Google suspend email accounts that get lots of spam reports. It happens a couple of times a year for salespeople in my company who use Gmass (a bulk email sending tool).

I mention it only as a useful data point, and in the absence of anyone else on the thread mentioning that Google have robust email abuse monitoring.

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smolder 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I wouldn't say that's robust email monitoring at all. It's embarassingly bad. Gmass shouldn't exist and your salespeople should be out of a job.

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noobermin 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I hope you realise, it does sound like you are suggesting that salespeople in your company are essentially spammers.

	▲	miroljub 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Most of the salespeople in any company are spammers.

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rwmj 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I guess you can only report spam through the gmail web interface which the FSF aren't using (because they're not using gmail, for obvious ideological reasons).

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cpncrunch 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

So, just to clarify, the salespeople are spamming cold addresses, or are they opted in or existing customers?

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bdavbdav 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Was going to say there’s a good reason lots of people use services like mailchimp now. You’re not sensibly managing it yourself with the current (very sensible) regulations in the US / EU, nor do you want to be sending from your own domain en masse.

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cpncrunch 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Mailchimp and other legitimate services (other than salesforce, which is best just blocked) don't permit spam, whereas gmail and outlook don't give a fuck unless the spammer gets a large amount of abuse reports.

Certainly mailchimp and the like make things simpler, but the price can be quite high.

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jstanley 3 hours ago | parent [-]

This seems to be a laughable claim? I don't get anything but spam from Mailchimp.

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rjmunro 43 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I don't think your definition of spam matches the one that I understand it to mean. Spam is random email from someone you have not had contact with before firing messages to every address they can find anywhere on the web, the dark web, etc. Or if you ask not to be added to a mailing list and are added anyway. They often use fraudulent tricks to try to get the email through filters, such as fake from addresses.

Spam is not email from legitimate companies with valid contact details that have an opt out that you forgot to click when you signed up with them. That's legitimate marketing emails. You might argue they also shouldn't exist, but they are a different category.

I get plenty of the second from mailchimp (it's what they do), almost none of the first. Marking the second kind as spam, rather than clicking the unsubscribe link is dangerous because it teaches your anti-spam filter to reject messages from legitimate companies. You might find that if they need to contact you for a genuine reason e.g. a reciept for a future transaction, the message is blocked.

	▲	fhars 14 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> an opt out that you forgot to click when you signed up with them This is the textbook legal definition of spam in any sensible jurisdiction, though.

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cpncrunch 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

No, it's valid for me, and I just verified. In spam filter for past month: 0 mailchimp. In valid emails: 6 emails from a service that I signed up for via mailchimp.

Checking my received emails for mailchimp I see a whole bunch of legitimate emails, including for flightschedulepro which uses it. I also see replies to my abuse reports to mailchimp saying the problems have been addressed.

Do you report any of these spams to mailchimp?

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TeMPOraL 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Indeed, Mailchimp is a tool specifically built and advertised to send spam.

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smallerize 38 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Mailchimp is for sending emails that people signed up to receive. If enough recipients click "unsubscribe", the whole email campaign gets suspended.

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cpncrunch 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Where does it say on their website that it is specifically for sending spam?

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tuetuopay 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Someone’s marketing emails are someone else’s spam.

Mailchimp is specifically made for mass email emission, for marketing a newsletter and whatnot. So yeah, a lot of people will consider them spammers.

	▲	rjmunro 38 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I think thats a really wrong definition of spam. Spam is untargeted junk from people you don't know, who are probably hiding there real identity using fake email headers etc. If it's a legit company with legit unsubscribe options, it's not spam. It worries me a lot that people clicking "mark as spam" on messages from legit companies because they subscribed to the newsletter will mean that my messages with important information (order confirmations, e-tickets etc.) will get blocked.
	▲	cpncrunch 39 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Spam is defined as unsolicited bulk email. Marketing is only spam when it isn't previous customers, or people who have specifically opted in.

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p4bl0 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Google have robust email abuse monitoring

But only in Gmail then? Where is it possible to report a spam from a Gmail address received on a non-Gmail inbox?

Google is being a real PITA as the receiving side for people who try to self-host their mail or who use small providers. They should at least be good citizen on the sending side, which it seems they're not. They are killing email.

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weird-eye-issue 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Spam reporting is pretty standardized? If your email client doesn't support it that's not Google's fault.

edit: I might be incorrect on this and was thinking about how unsubscribing is standardized instead.

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holowoodman 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Standardized how?

Basically, there is no standard beyond the ages-old requirement to have abuse@ and postmaster@ email addresses that react to such reports. Which Google doesn't follow at all, you just get redirected to some useless web form which requires a Google account and the sacrifice of a goat.

It is entirely Google's fault, and they should be shunned for it and their emails dropped. But unfortunately, they are too big for that by far...

	▲	n3storm 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Maybe is thing about Gmail about "This message is spam", that is a Gmail feature not anything standard. Same as Gmail broke IMAP standard, or Gtalk XMPP standard. Google can do whatever they please, they've become the standard of humanity surveillance.

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jamespo 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Marking a mail as spam locally is different from spam reporting

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Fokamul 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I think in this case and all the others.

They're not sending emails directly from their gmail address.

But they are adding victim emails to other Google services and then Google themselves send them invitations emails.

And if you name your service like "Google helpdesk - password reset" or something like that.

Invitation email from Google will look very official, but URL in the email will be controlled by the attacker.

It's pretty old working technique used for phishing for years now.

Spam report does nothing, since you're reporting official Google email.