Big Problems at Google - Cancelled Accounts - Page 2

David MacQuigg · 27 Dec 2007, 02:26 AM

Looks like the problems with mistakenly disabled accounts may have been resolved, at least temporarily. I see no further posts in 24 hours on either of the two big "disabled" threads in GMail's help forum.

Here are a couple more suggestions for Google:

5) Do not shut down accounts that did not send spam. You can avoid false reports against an account by adding an authentication code to each outgoing message. If the spam report does not include a correct code, ignore it.

6) Provide more timely and more complete information to folks whose accounts were mistakenly shut down. The public forum is excellent, and far more honest than similar vendor forums where critical messages have been silently deleted. It could be improved, however, by posting some specifics about what happened, how many accounts were involved, and how the situation was resolved. The "GMail Updates and Alerts" section would be the best place for this information.

And a modification of my first suggestion, removing concerns that the service is not really "free" if they ask for $1.00.:

1) Ask for a $1.00 deposit with new accounts. This should be paid by credit card or at least a Paypal account, and refunded to a valid bank account number. Spammers will find it too costly to obtain new credit card and bank accounts for each new gmail account. Normal users will have no cost at all.

I have heard that spammers have huge numbers of stolen credit cards that they can use freely for this sort of activity. I have also heard that the typical cost of a stolen but still valid credit card number is $100. (I think that was Leslie Stahl on 60 minutes, and I'm not sure if the deal was just for a credit card, or a complete ID, with social security number, mother's maiden name, etc.)

I don't have a reliable source for either position, but I'm skeptical of any vague statement to the effect that spammers are invincible, smarter than all the rest of us, there is no solution to the spam problem, etc. I think people repeat these statements because there is such an atmosphere of defeatism about spam.

**Sherry** · 27 Dec 2007, 02:43 AM

This may explain the closed accounts???

Virus researchers find Trojan that hijacks Google text ads

Last paragraph:

Quote:

Google has also reportedly voided customer accounts with advertisements that redirected users to possibly malicious websites and those that push products violating the Internet giant’s guidelines.

Sherry

David MacQuigg · 27 Dec 2007, 02:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theog

.. 2 and 3 are good, but spammers would be able to get around that, eventually... as he points out, people in india will work for "x" an hour so maybe they will work until the account is good.... repeat that over and over.

I think we need something else, but I'm not 100% what that is.... many of the options we see are the same ones over and over and they don't work that hot... heck, what is MS doing? AOL? Yahoo?

Reputation services look at the pattern of valid emails before granting trusted status to an ID. If there is a huge flow of email to just a few unknown domains, that is a very different pattern than the typical distribution of random emails, which is hard for a spammer to reproduce.

I have not seen in my data on incoming mail, any problem with msn.com, aol.com, or yahoo.com. All three of these are A-rated in our Registry.

Good question about what they are doing to avoid outgoing spam. Whatever they are doing, it is effective.

Yahoo seems to have the same signup procedure as Gmail. Nothing but a word-verification puzzle. I guess the other measures are sufficient to deter the spammers.

27 Dec 2007, 02:26 AM	#16
David MacQuigg Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Tucson AZ Posts: 66 Representative of: Open-Mail.org	Looks like the problems with mistakenly disabled accounts may have been resolved, at least temporarily. I see no further posts in 24 hours on either of the two big "disabled" threads in GMail's help forum. Here are a couple more suggestions for Google: 5) Do not shut down accounts that did not send spam. You can avoid false reports against an account by adding an authentication code to each outgoing message. If the spam report does not include a correct code, ignore it. 6) Provide more timely and more complete information to folks whose accounts were mistakenly shut down. The public forum is excellent, and far more honest than similar vendor forums where critical messages have been silently deleted. It could be improved, however, by posting some specifics about what happened, how many accounts were involved, and how the situation was resolved. The "GMail Updates and Alerts" section would be the best place for this information. And a modification of my first suggestion, removing concerns that the service is not really "free" if they ask for $1.00.: 1) Ask for a $1.00 deposit with new accounts. This should be paid by credit card or at least a Paypal account, and refunded to a valid bank account number. Spammers will find it too costly to obtain new credit card and bank accounts for each new gmail account. Normal users will have no cost at all. I have heard that spammers have huge numbers of stolen credit cards that they can use freely for this sort of activity. I have also heard that the typical cost of a stolen but still valid credit card number is $100. (I think that was Leslie Stahl on 60 minutes, and I'm not sure if the deal was just for a credit card, or a complete ID, with social security number, mother's maiden name, etc.) I don't have a reliable source for either position, but I'm skeptical of any vague statement to the effect that spammers are invincible, smarter than all the rest of us, there is no solution to the spam problem, etc. I think people repeat these statements because there is such an atmosphere of defeatism about spam.