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General discussion

Is GMail the worst email provider ever created?

Mar 19, 2005 12:56AM PST

Or am I just the unluckiest new GMail user out there? I've been a member for a few weeks now and it seems like a spoofer's paradise. I'm now getting approximately 10-12 alerts in my inbox EVERY DAY about undeliverable emails that were apparently 'sent' from my account. For a while I was dutifully forwarding the full message headers to GMail tech support but now I can't keep up. I know I never compromised my password in any way so why is this happening? What's the solution besides cancelling my GMail account and going back to one of the many email providers I've never had a problem with, like msn, hotmail, yahoo, etc.?

Discussion is locked

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Server Overload
Apr 1, 2005 3:26PM PST

Its funny you mention server overload. I was researching some stuff on the net on thursday March 31 at around 10:30am pacific standard time and I'd thought id run a google search. The website wouldn't come up. At first I thought my dsl was acting up but all other websites came up fine. Even scheduled a few payments on my bank account. Google was down for a good hour or two. Maybe they were working on their servers since they've just increased email accounts to 2 gigs. Maybe not. Anyways, no problems with my gmail account. Love their filter feature.

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No, its the best ever!
Apr 1, 2005 1:18AM PST

Gmail is what all email providers should copy!
I love the server side features.. I rarely have to do anything manually. I haven't had any spoofing attacks.
I very very rarely have even gotten spam to my inbox.

I say, open a new account!

take it easy

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gmail has been spam free for me for > half an year
Apr 1, 2005 2:21AM PST

You don't need a compromised account to be spoofed. If you use that email address in public forum, you CAN become victim of fake spamer's spoof'ed source. I once posted my resume in one of those online job search site and voila! instant spamer attraction!

So be careful when you use your email address in public
online sites. Never give out your email to an unknown site or an unfamiliar site. If you must, use a dedicated "spam collector" public email account for that.

Fornow, your best bet is invite yourself another gmail account, then delete the old one. Be careful from there on.

Jess

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Is GMail the Worst eMail Provider Ever Created
Apr 1, 2005 3:57AM PST

Not nearly as bad as Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, MSN, Hotmail, or Netscape. As a computer technician with a computer repair business covering three counties as well as Northern Mexico, I strongly believe that gMail is one of the best email programs for use as a backup. It handles SPam very well, and gives you ways to deal with other issues. We like it a lot in our business. All our technicians use it. We find no difference in Spoofing from most or our regular ISP's... and is certainly better for Spoofing than AOL, MSN, Hotmail, and several others.

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Gmail Response
Apr 1, 2005 4:20AM PST

I'm delighted with Gmail. Once you get use to it, you'll find it great. Gmail. I've had no difficulties with Gmail at all. Been using it for several months

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gmail
Apr 1, 2005 12:27PM PST

so far, i like it very much . in fact, i have recommended it to many of my families and friends. their feedbacks were all positive!

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no problems with gmail
Apr 1, 2005 12:27PM PST

gmail is by far the fastest and biggest email inbox i have ever had. i don't have problems with it. maybe your account is being hacked, or the invitation u have is already taken, etc.
maybe a change of password can help?

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Unlucky GMailer- Contacts List Complaint
Apr 1, 2005 7:22PM PST

I know 4 GMailers including myself and so far no problems with spoofing. The big gripe I have is the inability to be able to group our contacts. I frequently send e-mails/files to about 13 contacts and have to individually check off each contact and hope I don't forget anyone. I'm assuming Google will address this shortly. If you have 30 or more contacts in your GMail it becomes a major annoyance. DTV

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Group Contacts in Gmail
Apr 2, 2005 1:45AM PST

1- Create text file of addresses needed in group
(each followed by comma, space)
2 -Copy to "Compose Message" message form
3- Use group name in subject box
4- Send this to yourself at the Gmail address you plan to use for this Contact Group.
5- Create a label 'Contact Groups' or some such.

Now when you want to send a message to a specific group of people, go to that label> open that message> choose 'select all'> copy> paste it into your address box. If you press the Shift Key while hitting
"Compose Message" it will open in a new window and you can copy/paste segments into Cc and Bcc also.

You can use the whole thing in the BBC and use your "spam account" for the TO line.

HTH ... {';'}

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gmail and spoofing
Apr 1, 2005 9:01PM PST

I've been using gmail since it went to public Beta. No more problems with it than any other mail (for various reasons I use 9 - paid and free but mostly as testing).

Every once in a while someone gets a virus, a worm or spyware on their computer AND one of my addresses just happens to be in their address book. AND that particular malware randomly uses my address as the spoof sender for its evil deeds. This has happened to me 3 times. Not on gmail but on verizon.net, on onebox and on hotmail.

There is nothing you can do. You will get all kinds of bounceback from everywhere because many people use various software programs to sort out junk, or their ISP's do or they have addresses that are send only etc. It usually goes on for about 3 to 6 months. I usually leave that account open but shift my main use to one of my others. Then I go there on a regular basis and simply use the delete key with ferocity.

Nobody has your password - this is just one of the random nuisances we are plagued with. And by the way none of the filters on any of the emails is perfect. Some are better than others but you do need to check your junk or bulk mail at least once a week because once in a while something you want is there.

Gmail's filters seem a bit more random than some others. But they are steadily improving.

I really recommend to everyone that you have at least 3 email accounts with different providers. Use one for friends and family, one for shopping and one for anything else. It won't stop spoofing from happening but it makes email more orderly.

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RE: Is GMail the worst email provider ever created?
Apr 2, 2005 12:36AM PST

I enjoyed a GMail account for several months now, and have never had this problem. The same applies to family and friends and their accounts. It sounds like just a bit of bad luck on the part of this user.

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Canecling Gmail Account
Apr 2, 2005 12:40AM PST

Make sure that you send yourself another invite to try to set up a new account. (If you want to) It's just like starting over. I have a seperate email account just for filtering out garbage for situations like this. If you can thru your regular ISP make yourself a new account. Then start out using that one on your new google account. It's a good way to start filtering and testing to see how well things go. Afterwards you can either change your forward email address or just sign up seperately for things you may want forwarded to that account. (which may or may not be safer. I think it is safer by re-signing up reather that bringing something in from a seperate account other than a few single items.) It worked for me.

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Gmail spoofing
Apr 2, 2005 1:18AM PST

I have had my gmail for three months now, and have never had a seconds trouble with it. I have not had so much as one piece of spam or junkmail get in, even with no firewall. My isp email account has way more junk than Gmail.
Gmail rocks in my books

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Email Junk
Apr 3, 2005 12:34AM PST

I think the only way you will not get junk of any kind is if you disconnect from the internet. A friend got a new computer and a new email address and hadn't given it out to anyone even his own kids. And within 2 weeks he was recieving spam. He called his phone company and they told him that it was not from them.
My suggestions are to do what you can with anti virus, spyware clean up programs, pop up blockers and fire walls. Then know that your bank, will NOT email you with any important information, not only your bank but no good company will ever email you and ask you stupid things like to put your login and password in a REPLY to them. If an email header looks funny,odd, or just sets something off in your head delete it. If you are using Outlook Express close the Preview Pane.
I have fun with my computer and am not about to stop using OE so I am very careful what I do.
And now, if it is a FREE download remember that free might mean that you get some extras with it that you don't want....check it out good before downloading and that goes for Bars,Desktop cutsie things. Read their privacy and security policies. You might find that you can live nicely without that Bar thingy...lol

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I havn't got any problem
Apr 3, 2005 12:42PM PDT

I think it suffer the same problem as hotmail, where countless spam come form non-existence hotmail account, now people use non-existence gmail username, you happen to sign up a username that spammer use.

Use a different username, and you should be alright.

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GMAIL
Apr 3, 2005 5:46PM PDT

I love it - have not had one piece of spam and have sent and received hundreds and hundreds of email

perhaps you should just apply under a new name and clear out your cookies

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exactly
Apr 4, 2005 12:05PM PDT

exactly.Wink

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Gmail
Apr 3, 2005 9:46PM PDT

I have not had these problems. Only had trouble logging in one time. You must have slipped up somewhere.

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It's Not Your Email provider
Apr 4, 2005 12:12AM PDT

From What I understand about what you have happening is you are receiveing Mailer Daemon messages in your inbox. It would seem pretty obvious that whatever user id/email address you chose happens to be someone elses "fake" email that they use for filling out site information. The easiest thing to do would be to change your Gmail account to something else. I have at least 6 different email addresses and haven't run across what you are going through, but I would think it would only be a matter of time before someone trying to use a fake email to fill out forms and the like, to stumble across someone else's legitimate email address.

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gmail
Apr 5, 2005 12:33PM PDT

you must have a virus on your computer or they would have stopped by now. happened to me with comcast. had to fdisk to get rid of it. good luck
otherwise, gmail has been good to me! i like it a lot.

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Umm... gmail might not be at fault
Apr 6, 2005 12:35PM PDT

hey... umm... i think the problems lies either with your computer or someone else just knows your email address (could even be just friends). It's easy to send a mail to anyone around the world with any (i mean ANY) email address in the world without sending the 'from' information of the sender, but of another person... or... it could be a virus... but then to see if anyone else's is sending messages using your address, check the message headers... there you can find the IP address it has been sent from... you can check with the gmail customer service if the IP address belongs to them.

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Shut your trap
Apr 7, 2005 10:39PM PDT

GMail RuleZ! Its the most amazing e-service. Not just mail you can do a lot with it. Go and kiss microsoft, if you dont want gmail. Best of Luck.

Once again, Gmail Rocks

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Could be a case of stolen identity -- of the minor kind.
Jun 30, 2005 11:00PM PDT

It is possible someone has somehow discovered your email address exists and is using it as a spoof return-address for his spam.

Email has to have a receiving-email-address, a sending-email-address, and a return-to-email-address in order for the internet servers to deliver it to the intended receiver (or victim). The return eMail does not neccessarily have to be real, but it helps -- as it will take eMail servers longer to realize the email is just spam.

It appears someone has discovered your email address is real and is using it as their phony return address, to send out spam. The person probably has a program running on their computer, randomly picking likely words and name combos and sending their spam out to this randomly generated email address. Some email gets to the intended address. Most of the addresses are not valid, so they are returned to the reply email address that he programmed is computer to use (yours)

So, in a sense your identity (your email address) has been stolen. Fortunately it is a minor breach and you can easily change to a new email address, by inviting yourself again. Pick a new email address, which you sign in. In fact you might as well invite yourself 3 or 4 times. After you accept the invites, close the original email account.

When your email address is cancelled on the gMail servers, Google's severs will notify the other mail servers on the Internet, and those other eMail servers will start treating his/her email as spam. Your identity thief will eventually find out his email aren't going anywhere and will look for another used username.

Whoever it is, they must make a lot of money doing this. They have to have a spam program running on a server out there. They often either rent or own the entire server, to avoid detection.

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email address change
Jan 4, 2007 10:58PM PST

new email address

3.caryl@gmail.com

Caryl LeFever