Gmail Spam - Anyone Else Notice it Getting Smarter?

[cyaxrex]

If it were not for having signed up to Fiverr using Google years ago, I would have stopped using Gmail by now. The amount of spam I get is ridiculous. Worse, lately I have started to receive a lot of ‘smart’ spam.

Over the past few weeks, I have been getting emails telling me that my child has just created an account with some language learning website, and that I need to confirm. Now today, I have received a spam email supposedly from Google thanking me for a recent review I have left for some random insurance business on Google Maps.

I am also starting to get a little alarmed at how I can have people message me on Fiverr and elsewhere, only later for Google to start tailoring ads to whatever was discussed in a message. i.e. A while ago, someone asked me to write about their catamaran hire company. I declined and I did not visit their website. However, ever since, can’t go anywhere online without seeing ads for the same company.

I’m tackling this by now de-Googling my life in every way possible. However, it would be interesting to know if anyone else has problems with Gmail and ads related to freelance projects they have worked on.

[wooden_fish]

No, this hasn’t really been an issue for me.

Edit- I’ll clarify. I use Gmail and Google products. Obviously I get targeted ads, but none have had a noticeable connection to this platform (besides Fiverr ads themselves) and I haven’t gotten scammy stuff.

[misscrystal]

I didn’t sign up through google but I have noticed ads tailored to me about very private things, that I’ve never told anyone. 🔮

[hanshuber16]

If it were not for having signed up to Fiverr using Google years ago, I would have stopped using Gmail by now. The amount of spam I get is ridiculous. Worse, lately I have started to receive a lot of ‘smart’ spam.

Over the past few weeks, I have been getting emails telling me that my child has just created an account with some language learning website, and that I need to confirm. Now today, I have received a spam email supposedly from Google thanking me for a recent review I have left for some random insurance business on Google Maps.

I am also starting to get a little alarmed at how I can have people message me on Fiverr and elsewhere, only later for Google to start tailoring ads to whatever was discussed in a message. i.e. A while ago, someone asked me to write about their catamaran hire company. I declined and I did not visit their website. However, ever since, can’t go anywhere online without seeing ads for the same company.

I’m tackling this by now de-Googling my life in every way possible. However, it would be interesting to know if anyone else has problems with Gmail and ads related to freelance projects they have worked on.

If it were not for having signed up to Fiverr using Google years ago, I would have stopped using Gmail by now. The amount of spam I get is ridiculous.

I still sign in with Google, and I never get any of these spam messages directly in my inbox (just the spam folder). I am low-key jealous of you right now. 😉 jk.

I am also starting to get a little alarmed at how I can have people message me on Fiverr and elsewhere, only later for Google to start tailoring ads to whatever was discussed in a message.

I have experienced this, too. It can be very spooky! 👻 I think that’s the cookies at play.

[ahmwritingco]

If it were not for having signed up to Fiverr using Google years ago, I would have stopped using Gmail by now. The amount of spam I get is ridiculous.

I still sign in with Google, and I never get any of these spam messages directly in my inbox (just the spam folder). I am low-key jealous of you right now. 😉 jk.

I am also starting to get a little alarmed at how I can have people message me on Fiverr and elsewhere, only later for Google to start tailoring ads to whatever was discussed in a message.

I have experienced this, too. It can be very spooky! 👻 I think that’s the cookies at play.

I think that’s the cookies at play.

That, or they’ve recruited @psychicbunny. 😬

[miiila]

It’s the ⭕.

Seriously, though, yes. Might be a cookie thing as Hans suggested, might have to do with your messages to email going through Gmail, whatever the technical aspects, but generally, yes, evolving ̶r̶u̶d̶e̶ smartness.

I do use Gmail and “its ecosystem” for several reasons (and it’s great for what I need there) but it’s good to be aware of it and to keep things separate as much as possible, ideally use mail providers like protonmail, tutanota et al. for private things where using Gmail isn’t a big advantage (apart from being used to it/wanting just one email to deal with, etc.) and try to get family and friends on board of your preferred alternative too, cause if just you use such a service but the other party uses the nosy and keen to advertise ones, well… (However, if you want to use such an alternative for free, make sure to check their limits as you’ll reach the storage threshold much faster, and that means either paying or spending time on deleting the non-essential. Which isn’t the worst thing either, though.)

As an aside, that message wanting you to confirm an account someone created, could well be spam but there’s also a possibility of someone accidentally using your Gmail by typo.
Pretty much all Gmail address names that aren’t long random strings of characters and such are used up by now, the probability of someone owning almost the same address as you and maybe making a typo is getting ever higher, plus some sites for whatever strange reason still don’t require you to repeat your name (or password, for that matter when you sign up to mitigate typo errors :roll_eyes: ).
I got mails for someone else’s FB account on my gmail account because that person accidentally had used my Gmail address to sign up there, their actual name turned out to be the same as my gmail address save for 1 character. I had to solve that issue in an unorthodox way because customer support of especially some big companies these days can be very hard to get a hold of and even harder to get to do something useful (from all customer supports I had to contact in the last years, BTW, Fiverr’s was absolutely top both in response time as well as in actually doing something about my issues).
Or it could be some other kind of mess, if you Google a bit, you can find enough posts by people who receive “legit” mail that’s for someone else on their gmail account.

Or you could ask discobot :robot: maybe they know more …

[psychicbunny]

I think that’s the cookies at play.

That, or they’ve recruited @psychicbunny. 😬

That, or they’ve recruited @psychicbunny. 😬

Shh you guys aren’t supposed to find out. Lol

[meldawn9]

I know that FB, T, P, etc. use targeted advertising. However, I’d expect that Fiverr wouldn’t, but I have actually delivered orders, for instance on banana floats, and actually had targeted advertising on FB for banana floats within that same hour, even though I never discussed nor was ever interested in banana floats beyond that Fiverr order I completed.

I rarely use Gmail but expect that the issue is the same.

This is quite troubling, because a buyer on Fiverr has the expectation that their orders are 100% private and secure, and that the files we deliver to them aren’t read by bots.

On the other hand, it’s their website and they can do what they want, right?