05/07 Update below. This post was originally published on July 2.
While Google has dropped some Chrome bombs in the past few weeks, Gmail users have struggled. And it got much worse.
Gmail’s spam filter is sending potentially dangerous messages directly to users’ inboxes
Picked up by the ever-excellent Android Police, Gmail appears to be experiencing a widespread problem with its email filters that is causing potentially dangerous messages, exploiters and NSFWs to be sent directly to users’ inboxes. Furthermore, while Google has recently recognized Gmail’s issues “affecting a significant subset of users”, it now lists the service as fully operational, when looking at Reddit or Twitter makes it clear that this is far from being the case.
“Why were the gmail spam filters broken?” – source
“Did the spam filter and gmail category feature completely shut down for someone else? Now everything goes directly to the main inbox. “- source
“Are the @ gmail spam filters broken? I’ve had a sudden influx of some crazy #NSFW spam in my inbox! What’s going on #Gmail? – source
“It’s a strangely comforting thing that I can only search for ‘gmail’ and Twitter immediately provides me with evidence that yes, others are being strangely hit by spam right now” – source
04/07 Update: Google responded to my query and recognized the problem, surprisingly noting that the spam flaw was actually part of a larger problem that caused Gmail emails to be delayed, both when they were sent and received. The consequence of this was that “some messages were delayed long enough to lead to delivery without completing all the spam checks.” Most importantly, Google claims that “during this time, the most egregious spam and malware filtering scans and malicious content remained fully operational.” Google says the problem has already been resolved. That said, it’s worth noting that some users continue to report spam issues on Gmail (one,two,3,4 4,5 5,6 6,7 7 etc.) so be cautious, both when opening a new unknown email and when checking old messages that may have come during the main outage.
5/7 update: Although some users continue to report problems with Gmail spam, in the last 24 hours the number of reports seems to have dropped dramatically. Google is clearly having this problem under control, but users should stay alert, both when opening emails sent in the past few days and in case they are an exception, such as this affected user who sent a support message to Gmail today:
“@Google Can you explain why every spam is flooding my main #Gmail inbox? And these sm’s are pretty nasty, seemingly harmful. What am I supposed to do with these?” – source
The quality of modern spam filters means that it is easy to become casual when opening emails from unknown sources. This incident is a good reminder to always keep your wits about you.
For tech experts, a flurry of spam reaching your inbox is something you can navigate. But everyday users could get caught up in some of the more sophisticated malware and exploitation strategies these emails can contain. After all, there is a reason that Gmail (generally) works so hard to keep these messages from your inbox.
I have contacted Google about this and will update the post when I know more.
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