Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
Spam often includes an unsubscribe link, yet you were never subscribed in the first place. "Unsubscribing" will likely only make matters worse.
I am receiving a lot of unwanted e-mails from diet pills to pet supplies and I don't want to keep deleting 100 e-mails every time I check my mail. I hate going into each e-mail one-by-one to unsubscribe and I don't know how safe it is for me to open those e-mails in the first place. I was wondering is there an easy free way to unsubscribe without needing to open the e-mail.
•
I know that it's confusing, but there are emails that you should unsubscribe from, and emails that you absolutely should never unsubscribe from.
I'll explain why that is, and what the relatively simple rules turn out to be.
•
What you are getting is most likely spam. Spam is sent to random email addresses. You haven't been "subscribed" - you're just getting it like many people do: at random.
Since you haven't been subscribed, there's nothing really to unsubscribe from, and doing so will not help.
In fact, it'll likely make matters worse.
You might be asking "if I'm not subscribed, then why is there an unsubscribe link?".
Like I said, spam is sent out at random and to email addresses that are both legitimate and not. The act of clicking that "unsubscribe" link actually confirms to the spammer that the address that reached you is a real email address with a real person.
And once they know that the email address is legitimate, they'll start sending you MORE, not less, spam.
"Unsubscribing" from spam will only get you more spam.
However...
As a newsletter publisher myself, I do want to emphasize that when you're ready to stop a legitimate mailing, you do want to use the unsubscribe link - do not click "this is spam". When you click on "this is spam" for legitimate email that may cause other people - people who want it - to stop getting it.
So there are things that you should unsubscribe from, and there are things that you should never unsubscribe from.
The rules are actually fairly simple:
-
If you subscribed to a newsletter, clicked "yes, send me more info" or have some kind of a business relationship with the entity sending you email, then it's probably legitimate mail and you should use the unsubscribe link.
-
If you've never heard of the sender and have no relationship with whatever is being promoted or discussed in the email then it's likely spam and you should not use the unsubscribe link.
It's unfortunate that we even have to think about these things, but the fact is spam continues to be a problem. Fortunately, a few moments of thought ("is this email legitimate?") and the simple rules above should make it fairly clear on when it is, and is not, safe to unsubscribe.
For the spam, look into any of a number of anti-spam solutions and/or filters provided by your email program or ISP.
And never use the "This is Spam" button on email that you asked for.
Article C3839 - August 15, 2009 « »
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
July 13, 2010 7:30 PM
The spam that I get has no unsubscribe link in it. This in itself indicates that it is not legitimate because as I understand it, it is a requirement that you should be able to request to not get emails from people you don't want to get emails from. Is there any way to stop these annoying people? I wast alot of time trying to sort through my emails each day.
September 9, 2010 4:04 AM
I too receive many (hundreds, literally) of unsolicited email every day. Those that are obvious spam email go straight into the spam box to be trashed (but I always make sure I give a cursory glance over them to be sure I'm not missing an important or interesting email from a peer/client).
I personally would never use a program that blocks so-called 'spam' because often legitimate email can be incorrectly marked as spam. Also, I would never block a sender if they sent me an unsolicited email, UNLESS they repeatedly kept sending me emails when I have asked them not to, or they are obviously spammers. The reason I don't block an email from someone I don't recognise -- as Bev says she does -- is because of what I said before; some people are sending legitimate emails simply offering something that may or may not be of interest or use. If it isn't, it doesn't take much to hit the delete key, does it? :)
Overall, I think you can generally tell if an email is from an illegitimate source. Usually, I'll take a look at the ones that have taken the time to personalise their email. You never know, an unsolicited but legitimate email might just come in useful.
October 19, 2011 2:48 PM
I disagree somewhat. for 1 month I unsubscribed to everything...and I try to send a polite sentence to those who don't have a link asking to be removed. The result:
About 35-50 emails a day that qualify as spam down to 5 or so a day.
In my case, about 7 years ago I filled out a bunch of forms for survey taking. It ended up being a scam but my email was out there for so many offers and survey companies.
I learned later to use an internet activity email address for responding to ads and making inquiries about services online.
The result is I'm pretty satisfied with very little spam, and things I don't care about at all go to another email.
February 13, 2013 6:38 PM
please delete me from this e-mail, because I am getting this in my other account.
Thank You,
February 14, 2013 2:35 AM
@Wanda
Here's an article on how to unsubscribe from the Ask Leo! newsletter:
How do I unsubscribe from your newsletter?
•
Comments on this entry are closed.
If you have a question, start by using the search box up at the top of the page - there's a very good chance that your question has already been answered on Ask Leo!.
If you don't find your answer, head out to http://askleo.com/ask to ask your question.