6 ms·

I am not sure, but I think the GDPR mandates an unsubscribe link for unwanted automatic emails.

Semaphor 4y ago
Any spam I get, I never unsubscribe. Too risky to instead get confirmed as active mail. Instead, those get blacklisted/reported as spam (though I recently found out that this can also leak your email address, fun edit: apparently that’s only an issue with the web.de and gmx.de services). American companies are great of subscribing you to their spam mails without opt-in.
- seqizz 4y ago
  Wait, how reporting spam can leak the address? Asking for gmail of course.
  - nomadrat 4y ago
    he's probably saying about clicking "unsubscribe" which usually leads to spammer website. in return they know now that this email is active
    - tux2bsd 4y ago
      A website, can just be a URL of, well... nothing. As long a web server is sitting there logging the requests. spammer.douch.nozzle/collect_request/JoeShmo_1x1-transparent-UUID_0se9a009fjwljwlfl2f.gif but all the info the douch needs is in the "UUID", the rest is easily obfuscated. If your email client renders renders images willy nilly, the image is enough to confirm a valid target (clicking "unsubscribe" isn't necessary to become victim but is a hard lock-in mechanism (A human is on the hook...)).
      - jenny91 4y ago
        And that's exactly why you don't load random web resources in emails.
    - Semaphor 4y ago
      > he's probably saying about clicking "unsubscribe" No. I’m talking about abuse-mails, I’ll reply to the top-level comment
  - 5e92cb50239222b 4y ago
    I don't get much spam, so I don't remember the last time I reported it, but IIRC when you do it on Gmail, it shows something to the effect of "thanks for the report, we'll try to unsubscribe you". I reckon they might be using this: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8058 https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8058 This is pure speculation since I have no visibility into their inner workings, but it might just be possible that they would send a POST request on your behalf, at least to domains on some sort of a pre-approved list.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - Semaphor 4y ago
    At work, we sometimes got abuse mails (the mails mention FBL: Feedback Loop [0]) which, while they do not contain addresses, contain message-id’s which can then be linked to the original mail. But looking at the list of addresses we blacklisted because of them, I now realize that those are actually all web.de and gmx.de (crappy German freemailers), so it seems the leaks only happen with them. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feedback_loop_(email) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feedback_loop_(email)
  - adql 4y ago
    It tells the adversary someone reads the emails on that mailbox.
MichIQ 4y ago
Yes it does - unsubscribing should be JUST clicking a button.
patmcc 4y ago
Unsubscribe links are for cases where I've signed up willingly and later decided to cancel. If anyone automatically emails me they get reported as spam and blocked, no shot I'm trusting them to unsubscribe me.
- nicbou 4y ago
  Most spammers are still using standard tools with a working unsubscribe button. They just don't understand opt-in etiquette.
  - matkoniecz 4y ago
    Is till prefer marking them as spam in hope that it increases chance that whoever submits spam and their content will be treated as spam in future.
    - adql 4y ago
      I just do both
itronitron 4y ago
they should also mandate that a reply email with 'unsubscribe' as the first word will unsubscribe the 'sent from' address
dvh 4y ago
Make a new Gmail filter that moves every email that contains word "unsubscribe" to spam.
weberer 4y ago
It was the CAN-SPAM act from 2003 that mandated unsubscribe links. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003

Any spam I get, I never unsubscribe. Too risky to instead get confirmed as active mail. Instead, those get blacklisted/reported as spam (though I recently found out that this can also leak your email address, fun edit: apparently that’s only an issue with the web.de and gmx.de services). American companies are great of subscribing you to their spam mails without opt-in.

seqizz 4y ago
Wait, how reporting spam can leak the address? Asking for gmail of course.
- nomadrat 4y ago
  he's probably saying about clicking "unsubscribe" which usually leads to spammer website. in return they know now that this email is active
  - tux2bsd 4y ago
    A website, can just be a URL of, well... nothing. As long a web server is sitting there logging the requests. spammer.douch.nozzle/collect_request/JoeShmo_1x1-transparent-UUID_0se9a009fjwljwlfl2f.gif but all the info the douch needs is in the "UUID", the rest is easily obfuscated. If your email client renders renders images willy nilly, the image is enough to confirm a valid target (clicking "unsubscribe" isn't necessary to become victim but is a hard lock-in mechanism (A human is on the hook...)).
    - jenny91 4y ago
      And that's exactly why you don't load random web resources in emails.
  - Semaphor 4y ago
    > he's probably saying about clicking "unsubscribe" No. I’m talking about abuse-mails, I’ll reply to the top-level comment
- 5e92cb50239222b 4y ago
  I don't get much spam, so I don't remember the last time I reported it, but IIRC when you do it on Gmail, it shows something to the effect of "thanks for the report, we'll try to unsubscribe you". I reckon they might be using this: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8058 https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8058 This is pure speculation since I have no visibility into their inner workings, but it might just be possible that they would send a POST request on your behalf, at least to domains on some sort of a pre-approved list.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- Semaphor 4y ago
  At work, we sometimes got abuse mails (the mails mention FBL: Feedback Loop [0]) which, while they do not contain addresses, contain message-id’s which can then be linked to the original mail. But looking at the list of addresses we blacklisted because of them, I now realize that those are actually all web.de and gmx.de (crappy German freemailers), so it seems the leaks only happen with them. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feedback_loop_(email) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feedback_loop_(email)
- adql 4y ago
  It tells the adversary someone reads the emails on that mailbox.

MichIQ 4y ago

Yes it does - unsubscribing should be JUST clicking a button.

patmcc 4y ago

Unsubscribe links are for cases where I've signed up willingly and later decided to cancel. If anyone automatically emails me they get reported as spam and blocked, no shot I'm trusting them to unsubscribe me.

nicbou 4y ago
Most spammers are still using standard tools with a working unsubscribe button. They just don't understand opt-in etiquette.
- matkoniecz 4y ago
  Is till prefer marking them as spam in hope that it increases chance that whoever submits spam and their content will be treated as spam in future.
  - adql 4y ago
    I just do both

itronitron 4y ago

they should also mandate that a reply email with 'unsubscribe' as the first word will unsubscribe the 'sent from' address

dvh 4y ago

Make a new Gmail filter that moves every email that contains word "unsubscribe" to spam.

weberer 4y ago

It was the CAN-SPAM act from 2003 that mandated unsubscribe links. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003