If you can tell that the email is spam, on the other hand, you don’t need to open it at all.
If the email is legitimate, then of course you’ll need to open the email to see and click on the legitimate unsubscribe link. As long as your mail interface doesn’t display images by default (one of the ways that spammers can track you), there’s nothing wrong with taking a peek. With most modern email programs it’s safe to open messages, regardless of whether they’re spam or not. When you click on “this is spam” for legitimate email, it may actually cause other people - people who actually want it - to stop getting it. However… Do unsubscribe from things you asked forĪs a newsletter publisher myself, I do want to emphasize that when you’re ready to stop receiving a legitimate mailing, a mailing that you subscribed to, you do want to use the unsubscribe link.ĭo not click “this is spam” for legitimate email. That helps the service automatically identify spam for you in the future, and is by far the safest, most effective approach to dealing with spam using tools you probably already have at your disposal. Instead, click on the “This is Spam” button in your email program or interface to get the email out of your inbox and train that service as to what spam looks like. Thus this rule of thumb: “unsubscribing” from spam only gets you more spam. The act of clicking that “unsubscribe” link actually confirms to the spammer that your email address is a real, valid email address with a real person reading it.įrom the spammer’s perspective, it allows them to say the equivalent of “We got us a live one!”Īnd once they know the email address is legitimate, they’ll start sending you MORE, not less, spam. Like I said, spam is sent out at random and to email addresses that are both legitimate and not. You might be asking, “If I’m not subscribed, why is there an unsubscribe link?” In fact, it’ll likely make matters worse. Clicking on that unsubscribe link will not help. This is important: since you haven’t subscribed, there’s nothing to unsubscribe from, even if there’s an “unsubscribe” link. You’re just getting it like many people do: randomly. What you are getting is most likely spam.
Unsubscribe from things you originally subscribed to, or for which there was a legitimate business relationship.