Quote:
Originally Posted by retiredguy123
When I start to get a large number of spam emails, I have used the spam button and the unsubscribe button. Some people will say to not use the unsubscribe option, because it can have the opposite effect. But, sometimes, it allows you to unsubscribe from multiple senders, and it seems to have some effect. I cannot determine which option is better. Also, is the spam button supposed to prevent future emails from that sender, or does that depend on the email provider? I still use AOL, but I know I am out-of-date.
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Every time you use the unsubscribe button, you send a ping back to the sender acknowledging that you are an actual person who can be reached. Spam senders, bots, and AI programs all love that, it means they can send you more. It also teaches the AI programs the patterns of the ones you reject, so they can become more intelligent and try different types of e-mails that you haven't rejected (yet). That means eventually they'll hit on one that you open.
The only things you should do with spam e-mail:
1. move to spam box/mark as spam
2. use "delete all" or "empty" to empty the spam box once a month
3. if you suspect one of them is actually malicious and appears to be from a legitimate company, forward it to that company's web security department (most people won't do this step but it's an option).
That's it. Don't open them, don't read them, don't respond to them, don't ask your mail service to send them a message to unsubscribe.