# Gmail Spam - lots of spam **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 6, 2004, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-spam-lots-of-spam/278354 "2004-12-06T13:34:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9dc877/32.png) [@Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightwatch_Trailer)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-spam-lots-of-spam/278354/41 "2004-12-07T20:28:17Z")
> [@fezpp](#): > > Cheap software- check. > Rolexes - check. > Vicodin - check. > > I’m guessing this is a single spammer who has started hitting gmail. I’ve had my address for three months, and I have 20 cumulative spam units: Software (12) Rolex offers (4) Vicodin (4) ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-spam-lots-of-spam/278354/42 "2004-12-07T23:06:28Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > You’re not understanding, I don’t think. Just because the “To: line” says that it’s TO someone whose name is close to yours, does not mean that it is to that person at all, or if it is, that it’s ONLY to that person. I am rather sure that GMail is _not_ redirecting mail with invalid addresses to another address with a close match. I read the raw header, something I’ve been doing since the late 1970s. Nowhere in the header was my actual account name used. _Nowhere_. While the “From:” line and many other parts of headers are trivially forged, if it doesn’t have my actual account name appearing anywhere in it, it can’t be sent to me unless Gmail is doing something evil. _Do you understand this?_ ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-spam-lots-of-spam/278354/43 "2004-12-08T01:01:17Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I read the raw header, something I’ve been doing since the late 1970s. Nowhere in the header was my actual account name used. _Nowhere_. > > While the “From:” line and many other parts of headers are trivially forged, if it doesn’t have my actual account name appearing anywhere in it, it can’t be sent to me unless Gmail is doing something evil. > > _Do you understand this?_ Which is why I offered to test your theory. If you can provide the email address that it WAS sent to, I will send an email to that address. And if you get it, then you have proven your point. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-spam-lots-of-spam/278354/44 "2004-12-08T01:36:33Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Nowhere in the header was my actual account name used. _Nowhere_. > > While the “From:” line and many other parts of headers are trivially forged, if it doesn’t have my actual account name appearing anywhere in it, it can’t be sent to me unless Gmail is doing something evil. Not so at all. If a spammer sent a mass mailing with “[robert.jones@gmail.com](mailto:robert.jones@gmail.com)” in the “TO:” field, and myriad variations of “robert.jones” in the “BCC:” field, such as “[robj@gmail.com](mailto:robj@gmail.com)”, “robert.j@…” “rob.j@…”, “rjones@…” and on and on, and your account happened to be “[bojo23@gmail.com](mailto:bojo23@gmail.com)”, which was one of the scads of algorithmically-arrived-at variants, then indeed the header would simply show “TO: [robert.jones@gmail.com](mailto:robert.jones@gmail.com)”, even though it was delivered to your box. It would arrive this way no matter who your mail server is, and Google is not up to any shenanigans. They’re just delivering mail according to the SMTP protocol, although they’re running spam-catching filters to minimize the amount of annoyance this causes you. ---
**Author:** ![pilot141](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e0b2c6/32.png) [@pilot141](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pilot141)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-spam-lots-of-spam/278354/45 "2004-12-08T06:36:25Z")
Thank you Dopers for confirming that I was not going insane. My GMail account was the ONE account that had gone nowhere other than to a few friends, and then for invites only. This thing had not been entered into anything (other than Google’s servers) public. And yet today I have 21 messages in my spam box. All of them are either Vicoden, Rolex or CHEAP SOFTWARE!!!one!!! The messages are all the same, just with different headers. I’m crossing my fingers hoping that this is just an isolated assault on the GMail accounts… ---
**Author:** ![ihsus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/6a8cbe/32.png) [@ihsus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ihsus)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-spam-lots-of-spam/278354/46 "2004-12-08T06:46:56Z")
I started receiving Vicoden, Rolex , cheap software crap right after giving my address away at [RollingStone.com](http://RollingStone.com) I use my Japanese first name and the first letter of my last name as my address. This spammer, or the spamming software try to make spams look authentic by adding my first name and some random Japanese last name in the subject, but Gmail’s filter is way smarter so far. Spammer 0 - 1 Gmail 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-spam-lots-of-spam/278354/47 "2004-12-08T06:49:09Z")
> [@qwest](#): > > Everything was going great with my Gmail account until about 2 weeks ago when I started to receive tons of spam. There is a spam filter and it does do a good job directing the crap to the spam folder. But I’m getting 6 - 10 per day. I can’t believe you’re considering 6-10 per day to be “tons.” I got more than that on my old netcom account in 1998, when spam was still fairly new. I do a lot of consulting work, and rely heavily on email. My current primary email address has been the same since 1997. I’m getting over 200 spams (and viruses) there per day. I set up a new domain for work three years ago, and my account there is getting more than that. This is a situation that desperately needs to be fixed. I’m losing business because of misfiltered emails, and still spending hours each week sorting through all of this crap. Spam isn’t just an inconvenience. It costs real money. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-spam-lots-of-spam/278354/48 "2004-12-08T07:23:14Z")
Another nice gmail antispam measure is the default non-displaying of remote images, which are typically used by spammers to determine which of their messages are actually being opened, resulting in more spam for the unwary. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-spam-lots-of-spam/278354/49 "2004-12-08T09:30:08Z")
I totally agree with **Larry Mudd** ’s explanation, **ftg**. It’s nothing to do with Gmail. For example, my hotmail account is jjimm@, and I constantly get stuff BCCed to me there, with no instance of my email address in the header, but with the TO: line addressed to stuff like jimmmmmmy, jimy, jjjjjim, jimm, etc. etc. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-spam-lots-of-spam/278354/50 "2004-12-08T15:39:01Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I read the raw header, something I’ve been doing since the late 1970s. Nowhere in the header was my actual account name used. _Nowhere_. > > While the “From:” line and many other parts of headers are trivially forged, if it doesn’t have my actual account name appearing anywhere in it, it can’t be sent to me unless Gmail is doing something evil. > > _Do you understand this?_ The one field that is not usually forgable is the Received: header. Do you see that field when you look at the headers? All other fields of the message (To, From, CC) can contain complete garbage. The last line of the Received header is the only field which can be trusted since it is set by your mail server when it received the message. All other fields can be forged. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-spam-lots-of-spam/278354/51 "2004-12-15T13:57:15Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > Curious now - of the people receiving spam in their Gmail boxes - what kind of Spam is it? In my Gmail box (again, not my main e-mail), it comes from what seems lke randomly-generated Anglo/corporate-sounding names of people that sound like they “work down in accounting”; “Kerri Dolan” , “Sharon Winslow”, “Marci Pratt”, “Darrin Snell” and the like. It all has titles like **_something similar to my username_ Popular software at low low prices** and **_something similar to my username_ Extinguish pain with codeine**. About 50% is for discount software, 40% drugs, 10% other things like mortgage refinancing and replica watches. ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-spam-lots-of-spam/278354/52 "2004-12-15T14:33:29Z")
As long as the spam goes to the spam box and not the inbox, I don’t worry about it. If it shows up in the inbox, [report it](http://gmail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6602&topic=40). ---
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-spam-lots-of-spam/278354/53 "2004-12-15T14:46:42Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > In my Gmail box (again, not my main e-mail), it comes from what seems lke randomly-generated Anglo/corporate-sounding names of people that sound like they “work down in accounting”; “Kerri Dolan” , “Sharon Winslow”, “Marci Pratt”, “Darrin Snell” and the like. > > It all has titles like **_something similar to my username_ Popular software at low low prices** and **_something similar to my username_ Extinguish pain with codeine**. About 50% is for discount software, 40% drugs, 10% other things like mortgage refinancing and replica watches. I’ve been getting the exact same thing on my gmail account as well. It’s kind of weird , but since it goes straight to the spam box, it doesn’t bother me all that much. It’s still better than the spam I get on my hotmail account which is devolving into a combination of symbols which I suspect are trying to sell me viagra or cialis. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-spam-lots-of-spam/278354/54 "2004-12-15T17:26:41Z")
I’m thinking I could use some of this valuable spam. If anyone has a spare gmail invite, I’d greatly appreciate it if you could send it my way. ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2004, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-spam-lots-of-spam/278354/55 "2004-12-15T17:48:23Z")
**filmore** , check your email. In addition to the Rolex, software, and prescription drugs spam everyone mentioned, I’ve also received a couple of phishing attempts. And for people who are receiving emails sent to the “wrong” address, Google doesn’t recognize periods (.) in the username when parsing addresses. From their help page (I don’t think links work unless you’re logged in): > [@](#): > > Gmail doesn’t recognize dots (.) as characters within a username. This way, you can add and remove dots to your username for desired address variations. For example, messages sent to [GoogleAmy@gmail.com](mailto:GoogleAmy@gmail.com) and [Google.Amy@gmail.com](mailto:Google.Amy@gmail.com) are delivered to the same inbox. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-spam-lots-of-spam/278354.md?page=2)