Spam Emails: 'Unsubscribe' Options.

[Maysie]

I would be grateful for some advice on the following as my IT skills are rather limited.
Thanks in advance for any help offered.

I regularly get bombarded with spam and marketing email, a fair few (50%?) get sifted off into my spam folder but it is just very annoying having to constantly clear all of this rubbish every day. At this stage all of the senders are from people/companies I have never had any dealings with, as all of the companies I recognised as genuine I have unsubscribed from already.

Many of the emails I receive have email links at the base of the text with the offer to 'unsubscribe' (even though I have never willingly subscribed to any of them directly), my issue is that I just do not know if I can trust the associated email link in case it is just a folly to take you to some dodgy website or something similar.

Is there any way of knowing if these links are genuine?
What do others do to limit being bombarded with this junk?

If possible, I would rather unsubscribe and stop as many of them 'at source' if possible rather than make my spam filter more aggressive, as I already have a several emails being sent to spam even though they are genuine.
I do appreciate I will never stop all of them, but want to get the numbers down if possible.

TIA

[earlofsodbury]

Almost all will be phishing emails, if you follow links on such things - indeed if you click on almost anything - you'll either be asked for personal info, or worse still start the process of downloading malware. Just bin the lot, always - if in doubt NEVER click.

FWIW, I have Outlook, and it's >99% effective at spambinning all of the junk. It lets you select the entire spambin and delete in one go, or will let you provide feedback by identifying things you are quite certain are phishing emails - which helps build 'resistance' throughout the system.

[TheFlyingBanana]

I was told years ago by someone in email marketing - don't click unsubscribe unless it is from a major and reputable company you really have previously subscribed to.

For all the rest it simply confirms that your email address is active and monitored, and thus makes your email address more valuable on the massive email marketing lists. So you will get more, not less.

[Maysie]

Thank you.
Sounds like my current plan of just 'managing it' on a day to day basis is probably still the most appropriate approach then.
And I am right to be very wary of the links!

[M3NTALIST]

I’ve just counted 21 junk Mail in three days. I’ll keep an eye on this thread as it is a current peave of mine.


Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app

[catflem]

I was told years ago by someone in email marketing - don't click unsubscribe unless it is from a major and reputable company you really have previously subscribed to.

For all the rest it simply confirms that your email address is active and monitored, and thus makes your email address more valuable on the massive email marketing lists. So you will get more, not less.

That is the way I operate.

I also report numerous phishing attempts on a daily basis, and block numerous dodgy email addresses but they still seem to get through. I blame it all upon the day I searched for a Blue Waffle strap.

[DONGinsler]

I had a program called Mailwasher. All emails went into a mail file. I clicked which were spam and they went into a spam folder and good were delivered to my my inbox.

Anytime they resent. Got automatically deleted

Great program,, but didn't work with Yahoo which I now use as a go-between due to a error with my MS password

[Kingstepper]

Using Outlook, just click on sender, mark as junk and send to junk folder. Isn’t similar possible with other applications?

[Maysie]

Using Outlook, just click on sender, mark as junk and send to junk folder. Isn’t similar possible with other applications?

I use Outlook too, but the senders often send the same BS email from numerous email addresses. It is so time annoying to keep clicking every one, blocking sender, clear the junk folder etc.

[Pitfitter]

If it lands in junk I leave as after 30 days it’s automatically binned, if it reaches the inbox I mark it as spam/junk and it goes in with the rest, had a data breach at one of my pension providers and some days the sh*t coming through is 30+, so many undelivered parcels or penis extension offers, or lonely housewifes, if I didn’t reply after two attempts I’m not going to, give up. Still suppose it keeps someone in a job sending them.

[Kingstepper]

I use Outlook too, but the senders often send the same BS email from numerous email addresses. It is so time annoying to keep clicking every one, blocking sender, clear the junk folder etc.

Create a rule based on keywords etc. (Office 365 Outlook anyway, maybe not web Outlook?)

Just empty junk folder weekly/monthly.

[rodia77]

Have at least two email addresses and compartmentalise: don't mix personal (friends and family) with official (banking etc) with semi-official (shopping, service management) with leisure (forums etc). I also have a dedicated throw-away address for use in any untrusted places, that I can ditch with no regrets in case it gets flooded with spam (but even this one I give away rather sparingly and whenever possible I use disposable ones).

[Possu]

Easy enough to filter every message containing the word ”unsubscribe” straight into bin.

[Onelasttime]

Easy enough to filter every message containing the word ”unsubscribe” straight into bin.

And miss important messages from your energy company, phone company, broadband company, bank, etc.

Just get a gmail account. I get next to no spam mail through to the inbox and simply clear the spam box once a month.

[Possu]

And miss important messages from your energy company, phone company, broadband company, bank, etc.

Just get a gmail account. I get next to no spam mail through to the inbox and simply clear the spam box once a month.

I’m sure things may be different in the promised land of bathtubs, but over here only insignificant marketing trash comes through mailing lists with the possibilty to unsubscribe.

[Onelasttime]

I’m sure things may be different in the promised land of bathtubs, but over here only insignificant marketing trash comes through mailing lists with the possibilty to unsubscribe.

Lol. Bathtubs.

Maybe, but still seems a bit sledgehammer to crack a nut when no one should receive this kind of unsolicited marketing even without applying filters.

Get a better email provider.

[Raffe]

Almost 15 years ago, I was living in Sweden. My internet provider at the time, Comhem, was the most incompetent data custodian I have ever experienced. Their complete customer database leaked (it wasn't even hacked) and I have been receiving spam ever since.

I get about 10 to 20 spam E-Mails per day, up to this day 95% of them are in Swedish language. All kinds of phishing, Nigerian princes and crypto garbage, auto translated into poor Swedish. They are so bad that I cannot fathom that anyone will ever click on them. The good side is that Google catches 99.9% of them, they rot in my spam folder until they are auto-deleted after 30 days. But still, I must have received a hundred thousand and they still keep on sending. Talk about persistence.

[Possu]

(…)They are so bad that I cannot fathom that anyone will ever click on them.(…)

They are like that on purpose and it’s more sophisticated than many people realise. They are designed to only attract people who are dim witted enough to go through to the very end and give their money. If they’d start with anything more believable, they’d risk too many half intelligent people wasting the scammers time without parting with cash in the end.

[dkpw]

My Anti-Spam advice.

Use Google, as mentioned above, its spam filtering is excellent. Your own filtering can be employed to delete mail which fits patterns, before they even appear in spam.

But the most effective method is to have both private and public addresses. The private one is for family, very close friends, the lawyer and bank. It receives zero spam and has been running for many years.

Everyone else is provided with the public address and only mail in the inbox is forwarded to the private. Both accounts are on Google.

[TerryT]

I was told years ago by someone in email marketing - don't click unsubscribe unless it is from a major and reputable company you really have previously subscribed to.

For all the rest it simply confirms that your email address is active and monitored, and thus makes your email address more valuable on the massive email marketing lists. So you will get more, not less.

I have long suspected this. I have the same problem as the OP.
I had a purge and unsubscribed from many, some I had knowingly subscribed to.
My spam emails increased dramatically.

At the moment I use Samsung's own email provider (free with no adds).
I might give Outlook a try

[Kingstepper]

And miss important messages from your energy company, phone company, broadband company, bank, etc.

Just get a gmail account. I get next to no spam mail through to the inbox and simply clear the spam box once a month.

In my experience, unsubscribing only applies to marketing emails. You should still receive important account information.