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My e-mail address is on a 3rd party list that is sold repeatedly to marketers. The marketers do not employ unsubscribe links or provide a means to get off of th

My e-mail address is on a 3rd party list that is sold repeatedly to marketers. The marketers do not employ unsubscribe links or provide a means to get off of their list in the e-mail. I'd rather not engage them and ask their source. Is there a way to learn who the original list holder is and get my address off?

dharmab 6y ago
This is illegal in the US under the CAN-SPAM act, with severe penalties. No legitimate company will send marketing emails without an opt-out. If you don’t want to engage them, you should mark the email as junk. This flags the email in their email provider. If their rate of junk email increases too high, they lose their ability to send email through that provider.
- J-Kuhn 6y ago
  Afaik, there is no automated information flow to the provider. It kind of works, but differently than you said. Let's say, you flag a mail on GMail as spam. GMail's filters will learn: both the spam filter for your inbox as well as a shared filter. If the shared filter learned that all mails from that provider are junk, then gmail may not accept any more mails from that provider. But the provider is interested in his ability to send mails to gmail customers - because his own customers demand it. So, a good provider would just kick out that rouge customer who sends junk. And that's where the fun begins: A big provider can deliver spam, if it's only a small percentage of his usual volume (too big to fail). And not every provider is cooperative. And the process is slow - some filter has to be fed a large amount of junk, so it finally rejects a large portion of of the valid mail. A better way is: Get your provider to send an abuse mail to the origin. In my experience, it's still a fight against windmills, but every bit helps.
  - reaperducer 6y ago
    GMail's filters will learn: both the spam filter for your inbox as well as a shared filter Considering how many dozens of times I’ve marked messages from Soma as spam in Gmail, yet they still keep coming, I have zero faith in Gmail’s learning ability. Either that or Soma can pay Google to bypass the spam filter. Other email providers will.
  - toast0 6y ago
    Google (and others) have a spam feedback system [1], so if the sending system has implimented that, and has enough volume and reputation on the receiving system, spam reports will flow upstream and usually result in automatic unsubscribe or blocking or account flagging depending on the circumstances. [1] https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6254652?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6254652?hl=en
- reaperducer 6y ago
  The sort of spammers he’s talking about user email providers that don’t care. Or will look the other way for a fee. Source: I used to know a mid-sized spammer in Chicago. He saw nothing wrong with his business and was happy to answer questions.

dharmab 6y ago

This is illegal in the US under the CAN-SPAM act, with severe penalties. No legitimate company will send marketing emails without an opt-out. If you don’t want to engage them, you should mark the email as junk. This flags the email in their email provider. If their rate of junk email increases too high, they lose their ability to send email through that provider.

J-Kuhn 6y ago
Afaik, there is no automated information flow to the provider. It kind of works, but differently than you said. Let's say, you flag a mail on GMail as spam. GMail's filters will learn: both the spam filter for your inbox as well as a shared filter. If the shared filter learned that all mails from that provider are junk, then gmail may not accept any more mails from that provider. But the provider is interested in his ability to send mails to gmail customers - because his own customers demand it. So, a good provider would just kick out that rouge customer who sends junk. And that's where the fun begins: A big provider can deliver spam, if it's only a small percentage of his usual volume (too big to fail). And not every provider is cooperative. And the process is slow - some filter has to be fed a large amount of junk, so it finally rejects a large portion of of the valid mail. A better way is: Get your provider to send an abuse mail to the origin. In my experience, it's still a fight against windmills, but every bit helps.
- reaperducer 6y ago
  GMail's filters will learn: both the spam filter for your inbox as well as a shared filter Considering how many dozens of times I’ve marked messages from Soma as spam in Gmail, yet they still keep coming, I have zero faith in Gmail’s learning ability. Either that or Soma can pay Google to bypass the spam filter. Other email providers will.
- toast0 6y ago
  Google (and others) have a spam feedback system [1], so if the sending system has implimented that, and has enough volume and reputation on the receiving system, spam reports will flow upstream and usually result in automatic unsubscribe or blocking or account flagging depending on the circumstances. [1] https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6254652?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6254652?hl=en
reaperducer 6y ago
The sort of spammers he’s talking about user email providers that don’t care. Or will look the other way for a fee. Source: I used to know a mid-sized spammer in Chicago. He saw nothing wrong with his business and was happy to answer questions.