During the past week I've been receiving huge amounts of spam on my gmail account, something like 300 messages per 12 hours at its peak.
It all gets successfully filtered into my spam folder which I can promptly delete, so it's not like it's posing a threat to my using of the account, but I'd like an idea on how this could have happened and what, if anything, should be done about it. I could probably manage unsubscribing from them one by one over the course of a week, but is there a way to ensure that it doesn't just happen again in the future?
I am aware that this type of thing usually happens when you give out your e-mail publicly or to a fishy website, but the thing is I use this specific one for nothing but a few well known trusted sites such as facebook or twitter so I don't see where it could be coming from.
Best Answer
If it's all correctly going to your spam folder there's nothing you should do. Google's anti-spam algorithms are working.
There are occasional bursts like this, where spammers find a new technique to get around some spam filters. It'll probably be short-lived. Once spam fighters upstream from Google put the kibosh on it and improve their filters and/or get the compromised gateway closed, it'll stop.
What you certainly shouldn't do is try to unsubscribe from obvious spam. Even if the sender honors on your request you've given them proof of a live address that other spammers can use.