make sure who it is from. If you don't recognize the sender or it looks suspect then either send them to spam or delete them. In any case don't open them.

BTW, I found it a big mistake to even open a spam email. Doing so seems to trigger an automatic response. The result of doing this at least for me is even more spam emails. Eventually if you don't open any spam emails the number should decrease. Unfortunately, it will never be zero so you have to be diligent or you will trigger a new flood of spams.

quandary · 23 Dec 2023

Many service providers allow the name+ something feature but it is simple for a spammer to detect that and just strip it off.

An alternative approach:
1. Signup for DuckDuckGo email protection. This will give you a primary email, eg, somename@duck.go
2. Whenever you register for a new account or service that requires an email address you then generate a unique @duck.com email that is linked to your primary.

I have been successfully using the above for a couple of years. The benefits are:
1. You primary email is hidden
2. DuckDuckGo removes hidden trackers from incoming email
3. If you start getting spam to any of those address you can trace where it got compromised. Then you can change the email on that account and delete that unique email from DuckDuckGo.

This will not help if your gmail is already out in the wild, but if the spam is bad enough you might want to migrate to a new email account and use the above.