Big Problems at Google - Cancelled Accounts

28pfds · 7 Dec 2007, 12:45 AM

Apparently, Google is having big problems over the past 24 hours, and numerous users are finding out that their accounts have had their access removed.....

If I get more details, I'll follow-up.

Merovingian · 7 Dec 2007, 01:49 AM

Do you mean regular free accounts, or googleapps accounts?
I've been in all three of my gmail-sponsored accounts today. Everything's fine here.

28pfds · 7 Dec 2007, 01:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merovingian

Do you mean regular free accounts, or googleapps accounts?
I've been in all three of my gmail-sponsored accounts today. Everything's fine here.

I understand it's Gmail only and not Google Apps. Yes, I'm fine too so far.

Check this out: http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsea...G=Search+Blogs

theog · 7 Dec 2007, 04:28 AM

Be interesting to know if this is in response to the wave of spam I've seen from people who now include a "gmail" email to reply to. This started in bulk around two or three weeks ago.

I report those emails every time I get them... maybe a one or two a day... but most include a gmail email now (why the "waves" remark).

I went to the search on gmail account issues and the first one included the person saying they "might" have sent an email to a wrong email address due to a typo. Right....

drew · 7 Dec 2007, 09:55 AM

both my accounts works for me

David MacQuigg · 25 Dec 2007, 01:45 PM

Looks its happening again! http://groups.google.com/group/Gmail...56321e945098aa
My guess is they are experimenting with some kind of automated process to cancel accounts that have spam reports. This is the wrong way to crack down on spammers. Spammers can easily send false reports to mess up any kind of automation like this.

We have seen lots of spam over many months from google.com, and have had to remove them permanently from our whitelist. We have sent spam reports, and get nothing but automated denials - "someone is forging our name". That is not the problem. The problem is that Google is making it far too easy for spammers to acquire new accounts. You don't need a credit card, or even an email address, just the ability to solve a "word recognition" puzzle on their signup page. There are companies in India that will do that for $.30 an hour, making the cost per account something less than a penny!

My recommendations to Google are:
1) Ask for a $1.00 payment for each new account. This should be paid by credit card or at least a Paypal account. Spammers will have great difficulty coming up with a new credit card for each new account. Normal users will have no difficulty at all.

2) Put new accounts on a "probationary" status, with spam-scanning on whatever is sent out, and a rate-limit of maybe 100 new recipients per day.

3) Use different servers, or at least a different HELO name when transmitting mail from probationary accounts. This will allow the new accounts to earn whatever reputation they deserve, while not damaging the reputation of google.com.

4) Pay attention to spam reports. No more automated denials!

Merovingian · 25 Dec 2007, 07:48 PM

Both of my long-time gmail accounts are working, as well as one that is only a month old. If I remember correctly, most of the accounts that were affected last time were recently created ones.
As far as your suggestions, David, I like them. I don't know if they would ever charge people, however. It is still, after all, in "beta".

chuckster · 25 Dec 2007, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 28pfds

Apparently, Google is having big problems over the past 24 hours, and numerous users are finding out that their accounts have had their access removed.....

If I get more details, I'll follow-up.

You should not post a rumour without any proof.

28pfds · 26 Dec 2007, 02:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuckster

You should not post a rumour without any proof.

Perhaps you shouldn't accuse me of posting rumours without spending 30 seconds to research something first.

Read this. Thread started on Dec 5 and is still getting new postings with similar complaints, even today. And if you follow some of the bloggers, it's been discussed there too.

http://tinyurl.com/398y53

Merovingian · 26 Dec 2007, 03:56 AM

28pfds, don't worry about it. Look at chuckster's posts.
Almost all 10 of his posts are critical, harsh, and seemingly intended to provoke some sort of response. He doesn't contribute except to instigate trouble. Don't even respond to him. Thanks for starting this thread.

Merry Christmas!

xmailer · 26 Dec 2007, 04:45 AM

While of course I'm not a moderator and it's not my place to determine what's "proper" or otherwise to post here, even if it is/was only a rumor, I see no problem with posting rumors here for discussion, as long as they're presented as rumors, or as possible facts with some basis for looking into them, as it's my impression that this is supposed to be a discussion forum. And certainly "chuckster" is no more a moderator than I am, although he might appear to think he is.

chuckster · 26 Dec 2007, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merovingian

28pfds, don't worry about it. Look at chuckster's posts.
Almost all 10 of his posts are critical, harsh, and seemingly intended to provoke some sort of response. He doesn't contribute except to instigate trouble. Don't even respond to him. Thanks for starting this thread.

Merry Christmas!

Sir,
You should not judge other people's post.

Merry +'mas!

drew · 26 Dec 2007, 05:12 PM

Quote:

My recommendations to Google are:
1) Ask for a $1.00 payment for each new account. This should be paid by credit card or at least a Paypal account.

Yes and No!

It is very Good until you realize that these people have ten thousands of stolen credit cards at their disposal. So to pay is a peace of cake for them.

And the worst. By forcing all of us to pay would make us very vulnerable to our credit card info also getting stolen.

Apart from that brilliant idea. I am all for it if you secure that my card info don't get sniffed by the spammers. They have more than ten thousand of Bot nets set up and hack into new computers daily.

So it would be better that the ISP pay, cause we the users of internet pay to the ISP every month so that would be much safer for us.

theog · 26 Dec 2007, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drew

Yes and No!

It is very Good until you realize that these people have ten thousands of stolen credit cards at their disposal. So to pay is a peace of cake for them.

And the worst. By forcing all of us to pay would make us very vulnerable to our credit card info also getting stolen.

Apart from that brilliant idea. I am all for it if you secure that my card info don't get sniffed by the spammers. They have more than ten thousand of Bot nets set up and hack into new computers daily.

So it would be better that the ISP pay, cause we the users of internet pay to the ISP every month so that would be much safer for us.

That was an odd post... I don't understand your justification for not using a credit card... if you are paying google, then your credit card, I assume, would use encryption and the sort, as you would find on any retailer site.

Why would an ISP get involved in this? It is a transaction between you and another company... that would be like me asking my isp to pay newegg and I'll pay them back.

Anyway, it is ashame we can't do business on the net without the idiots ruining it for everyone else. As the one person pointed out, if you do nothing companies take you off white lists, if you do a bit too much, you have angry users. If you setup restrictions, people put "bad" labels your service (ie Microsoft's hotmail).

Can't really fault google for taking such steps. Far as David MacQuigg's suggestion, I think we all understand that #1 is out of the question. Honestly, gmail is trying to build users, not decrease users. 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?

Merovingian · 26 Dec 2007, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuckster

Sir,
You should not judge other people's post.
Merry +'mas!

you're right. sorry chuckster.
Merry Christmas to you and yours as well.

7 Dec 2007, 12:45 AM	#1
28pfds Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Montreal, QC Canada Posts: 77	Big Problems at Google - Cancelled Accounts Apparently, Google is having big problems over the past 24 hours, and numerous users are finding out that their accounts have had their access removed..... If I get more details, I'll follow-up.

7 Dec 2007, 01:49 AM	#2
Merovingian Master of the @ Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 1,583	Do you mean regular free accounts, or googleapps accounts? I've been in all three of my gmail-sponsored accounts today. Everything's fine here.

7 Dec 2007, 04:28 AM	#4
theog = Permanently banned = Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: 1 Microsoft Way Posts: 2,119	Be interesting to know if this is in response to the wave of spam I've seen from people who now include a "gmail" email to reply to. This started in bulk around two or three weeks ago. I report those emails every time I get them... maybe a one or two a day... but most include a gmail email now (why the "waves" remark). I went to the search on gmail account issues and the first one included the person saying they "might" have sent an email to a wrong email address due to a typo. Right....

7 Dec 2007, 09:55 AM	#5
drew The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2,626	both my accounts works for me

25 Dec 2007, 01:45 PM	#6
David MacQuigg Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Tucson AZ Posts: 66 Representative of: Open-Mail.org	Looks its happening again! http://groups.google.com/group/Gmail...56321e945098aa My guess is they are experimenting with some kind of automated process to cancel accounts that have spam reports. This is the wrong way to crack down on spammers. Spammers can easily send false reports to mess up any kind of automation like this. We have seen lots of spam over many months from google.com, and have had to remove them permanently from our whitelist. We have sent spam reports, and get nothing but automated denials - "someone is forging our name". That is not the problem. The problem is that Google is making it far too easy for spammers to acquire new accounts. You don't need a credit card, or even an email address, just the ability to solve a "word recognition" puzzle on their signup page. There are companies in India that will do that for $.30 an hour, making the cost per account something less than a penny! My recommendations to Google are: 1) Ask for a $1.00 payment for each new account. This should be paid by credit card or at least a Paypal account. Spammers will have great difficulty coming up with a new credit card for each new account. Normal users will have no difficulty at all. 2) Put new accounts on a "probationary" status, with spam-scanning on whatever is sent out, and a rate-limit of maybe 100 new recipients per day. 3) Use different servers, or at least a different HELO name when transmitting mail from probationary accounts. This will allow the new accounts to earn whatever reputation they deserve, while not damaging the reputation of google.com. 4) Pay attention to spam reports. No more automated denials!

25 Dec 2007, 07:48 PM	#7
Merovingian Master of the @ Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 1,583	Both of my long-time gmail accounts are working, as well as one that is only a month old. If I remember correctly, most of the accounts that were affected last time were recently created ones. As far as your suggestions, David, I like them. I don't know if they would ever charge people, however. It is still, after all, in "beta".

26 Dec 2007, 03:56 AM	#10
Merovingian Master of the @ Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 1,583	28pfds, don't worry about it. Look at chuckster's posts. Almost all 10 of his posts are critical, harsh, and seemingly intended to provoke some sort of response. He doesn't contribute except to instigate trouble. Don't even respond to him. Thanks for starting this thread. Merry Christmas!

26 Dec 2007, 04:45 AM	#11
xmailer Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: USA Posts: 5,485	While of course I'm not a moderator and it's not my place to determine what's "proper" or otherwise to post here, even if it is/was only a rumor, I see no problem with posting rumors here for discussion, as long as they're presented as rumors, or as possible facts with some basis for looking into them, as it's my impression that this is supposed to be a discussion forum. And certainly "chuckster" is no more a moderator than I am, although he might appear to think he is.