Ask HN: Do you unsubscribe from spam emails? Why? Why not?

6 points·pentae··7 comments

So for the record, I don't mean marketing mails from lists you've subscribed to - but genuine spam emails that have gotten your emails from who knows where.

I'm curious how the HN community feels about using the Unsubscribe when it's just confirming to the spammer that theres a real person on the other side

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Anecdata from a sample size of 1 (me): 7 of 10 times the unsub functionality works. The other 3 times where I do end up confirming that I am a human on the other side, the "Mark as Spam" functionality of email providers - that kicks in after a couple of weeks.

I am lead to believe that hitting 'unsubscribe' confirms that the email works and might be used again. So I hit 'mark as spam' in the hope that the email provider will block emails from that source to other recipients.

I do when it when the company sending it is legit and operating in the US. Most of the times it works and I stop being spammed. When it doesn't, I report spam until it stops showing up on my inbox.

I never do. If I bother to do a thing with spam other than deleting it I report it to SpamCop [0].

[0] https://www.spamcop.net/

I put it in the spam folder and my email provider blocks it. Why should I waste my time confirming to the spammer that he's got a real address?

I usually just add a filter so it automatically skips my inbox and gets deleted

I often do, and it works wonders.

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