Ask HN: My Gmail is under DDoS attack, all my emails delayed, what can I do?

[golden_abc]

The issue:

I am receiving 20 millions emails every day. All of them goes to my Spam, but there are too many of them, my normal emails get delayed.

Why this happen:

Some one sign-up newsletters using my email address, the newsletter didn't send verify link to email to let you confirm, they just start to send emails to you.

What's worse, gmail support alias: 1) the dot in gmail get ignored 2) the + and what comes after + get ignored. For e.g. if your email address is example@gmai.com, then e.x.a.m.p.le@gmail.com, or exmaple+a@gmail.com, example+b@gamill.com goes to same address.

That's the worst part: the attack register thousands of alias to newsletter, for those newsletter, they don't know this alias thing, they think they have got thousands of subscribers (Huh, they didn't even send you verify link, what did I expect?) So whenever they send out one email, I received tens of thousands of them.

Top3 newsletters spamers:

1. email@email.deadline.com

2. email@email.variety.com

3. email@email.billboard.com

My issue is not receiving spam emails, Gmail filter all of them to spam folder, good job Gamil!

My issue is, seems that Gmail has sort of rate limiting, Gmail keep sending me those spams, but all of my normal emails delayed for ~48hours, some are delayed for 3 days.

(It's not my filter issue, my normal email didn't go to spam or trash, it showed up on my inbox correctly, but delayed 48hours to 3 days)

Blocking is not an option. Gmail actually doesn't have such feature to let you block some senders, the "block" button in Gmail is just send those emails to Trash folder when receive them, which didn't help in my case, the email still goes to my account, and there are too many of them.

What I have tried

Call Google

It's nice to talk to a real person! One point for Google.

But the hotline didn't solve my email delay issue, we talked one hour. Follow her instruction I have tried:

- Incognito mode - Switch to another browser - Switch to app - Switch to another device - Test by sending email to myself - Disable all of my Chrome Extensions - ...

After one hour, I tell her there is thing called Message Header [1] which can let you analysis the time sequence of an email, and it showed clearly that it's Gmail server delay to deliver the email to my account, not my client side issue. She confirmed it with higher tier of support, then tell me there is a issue with Gmail server, and suppose to be resolved in 24 hours, and she let me keep updating her the issue by reply the email she sent me.

But it's been a week. The issue is still there, and when I reply the email, seems it's a different person reply me each time, and he/she didn't have the context, cause he/she let me try to check the spam folder, trash, all emails (which is not the issue)

What can I do?

If we sign-up someone's address on those bad newsletters, we can delay one's email, that easy? I am shocked that the email system (even Gmail) is so vulnerable.

[1] Email message header analysis: https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/messageheader/

[davidgomes]

I was a target of the exact same attack this week. I assume it's basically a bug in Gmail's spam filter.

Blocking/reporting spam/unsubscribing didn't work. Here's what worked for me: create a filter to delete any emails from those 3 addresses.

[golden_abc → davidgomes]

> create a filter to delete any emails from those 3 addresses.

I am doing the same, but it takes a lot of my google drive storage space, you still need to manually click delete forever from Trash, right? And this attack delay your normal emails?

And is there any suspicious site you have published you email address? I wonder what's the attacker's target.

[ggm]

Are you e.g. paying for Google one? I only ask because when I became a real customer I found the process a bit more solid than freemium.

You would hope your address book and some smarts could make a user specific greylist time delay on the spam, but I can also believe their email engine at scale struggles to apply this meaningfully.

[golden_abc → ggm]

Hi Yes, I paid, but seems it didn't help on this case.

And cause there are too many of the spams, they are filling up my Google Drive space quickly... I might consider to pay for a high tier...

[ggm → golden_abc]

Are you able to make a filter to automatically delete the mails? The Web interface in a desktop browser view has "filter messages like these" and you can select delete. That should stop your storage total being consumed.

[manfre]

If most of the newsletters are coming from the same sources, contact them instead of Google. If you email their abuse@, use a different email address so you can communicate without the risk of delay or filters.

Mass emailers are more motivated than Google with resolving this type of issue.

[golden_abc → manfre]

Thanks! I am going to try this.

But I am worried that, in this way I need to contact the sender every time one sign-up my email to newsletter. I was hoping from Google side they can solve this issue once for all. (Spams waste resources of Gmail as well)

[gregjor]

You can change your email address.

You can try unsubscribing. Search for bulk unsubscribe tools.

20 million spam emails a day seems like an exaggeration. I get 10-20 a day to my GMail account, which I've had since the service started, and published online in multiple places.

[golden_abc → gregjor]

Thanks for advice.

Changing email is my last option.

It's hard to change my address everywhere. What's worse, some website may send you a verify link to your old address before confirming a new address, and you need to click the link in, like 10min ~ 1hour. But I only get the confirm email days latter.

[beardyw]

It may not help, but in "filters" you can identify formats which contain dots for instance and delete them.

[golden_abc → beardyw]

yes, I am already using this way to filter them to trash. But I need to manually click "delete forever" from Trash everyday, otherwise they gone fill up my storage.

[aekotra]

I don't get it. Can't you just block the senders?

[golden_abc → aekotra]

Hi, sorry I didn't make this clear.

Blocking is not an option. Gmail actually doesn't have such feature to let you block some senders, the "block" button in Gmail is just send those emails to Trash folder when receive them, which didn't help in my case, the email still goes to my account, and there are too many of them.

(have updated the original post)

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/8151?hl=en&sjid=17255...