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About two weeks ago, I had to reply to an urgent email (gmail) on my Android phone with the Gmail app.

Unfortunately, my VPN client refused to work that day (Private Internet Access Android Client), so I had to risk it and connect to a public wifi hotspot at a restaurant to reply this email of mine.

Now, I have been bombarded with spam with that gmail account I used to reply the email.

I have changed the password to this Google account mentioned the evening I returned home that day.

Is there any way to stop the spam? I used to have no spam email coming into this account.

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It is unlikely that you are getting spam because you used a hotspot. Gmail should have their certificate pinned and their traffic should be https only, so there is no way to intercept it unless you install 3rd party certificates on the phone, or accept any warnings about invalid certificates.

Spammers also do not need access to your account to send you spam, they only need the email address. They already have it, so changing your password will not help.

The best approach to dealing with spam is:

  1. If you can - unsubscribe
  2. If you have not subscribed - mark as spam in Gmail
  3. If you have not subscribed, then it is unsolicited email, which is illegal in most jurisdictions. You can get in touch with the sender and ask them to stop. If they refuse or won't stop, then you should get in touch with an appropriate law enforcement agency in your area, e.g. in United States it is regulated by Federal Trade Comission (source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003) and report them. These law enforcement agencies usually have lots of international connections too, so even if the spam is originating from other country they might be able to do something about it.
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  • I'm still pretty convinced it was after that day, but nonetheless, I didn't get any warning about invalid certificates. I also never installed any 3rd party certificates on my phone. There's no unsubscribe button and they are all being caught by the spam filter in Gmail - thankfully. I will try your 3rd point, but I think there's not much chance at removing these anymore. Thanks for your help.
    – apertur
    Commented Aug 15, 2014 at 11:45
  • If you don't want to see them in spam - you can add a rule in Gmail to delete them on arrival.
    – valentinas
    Commented Aug 17, 2014 at 7:03

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