@literalgrill

It depends on what they're asking. If it's not business related then it doesn't matter what email address the email comes from. If on the other hand it is business related then it's incredibly suspicious if it comes from a gmail, yahoo or other free-to-register email.

@literalgrill No. I have people in my life that: use Hotmail accounts from prior to Microsoft acquiring them, AOL and Yahoo! as those accounts were created in the 90s and they still work today; doctors who still use Earthlink.net as their primary account, etc.

I used my Gmail account as my main between 2004-2006. The account is solely used as a YouTube account now.

Domain/Host isn't a way to sus out scams when there are valid uses.

@literalgrill generally the domain name, if sane, is less important than whatever is behind the @

So

[email protected] would be a red flag.

@literalgrill

I would be really happy, if they used protonmail/tutanota

@literalgrill i’m confused by the question. does it imply that using gmail is trustworthy, or using non-gmail trustworthy?

for me a scam emails often look very obvious because they are from people i never talked with, and also their low quality, and the domain doesn’t have to be an indicator. though, per my observation, free email providers like google are often source of spams (like), rather than paid ones or invitation-only ones, or community-run ones

@literalgrill: I'm getting suspicious _if_ someone uses GMail as their primary e-mail provider. For me, using and especially trusting GMail is usually a strong sign for a bad judging capability.

Yahoo! has bad reputation with me, too, but Tutanota has a good reputation for me. With ProtonMail I have mixed feelings: I like what they're trying to do for privacy, but I strongly dislike the way they're doing it.

Other mail providers with good reputation for me: Mailbox.org, Riseup, Immerda, …

@literalgrill

I would never use gmail

@literalgrill I for one am more likely to distrust a gmail address, if used instead of an address from the person's own project's domain.

Google give email addresses to any old scammers.

@literalgrill

If the question is: "do you put more faith in a gmail user being a non-scammer than the other services", then No...

Most cold contact that asks for something should be treated with suspicion...

@literalgrill

Disposable gmail accounts are more suspicious than most ...

@literalgrill (my background is in IT, programming, and learning cybersecurity.)

IMO it doesn't matter what email provider the person uses. What matters is the content of the email and the genuine nature of the content.
The emails of large companies can be mimicked using unicode characters or even manipulated to send malicious mail.
Also I know WHY people use proton mail and other smaller email providers.
Also I got art commissions from people with weird usernames all the time. *shrugs*

@literalgrill more concerned about the part on the left side of the @ myself.

A random collection of letters and numbers, or firstname bunchonumbers, regardless of what the host is, is getting way less trust than an actual screen name.

@literalgrill Serious response: I get suspicious when the email does come from Gmail.
Almost every legitimate person or business I deal with either runs their own mailservers or uses something like protonmail.

Gmail is the primary source of spam and primarily a source of spam.

@literalgrill
Not sure what you are trying to "learn" here, but I rarely look at their email address and think scammer. I usually leave that to the body and subject of the email.

Over the years / decades I have seen perfectly legitimate email addresses that were scams and I have seen suspicious email addresses that were legit.

@literalgrill Considering how many scams I receive from Gmail addresses, I don't see why any other domain would be worse?

Hell, 95% of spear-phishing E-mails at work are from Gmail. Scammers know Gmail messages get reliably delivered and people trust Google for some reason.

@literalgrill I have certain prejudices towards different mail providers. Yahoo, HotMail usually trigger a suspicion reflex, but that also depends on what the content of the message is.

Usually, I treat unsolicited emails from Gmail accounts to be highly suspect, more so than any other provider simply because everyone knows about Gmail and Google probably does everything in their power to keep their domains out of block lists.