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I've experienced similar issues with sites where someone else used my e-mail address to sign-up for something, I purposefully did not follow the authorization U

I've experienced similar issues with sites where someone else used my e-mail address to sign-up for something, I purposefully did not follow the authorization URL, and the companies have flatly refused to delete my fraudulent accounts or remove me from their mailing lists. One in particular tried to tell me to reset the password on the account so that I could sign in and opt-out of the mailing lists. I refused, saying that doing so would be acknowledging the account as mine and putting the onus on me to manage something I never signed up for. They refused to budge, despite numerous escalations. I swear I feel more like Hank Hill every day.

thehnguy 9y ago
Liked for the last line. Getting old is funny.
Cacti 9y ago
I registered my own domain and switched my email over to a service that lets me generate arbitrary email aliases. When I go to a site or have to otherwise give an email address, I create a new unique alias just for that service. This lets me track where they are leaking my email to, and lets me blackhole the whole site if needed. It’s great.
- icey 9y ago
  I've been doing a similar thing for year with the gmail feature that lets you add "+anything" to the end of your email address. If someone starts spamming myrealemail+thethingIusedforthatsite@gmail.com, it's easy to create a filter to trash it automatically. I've tried the catchall method on a domain I control, but got way too much spam people trying random addresses.
  - ceejayoz 9y ago
    I'd imagine your average spam list purchaser removes the + stuff on Gmail addresses.
    - x1798DE 9y ago
      So blacklist everything coming in without a +
      - ceejayoz 9y ago
        Sure, if you never gave any friends/family the non-+ version.
        guitarbill 9y ago
        And all websites accepted emails with "+" in them (hint: your email validation regex sucks and is not standard compliant).
        coldacid 9y ago
        If a site has broken email validation and I absolutely positively NEED to use it, then I'll grudgingly create an explicit alias just for that site. Otherwise, I find a competitor that doesn't screw this up. In both cases, I end up passively-aggressively tweeting about the company's email validation, though.
  - zifnab06 9y ago
    I have first@last.io. My mail provider (fast mail) supports sending mail to service@first.last.io. This then ends up in a folder called service, or in my inbox. Works pretty great.
tgsovlerkhgsel 9y ago
If you are using a major e-mail provider, try to mark their spam as spam server-side. For senders trusted by your mail provider, this may trigger feedback loops (automatically informing the sender that their e-mail is unwanted, and usually requiring them to act on that). If e-mail deliverability providers (MailChimp etc.) are involved, they usually try to either educate or fire customers who misbehave, since they don't want to get their servers blacklisted entirely. In general, marking as spam should increase the probability that future e-mails from this company (or, if they're smart to separate it, at least their marketing spam) will be correctly delivered to the spam folder or outright rejected at delivery.
- inferiorhuman 9y ago
  > If e-mail deliverability providers (MailChimp etc.) are involved, they usually try to either educate or fire customers who misbehave, since they don't want to get their servers blacklisted entirely. Since "My experience with Mailchimp was decidedly not like that" seems to be attracting downvotes, I'll expand on that. Mailchimp is opt out. So when I found myself on the receiving end of some local dog botique's spam (I don't have any pets, dogs or otherwise) list that was being serviced by Mailchimp I got to go through the tedious process of opting out. Getting off of the spam list required tracking down contact info on LinkedIn and spamming the spammers. As long as companies like Mailchimp provide opt-out instead of opt-in services, it is Mailchimp and their brethren that are the bad actors. Mailchimp and Marketo have earned a spot on my smtpd_sender_restrictions blacklist.
- mikeash 9y ago
  I apparently have a somewhat common name, and so my Gmail account first.last@gmail.com gets a fair amount of misdirected email due to idiots with a similar address. (As best I can tell, most of them have something like first.last42@gmail.com and forget the number.) Good companies will require verification before sending anything else. Those I can ignore and they’ll go away. For the others, I make a good faith effort to unsubscribe, but a small one. They get about ten seconds for me to find the unsubscribe link, otherwise they get reported as spam. I’ve had some which won’t let me unsubscribe unless I log in to the corresponding account, which of course I can’t do. Just remember that this stuff is spam. You’re not abusing a tool to your advantage, you’re using it the way it’s supposed to be used. Spam doesn’t have to be knockoff viagra or whatever.
godzillabrennus 9y ago
Might be worth filing a CAN SPAM ACT report.
teej 9y ago
I’ve done each of these things and they work great. 1. Go up the chain. Email the head of technology and head of marketing for the company. Tell them that what they are doing is unacceptable. 2. Look up the email service provider. Find their abuse address. Bring it up with them directly. 3. Mark as spam. I give companies one chance to get it right after I unsubscribe. If I keep getting emails I start to mark as spam. If I still get emails I escalate to #1 or #2

thehnguy 9y ago

Liked for the last line. Getting old is funny.

Cacti 9y ago

I registered my own domain and switched my email over to a service that lets me generate arbitrary email aliases. When I go to a site or have to otherwise give an email address, I create a new unique alias just for that service. This lets me track where they are leaking my email to, and lets me blackhole the whole site if needed. It’s great.

icey 9y ago
I've been doing a similar thing for year with the gmail feature that lets you add "+anything" to the end of your email address. If someone starts spamming myrealemail+thethingIusedforthatsite@gmail.com, it's easy to create a filter to trash it automatically. I've tried the catchall method on a domain I control, but got way too much spam people trying random addresses.
- ceejayoz 9y ago
  I'd imagine your average spam list purchaser removes the + stuff on Gmail addresses.
  - x1798DE 9y ago
    So blacklist everything coming in without a +
    - ceejayoz 9y ago
      Sure, if you never gave any friends/family the non-+ version.
      - guitarbill 9y ago
        And all websites accepted emails with "+" in them (hint: your email validation regex sucks and is not standard compliant).
        coldacid 9y ago
        If a site has broken email validation and I absolutely positively NEED to use it, then I'll grudgingly create an explicit alias just for that site. Otherwise, I find a competitor that doesn't screw this up. In both cases, I end up passively-aggressively tweeting about the company's email validation, though.
- zifnab06 9y ago
  I have first@last.io. My mail provider (fast mail) supports sending mail to service@first.last.io. This then ends up in a folder called service, or in my inbox. Works pretty great.

tgsovlerkhgsel 9y ago

If you are using a major e-mail provider, try to mark their spam as spam server-side. For senders trusted by your mail provider, this may trigger feedback loops (automatically informing the sender that their e-mail is unwanted, and usually requiring them to act on that). If e-mail deliverability providers (MailChimp etc.) are involved, they usually try to either educate or fire customers who misbehave, since they don't want to get their servers blacklisted entirely. In general, marking as spam should increase the probability that future e-mails from this company (or, if they're smart to separate it, at least their marketing spam) will be correctly delivered to the spam folder or outright rejected at delivery.

inferiorhuman 9y ago
> If e-mail deliverability providers (MailChimp etc.) are involved, they usually try to either educate or fire customers who misbehave, since they don't want to get their servers blacklisted entirely. Since "My experience with Mailchimp was decidedly not like that" seems to be attracting downvotes, I'll expand on that. Mailchimp is opt out. So when I found myself on the receiving end of some local dog botique's spam (I don't have any pets, dogs or otherwise) list that was being serviced by Mailchimp I got to go through the tedious process of opting out. Getting off of the spam list required tracking down contact info on LinkedIn and spamming the spammers. As long as companies like Mailchimp provide opt-out instead of opt-in services, it is Mailchimp and their brethren that are the bad actors. Mailchimp and Marketo have earned a spot on my smtpd_sender_restrictions blacklist.
mikeash 9y ago
I apparently have a somewhat common name, and so my Gmail account first.last@gmail.com gets a fair amount of misdirected email due to idiots with a similar address. (As best I can tell, most of them have something like first.last42@gmail.com and forget the number.) Good companies will require verification before sending anything else. Those I can ignore and they’ll go away. For the others, I make a good faith effort to unsubscribe, but a small one. They get about ten seconds for me to find the unsubscribe link, otherwise they get reported as spam. I’ve had some which won’t let me unsubscribe unless I log in to the corresponding account, which of course I can’t do. Just remember that this stuff is spam. You’re not abusing a tool to your advantage, you’re using it the way it’s supposed to be used. Spam doesn’t have to be knockoff viagra or whatever.

godzillabrennus 9y ago

Might be worth filing a CAN SPAM ACT report.

teej 9y ago

I’ve done each of these things and they work great. 1. Go up the chain. Email the head of technology and head of marketing for the company. Tell them that what they are doing is unacceptable. 2. Look up the email service provider. Find their abuse address. Bring it up with them directly. 3. Mark as spam. I give companies one chance to get it right after I unsubscribe. If I keep getting emails I start to mark as spam. If I still get emails I escalate to #1 or #2