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Comment by hildebrand_rare | Hacker News Reader

Those upsell marketing emails without unsubscribe links because they are "account related emails" are the worst. I quickly solved the problem by marking everything from Experian as spam, but I can't think of another service where I've gone searching for an unsubscribe link and haven't found one. Their messaging at the bottom of these emails for anyone who is curious:

"This is not a marketing email — you’re receiving this message to notify you of a recent change to your account. If you’ve unsubscribed from Experian CreditWorks℠ Basic emails in the past, don’t worry — you no longer receive newsletters or special offers."

Checking my spam folder, it looks like I've already received two of them this calendar month.

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I signed up for an Experian account in order to correct a mistake on my credit report-- They had listed a bank account under my name that was created well before I was born, and it was tanking my credit rating.

Unfortunately I used my main email to sign up (to correct their mistake) and started getting those non-unsubscribable emails shortly after. So insulting. I did end up fixing it by changing my account email address to fuckyou@experian.sucks, though.

did it really solve the problem, or do 2 emails now go out on your behalf?

Yeah, that sounds like a potential problem.

Doing a quick search for how to register .sucks domains shows up this (no idea if it's legit though):

https://get.sucks

That website says the "experian.sucks" domain is available... for US$1999.

A bit "ouch" pricing wise, but it sounds like someone could potentially take over the accounts of anyone using @experian.sucks for their email address.

Better to use a non-registerable TLD for things like this I guess :)

It really solved the problem. Last email I got from them was "Notification: Change of email address notification"

I file a report with the FTC [1] when I receive such emails.

[1] https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/

I've tried to do this, and everything seems oriented toward reporting fraud and scams, rather than CAN-SPAM violations. I had this issue with Comcast/Xfinity not honoring my opt-out requests for months, and only stopped it when I managed to get on the phone with some kind of supervisor (it pays to be nice to rank-and-file call center employeees!) and bluffed them with calm but stern threats of "legal action".

IANAL, but here's some FTC guidance on this, which I read (again IANAL) to say that the transactional-vs-marketing determination is not up to the sender but up to the recipient and if they "reasonably... would likely conclude" that it is marketing. Unfortunately the guidance is just about the subject line, so Experian might be toeing the letter of the guidance.

https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/can-spam-act... (see the section "Q. What if the message combines commercial content and transactional or relationship content?")

I'm not quite sure what the legal enforceability is of the this sort of guidance, but at least with small senders when they try to pull this trick I send them this page and then I no longer receive any of these emails from them.

It’s a shame this doesn’t apply to mobile notifications. I leave Uber and DoorDash alerts on for obvious reasons, which they use to tell me I have $1 off my next $70 order or whatever. I think they’re even time sensitive.

I don’t allow notifications from Uber. If I’ve requested a ride, I leave the app open to track progress. But their notifications are mostly spam so they aren’t allowed on my phone.

What a coincidence I was trying to figure out a way to turn this off today. I figured there was some notification settings on the app to only enable actual ride/delivery notifications rather than daily $1 off spam, but nope, nothing.

The "not a marketing email" blurb in the footer where they know you are looking for an unsubscribe button is the marketing email equivalent of "I'm not touching you!" (imagine this being said by a 10-year-old you've just asked nicely to stop touching you, holding a finger an inch from your skin). Not exactly the behavior of someone who thinks the recipient wants to be receiving these emails, is it? The presence of the "this is technically not spam" disclaimer alone tells me this behavior should result in big, big fines. Too bad I'm not the one evaluating these very clear cut cases. I wish terrible things on those pieces of shit who run Comcast.

The ones I'm seeing lately are legitimately neither marketing nor transactional. Instead they're teaching me how to avoid phishing scams and stuff (not asking me to buy anything, but asking me to do things). I feel like the rule ought to be "offer an unsubscribe link unless it's transactional" but instead it's "offer an unsubscribe link if it's marketing".

Those informational emails are still marketing if they have company branding and such.

They are basically newsletters.

Bank of America also sends me marketing emails, labeled "You're receiving this servicing email as part of your existing relationship with us."

Yea, these emails are maddening. The subject (“..it's time to check in on your credit”) and body (“It's a good idea to sign in regularly to make sure your credit report and FICO® Score* are accurate.”) don’t even contain anything useful. They arrive once a month for me seemingly on a timer.

You can write filter rules but then they go and change the subject on you.

I wish emails could have an accurate topic ID or something to more easily target filter rules but that would require a cooperative relationship with the sender, so…

A bank in UAE spams me with marketing emails and there's no unsubscribe link in them. The only way to unsubscribe is to send an SMS from your "registered mobile number" to a short number, so it obviously only works for UAE carriers. Problem is, my "registered mobile number" with them is from another country. I don't even have a working UAE SIM card right now.

> another service where I've gone searching for an unsubscribe link and haven't found one

I get medicare.gov emails I can't unsub from (because some idiot wrote down their email address wrong - obviously no double opt in either).

Do a password reset, then change the email.

Well, then you’re technically knowingly accessing someone else’s account. Which, I’m not a lawyer, but that also sounds like you’re opening yourself up to an (admittedly small) chance of criminal fraud.

Sounds like it's your account, but the name is misspelled.

I think that would require the social security number, which isn't in the email.

You are wasting your time only. They have special partnership with ESPs and they don't consider your "spam" signal as meaningfull. Same applies to emails from most banks, Facebook emails, Ebay emails, etc.

TurboTax does this to if you ever try to leave their service.

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