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The advice I got was to never click any links in spam email. I think the rationale was three part: 1) Clicking "unsubscribe" confirmed that you received the s
by thefifthsetpin 9y ago
The advice I got was to never click any links in spam email. I think the rationale was three part:
1) Clicking "unsubscribe" confirmed that you received the spam mail, so spammers would activate your email address on their other lists, thereby increasing the amount of spam you received. Otoh, acting like /dev/null increased the chance that spammers culled your address to increase their apparent delivery ratio.
2) Following those links gives the spammer access to your web browser, along with tracking cookies, and chances to exploit any plugin vulnerabilities.
3) Your chances of getting phished are way higher if you follow mail that looks like it's from ICQ than if you just go directly to icq.com and find their unsubscribe settings. (I didn't say I got that advice recently....)
- emddudley 9y agoThat applies to spam from an unknown sender, not a bona fide company you have a relationship with. Messages from Facebook about your account are hardly unsolicited. I don't think it's useful to call every email you don't like "spam".
- devrandomguy 9y agoIf the user didn't opt in to a notification, then by definition, it is unsolicited.
- majewsky 9y agoHe probably has opted in without noticing. Quick show of hands: How reads all ToS that they agree to?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- wpietri 9y agoWhatever the fine-print legalities, if you didn't notice, I don't think it can count as opting in.
- majewsky 9y agoNo disagreement from my side, but that's how the law generally [1] works. [1] In Germany, there is a specific section of the public code governing ToS ("AGB-Gesetz", part of the BGB). Among other things, it forbids "unexpected" terms, acknowledging that people usually cannot read all the ToS that they have to agree to in practice. Quite a few ToS have been nullified by courts because of that rule.