Tell Me Why ?

[frayne]

Why I feel I am being duped when I click on the unsubscribe link from this or that email and the next page tells me in order to unsubscribe, I have to give them my email address ?

 

[COcheesehead]

Dude, it’s a scam.

 

[easysurfer]

Does sound a bit not on the up and up.

I've unsubscribed from places but they already had my email. I just click on the unsubscribe link and boom, done! An example I can think of is a ticket hall that needed a join up to make a purchase of tickets. But now I unsubscribe from their mailing list.

 

[timbervest]

just mark the domain as spam in your email blocker. Problem solved.

 

[scrabbler1]

just mark the domain as spam in your email blocker. Problem solved.

I have the ability to block entire domain names in my email blocker. But the spammers change them so often that this blocker rarely blocks anything. Or, as is often the case, they create more spam email accounts within common domains such as gmail, which I can't really block. For example, in the last week or so, I have received several fake emails from Walgreens telling me I won some offer. They are all @gmail.com but vary the first part of the email.

I have complained to my email provider many, many times that we should have the ability to specify wildcards in an email address, such as an asterisk for an entire text between two dots or a question mark for a single character. Having these wildcards available would allow me to screen out dozens more emails every week because the email addresses are so similar.

 

[NW-Bound]

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

 

[Sunset]

Dude, it’s a scam.

Or it's really lazy programmer's who don't want to bother passing back in your email address.

 

[Bryan Barnfellow]

My understanding is that it is a prime way for spammers to mark your email address as "live". So, best to never unsubscribe. Unsubscribe means "You have a good address for future spamming and you can resell it with a markup to other spammers."

I never unsubscribe, ever, unless it is a source that I know I previously subscribed to.

 

[ponyboy]

I feel the same way about this site. Why am I always subscribed to threads and receive emails? Then I have to manually go into the control panel and remove myself. Thats awesome!

 

[Aerides]

Why I feel I am being duped when I click on the unsubscribe link from this or that email and the next page tells me in order to unsubscribe, I have to give them my email address ?

Old (lame) code.

You're referring to when you click the link from an otherwise-legit source, say somewhere you've shopped or previously opted in (even if you weren't totally aware you did at the time).

Good: offers you options to receive less often or totally un-sub with one click
meh: all or nothing, but simple un-sub without new info
annoying: asks you 4 questions about why before you can click to un-sub
lame/lazy/old/web1.0: asks you for your email to un-sub

In the latter case, I just let google do it.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

And why do some sites claim it will take days or even weeks to process the unsubscribe request?

 

[Jerry1]

My understanding is that it is a prime way for spammers to mark your email address as "live". So, best to never unsubscribe. Unsubscribe means "You have a good address for future spamming and you can resell it with a markup to other spammers."

I never unsubscribe, ever, unless it is a source that I know I previously subscribed to.

I always thought this also, but I’ve been unsubscribing for awhile now and my email is much cleaner. Not sure if gmail is blocking the obvious ones like viagra and inheritance letters from Nigeria, but I’ve not seen any uptick in spam from doing the unsubscribing.

Another good tool is unroll.me. Type “unroll.me” into your browser and type in your email and they show you all the sites that have you on their mailing list and allow you to unroll through them. You can use it once and then shut it off, otherwise, they’ll send you an email every now and then about how many sites you’re enrolled in, which is a little ironic but hey, it works.

 

[Amethyst]

Yeah, it's almost as if it has to go through the Board of Directors for approval!

I've been on an "unsubscribe" rampage lately, and have seen all the nuisances everyone has mentioned so far.

It's also annoying when something I want ends up in the spam folder, forcing me to check spam every day to be sure it hasn't happened again with something else. I hate seeing the spam titles...do I want to date Russian models, buy a walk-in bathtub, lose 30 pounds in one month, or all three at once?

And why do some sites claim it will take days or even weeks to process the unsubscribe request?

 

[COcheesehead]

Or it's really lazy programmer's who don't want to bother passing back in your email address.

I get these in my junk all the time and they are phishing scams.

 

[Amethyst]

While we're on the subject, I am fed up with constant demands to review this or that product - and when I go to the trouble of writing a review, the software hangs and I'm told to "cut and paste your review into this form." It is why I don't bother to review anything.

 

[Qs Laptop]

 

[nancyfrank232]

99% of the time you’re unsubscribed once you click the link

They ask for the email because most people don’t know this and will fill it in

 

[Clone]

If they come from a reputable place, I will try to unsubscribe. If they are from some place where I have never signed up, just trash them.

 

[KCGeezer]

I googled the unenroll.me service noted above and this popped up. FTC ruling on their privacy practices just came out? Yeah, I think I’ll fumble along without them.

https://www.mediapost.com/publicati...les-with-unrollme-over-privacy-rejects-e.html