does unsubscribing from spam e-mails actually work?

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or by entering your e-mail address to be unsubscribed does it just end up getting put onto other lists by the spammers partners as i suspect

they really need to sort out the law on spamming - surely it ends up as a colossal bandwidth hog and this would be the gov's motivation to sort it

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 10 March 2003 16:20 (twenty-three years ago)

also, half the time you put your e-mail address in and press submit but this leads to a 'cannot find' page, or worse still the link they provide (which they are compelled to do by law) to be unsubscribed doesnt work at all (staggering loophole)

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 10 March 2003 16:21 (twenty-three years ago)

"unsubscribe" = "i am a person not a bot, spam me some more from a difft direction"

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 10 March 2003 16:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Generally, Mark S's advice is correct: trying to unsubscribe just gets you more spam because they know its an active account.

BUT people use the word 'spam' quite loosely sometimes. If you mean being on the mailing list of what looks like a legitimate company/mailing list etc. then unsubscribing might well work.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 10 March 2003 16:34 (twenty-three years ago)

(if you are getting emails over and over from the same address then they are in some sense legitimate, as the address would have been booted by now otherwise)

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 10 March 2003 16:35 (twenty-three years ago)

Might I suggest:

http://www.mailwasher.net/

As a really neat anti-spam tool. I hardly ever use it, but it really does enable you to generate legitimate-looking bounces. (There's something else out there -- forget the name -- that produces really lame, fake-looking bounces. This is miles better.)

Mostly I ignore spam, really. In the last couple of days, I've received: teenage honeys in XXX pics (x3); penis enlargement; ordering drugs without a prescription; sundry loans and money offers.

So, really well-targeted stuff, then. :)

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Monday, 10 March 2003 16:37 (twenty-three years ago)

if you are getting emails over and over from the same address then they are in some sense legitimate, as the address would have been booted by now otherwise

Not always; some spammers have found spamhausen (pl. of spamhaus) that are willing to keep these addresses alive in spite of antispammers' efforts.

For my part, if a company I've previously dealt with sends me an e-mail, the first time I will use the unsubscribe procedure. If that doesn't work or they send me more mail they are spammers = they are treated accordingly.

― j.lu (j.lu), Monday, 10 March 2003 16:44 (twenty-three years ago)

I just block the email addresses that send me spam. It doesn't make them all go away, but I think it helps a bit.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Monday, 10 March 2003 17:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, OK. I rarely get spam from the same address twice. But then I don't really get any spam at all since I abandoned my hotmail account, so I may be out of touch.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 10 March 2003 17:28 (twenty-three years ago)

I get spam due to the completely unprotected mailto link on my Web site. Nothing today, oddly enough.

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Monday, 10 March 2003 17:31 (twenty-three years ago)

My two levels of spam filtration work pretty well. My mailserver rejects anything that doesn't have a valid return address so I( don't even have to dowload that. Then Mail.app deals with the rest. The only false positives I ever get are when my business planning tutor sends me a mail with called something like 'here are the figures you requested' followed by an excel attachment.

SO I see very little unsolicited spam nowadays.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 10 March 2003 17:32 (twenty-three years ago)

You solicit spam?

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 10 March 2003 17:47 (twenty-three years ago)

sometimes, I sign up for things I don't want after a little while or forget to check the don't send me crap box when signing up for websites. This is kind of soliciting.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 10 March 2003 17:49 (twenty-three years ago)

I get loads. I just delete it. It only costs me seconds and a day, and while it's a nuisance the attempts to deal with it would cost far more time, I think.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 10 March 2003 19:33 (twenty-three years ago)

the only spam i get seems to be offering university degrees. can they not read my e-mail address? (real one is a .edu)

― Dave M. (rotten03), Monday, 10 March 2003 19:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Spam of the day: "Become more attracted to the opposite sex."

I really don't think I need a hand with this.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Is there a bounce back utility for linux?

― Jon Williams (ex machina), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:53 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

the more keywords i put in my message rules to block the more spam i seem to get, how can this be?

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 14:23 (twenty-two years ago)

maybe it thinks that the keywords you're entering are actually you interests?

― sean c via cell, Tuesday, 6 April 2004 14:39 (twenty-two years ago)

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