Re: How can I opt out of receiving AppSheet emails...

SirBlain · 01-13-2023 02:30 PM

Recently this new thing called AppSheet came along. From what I can tell it is exclusively used by scammers to harass people. I am receiving several hundred scam AppSheet emails a day. I never signed up for AppSheet, I never asked to get harassed several hundred times a day. How can I permanently opt out of this?

WillowMobileSys

@SirBlain wrote:

From what I can tell it is exclusively used by scammers to harass people.

Sorry to hear you are getting an inordinate number of emails each day!

I have been using AppSheet for over 6 years now and can honestly say I have never - not once - received an AppSheet related Scam email. I have no real junk email detection in place and I do get about 50 junk and/or scam emails daily.

Just so it's clear, this is a Community Forum provided by AppSheet but is operated mostly by App Creators - not AppSheet Staff - though staff members do drop in from time to time. This is not an AppSheet support site - just an fyi!

I'd be curious to "see" what one of those scam emails you've received look like AND what the senders email address is. Can you take a screenshot and post it here to help inform others?

If these messages are truly emails being sent by scammers, there isn't really much any of us, including AppSheet, can do. You somehow got on the scammer radar and they are trying to use what THEY perceive as your "interest" in AppSheet to phish some of your personal details.

You can try to block each of the sender's email addresses but that only works short-term as scammers are continuously changing the sender address list used.

If the messages ARE indeed from an AppSheet sender account, then I suspect there is some email snafu occurring. I would block the sender address and use AppSheet support page to notify AppSheet of your email issue.

AppSheet Support

SirBlain

Ah but Google does have exclusive control over this. They could easily step in and add an opt out button, or a report abuse button, but instead they cater towards scammers and force everyone else to be victims. I just don't ever want to receive these scam emails or be a part of this scam network. It may be operated by users, but google sent the email, it came from a no-reply@ google email, so Google does have exclusive control over what goes out and what doesn't. They are responsible for creating this scam and they need to provide an option for users to not be a part of it.

I don't have permission to upload images (another genius move by Google), but here's the text:

student@goog-test.reseller.gappslabs.co.s-sf49dlc9.qwiklabs-gsuite.net has invited you to edit their database 'Horny'

Hey dear, you got new matches with a girl near your area! Unlock your matches now, Click Here: https://meetme.yourtrackke.com Just put your age to join now...It is totally free no word like CC. Put that finger deep in there… https:/meetfun.queanmate.com

Open Horny

Interested in creating a database like this one? Visit AppSheet databases

This needs to stop. Users don't need to be forced into this. This really should be a giant class action lawsuit. Google needs to be sued for pushing phishing scams and sexual harassment.

AleksiAlkio

Let me forward this to devs..

devingu

Hey SirBlain, please feel free to submit a support ticket via https://support.google.com/appsheet/gethelp

We can specifically permanently ban the scammer.

WillowMobileSys

@SirBlain wrote:

Ah but Google does have exclusive control over this. They could easily step in and add an opt out button, or a report abuse button, but instead they cater towards scammers and force everyone else to be victims.

Yes. Google Mail might be able to help but NOT AppSheet which is THIS community - they are 2 different companies under the Google umbrella.

It would be like reporting an issue with your Porsche to a Volkswagen dealership. Even though Volkswagen owns Porsche, they will likely tell you that you need to go to Porsche directly. Why? Because they have specialized people to handle ALL Porsche issues

Same thing here. Since it is Gmails you are getting, go to GMail to report the problem. In the GMail app, they do provide a "Report Spam" option on each email AND the ability to block the sender. Unfortunately, the real problem is that these same people/organizations create hundreds of GMail accounts. Shut one down they just use another.

Now having said that, it seems that @AleksiAlkio and @devingu are trying to help get your issue reported to the right place. BUT do be informed that this is NOT an AppSheet problem. The Spammer/Scammer is using your connection to AppSheet to try to get you to click on their junk email.

I get dozens of similar emails every week about purchases I KNOW I didn't make. I have tried blocking senders and reporting spam but I still get them. I have resigned to just ignoring the emails. My junk detector does a pretty good job of sifting them into a Junk folder. I scan them just to be sure a legit email didn't get improperly classified as Junk.

If we could just turn OFF the criminal gene!!!

Steltek

Been getting wave after wave of spam/scam messages from this service, so I've resorted to banning *@appsheet.bounces.google.com on my mail server.

BigMikeH

I am also seeing spam only from appsheet - it appears it's being exploited. It's to the point that I'm either going to outright block it or send it to junk on an organizational level. It's essentially facilitaing anonymous spam sent though notifications.google.com

Example:

Subject Fastest Way To Lose Weight?
Message Id <xcQCSUf7yPyf73HUj2JmlQ@notifications.google.com>
Creation time Tue, 27 Aug 2024 20:01:00 -0700 (Delivered after 1 second)
From Show off Your Body Again <noreply@appsheet.com>
Reply to noreply@appsheet.com

Steve

Please contact AppSheet Support to report this.

AmyLynn

100% same boat. I'm blocking the whole domain. I've had enough of the spam. I've been reporting it via spamcop for months and nothing is being done.

AmyLynn

I've also started to send all the backdated emails I got to abuse@appsheet.com so hopefully someone will stop the abuse.

WillowMobileSys

@AmyLynn @BigMikeH @Steltek @Steve @SirBlain

As I stated in my original post dates Jan 2023, there is not much AppSheet can do about these messages. They are not being sent from official AppSheet email addresses or services. For example,

@Steltek wrote:

Been getting wave after wave of spam/scam messages from this service, so I've resorted to banning *@appsheet.bounces.google.com on my mail server.

the "*@appsheet.bounces.google.com" is NOT an AppSheet email domain. I am certain if each of you look at the sender of the emails you are receiving, you will see similar non-official domains being used. These emails are coming from some 3rd party scammer and could be anywhere in the world

Reporting to AppSheet might help in the way of internal communication from Appsheet team to the Google email team to try to block these emails on behalf of AppSheet and its users.

But that is only effective if you are ACTUALLY using a Google email account. Not all AppSheet users have Google email. If you are one of those, you will need to contact your email provider to see if they can help block the messages for you.

Additionally, I can tell you that unless they can identify the source of the email generations and shut that down, it will be near impossible to completely stop the messages. These scammers simply spin up new domains on demand. Today it was "*@appsheet.bounces.google.com"...tomorrow it might be "*@pita.scammer.appsheet.com". And they are educated enough NOT use domain names that can be easily blocked using parse strings.

If you truly wish to stop the spam, you'll most likely need to create new email addresses. I use an email address that is dedicated solely for AppSheet development and never gets used anywhere else. My personal email is riddled with spam!!!

Steltek

Spam originates from Google systems:

Source IP: 209.85.128.197
197.128.85.209.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer mail-yw1-f197.google.com.

WHOIS for 209.85.128.197:

NetRange: 209.85.128.0 - 209.85.255.255
CIDR: 209.85.128.0/17
NetName: GOOGLE
NetHandle: NET-209-85-128-0-1
Parent: NET209 (NET-209-0-0-0-0)
NetType: Direct Allocation
OriginAS:
Organization: Google LLC (GOGL)
RegDate: 2006-01-13
Updated: 2012-02-24
Ref: https://rdap.arin.net/registry/ip/209.85.128.0

Other IPs participating in spam sending (among others):

2024-09-06 03:29:48 H=mail-il1-f199.google.com [209.85.166.199] X=TLS1.3:ECDHE_SECP256R1__RSA_PSS_RSAE_SHA256__AES_256_GCM:256 CV=no F=<3tnDZZgcMBjsklobmivXmmpebbq.ZljZqjXfkaqpeltqfjb.ir.br.lod@appsheet.bounces.google.com> rejected RCPT <[removed]>: sender envelope address is locally blacklisted.
2024-09-06 05:01:41 H=mail-oa1-f70.google.com [209.85.160.70] X=TLS1.3:ECDHE_SECP256R1__RSA_PSS_RSAE_SHA256__AES_256_GCM:256 CV=no F=<3kjvXZgcMBqMQRUHSObDSSVKHHW.FRPFWPDLQGWVKRZWLPH.OX.HX.RUJ@appsheet.bounces.google.com> rejected RCPT <[removed]>: sender envelope address is locally blacklisted.
2024-09-06 05:50:43 H=mail-pf1-f199.google.com [209.85.210.199] X=TLS1.3:ECDHE_SECP256R1__RSA_PSS_RSAE_SHA256__AES_256_GCM:256 CV=no F=<3tnDZZgcMBjsklobmivXmmpebbq.ZljZqjXfkaqpeltqfjb.ir.br.lod@appsheet.bounces.google.com> rejected RCPT <[removed]>: sender envelope address is locally blacklisted.
2024-09-06 08:13:07 H=mail-pl1-f198.google.com [209.85.214.198] X=TLS1.3:ECDHE_SECP256R1__RSA_PSS_RSAE_SHA256__AES_256_GCM:256 CV=no F=<3tnDZZgcMBjsklobmivXmmpebbq.ZljZqjXfkaqpeltqfjb.ir.br.lod@appsheet.bounces.google.com> rejected RCPT <[removed]>: sender envelope address is locally blacklisted.
2024-09-06 09:02:55 H=mail-yw1-f200.google.com [209.85.128.200] X=TLS1.3:ECDHE_SECP256R1__RSA_PSS_RSAE_SHA256__AES_256_GCM:256 CV=no F=<3kjvXZgcMBqMQRUHSObDSSVKHHW.FRPFWPDLQGWVKRZWLPH.OX.HX.RUJ@appsheet.bounces.google.com> rejected RCPT <[removed]>: sender envelope address is locally blacklisted.
2024-09-06 10:39:22 H=mail-pl1-f197.google.com [209.85.214.197] X=TLS1.3:ECDHE_SECP256R1__RSA_PSS_RSAE_SHA256__AES_256_GCM:256 CV=no F=<3tnDZZgcMBjsklobmivXmmpebbq.ZljZqjXfkaqpeltqfjb.ir.br.lod@appsheet.bounces.google.com> rejected RCPT <[removed]>: sender envelope address is locally blacklisted.
2024-09-06 13:56:55 H=mail-oi1-f199.google.com [209.85.167.199] X=TLS1.3:ECDHE_SECP256R1__RSA_PSS_RSAE_SHA256__AES_256_GCM:256 CV=no F=<3tnDZZgcMBjsklobmivXmmpebbq.ZljZqjXfkaqpeltqfjb.ir.br.lod@appsheet.bounces.google.com> rejected RCPT <[removed]>: sender envelope address is locally blacklisted.

Timestamps are CEST (UTC+0200).

Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, spams like a duck, gets blacklisted like a duck.

WillowMobileSys

@Steltek wrote:

Spam originates from Google systems:

Yes, my point was that it is NOT coming from AppSheet. Even though AppSheet is a Google owned company, AppSheet has no control over the Google email system. You need to reach out to Google Email to attempt to address the spam issue.

How can I opt out of receiving AppSheet emails?